U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online on the biggest shopping day of the year, an increase of 9.1% from 2024, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks shoppers’ 1 trillion visits to online retail websites.
sign up here.
The holiday season arrives as budgets tighten, the unemployment rate nears a four-year high, U.S. consumer confidence falls to a seven-month low and shoppers focus on price tags on every dollar.
Mastercard Spending Pulse said Black Friday e-commerce sales rose 10.4% compared to 1.7% in-store sales growth in 2024, as consumers got smarter during the holiday season and increased demand for online shopping.
Adobe said AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites surged 805% compared to last year, when artificial intelligence tools like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus had not yet been released.
“Consumers are using new tools to get what they need faster,” said eMarketer analyst Susie Davidkanian. “Gift-giving can be stressful, but using LLMs (Large-Scale Language Models) can make the discovery process faster and feel more guided.”
Black Friday’s best-selling items included Lego sets, Pokemon cards, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, and products ranging from Apple AirPods to KitchenAid mixers.
AI agents had a $14.2 billion impact on online sales worldwide
According to software company Salesforce, AI and agents impacted Black Friday online sales by $14.2 billion worldwide, with $3 billion of that occurring in the U.S. alone.
U.S. consumers spent $18 billion on online purchases on Black Friday, up 3% from a year earlier, with the most popular categories including luxury apparel and accessories, Salesforce reported, whose data also includes non-discretionary items such as groceries.
Salesforce said U.S. consumers spent more on Black Friday this year than last year, but higher prices hampered online demand and shoppers bought fewer items at checkout compared to last year.
Discount rates were also flat compared to 2024, with AI helping shoppers find the best deals and rising price tags making it harder for retailers to offer deep discounts.
David Kanian said promotions and discounts may not be felt as intensely as they were last year, and final prices will not feel as attractive to shoppers because of rising product prices due to inflation and tariffs.
Michael Ashley Shulman, chief investment officer at Running Point, said the combination of soaring prices and across-the-board discounts is reducing the true value of Black Friday bargains to consumers.
Order volume decreased by 1% as average selling price increased by 7%. Consumers are also purchasing fewer items at the register, with the number of items per transaction down 2% from a year ago, Salesforce said.
“There are two factors that are driving up the average selling price in the U.S.,” said Kyla Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce.
The surge in spending sets the stage for an even bigger Cyber Monday, which is expected to bring in $14.2 billion in sales, up 6.3% from a year ago, making it the biggest online shopping day of the year, Adobe said. Adobe says you can expect deep discounts on electronics products up to 30% off list price on Cyber Monday, as well as strong sales on clothing and computers.
But in physical stores, bargain-hunting was relatively concentrated on Black Friday, with some shoppers saying they feared overspending amid persistent inflation, trade-driven uncertainty and a weak labor market.
Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Siddharth Kavar in New York. Editing: Lisa Giucca, Paul Simao, Diane Craft
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
