Black Friday results are officially in, and the numbers say: America went into a lot of debt this year!
Some were predicting a holiday shopping season of slow or no growth, but current numbers show quite the opposite. Here's what's been reported so far about Black Friday and other holiday shopping numbers:
- U.S. shoppers have already spent $79.7B online from Nov. 1 to Nov. 23, prior to Black Friday week, marking a 7.5% jump over last year’s pace. BNPL drove $6.1B of that online spending, a 10.3% YoY increase.
- Shopify merchants did $6.2B in total sales on Black Friday, up 25% from last year (22% on a constant currency basis). Spending surged at 12:01pm EST when sales peaked at $5.1M per minute with an average cart price of $117.93.
- American consumers spent $11.8B online on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, up from $10.8B last year.
- Adobe estimates that Cyber Monday (today) will be even bigger, with $14.2B spent online — but I'll share the official numbers next week.
- Adobe is projecting a total of $253.4B in holiday spending this year, compared to $241.1B in 2024.
- Salesforce tracked $79B in global spending on Black Friday (+6% YoY), of which $18B came from the United States (+3% YoY).
- Salesforce data also shows that prices were up an average of 7%, while order volumes were down 1% — meaning people didn't necessarily set out to spend more. Things have just gotten a lot more expensive so the GMV is bigger!
- Mastercard SpendingPulse reported that overall Black Friday sales across online and brick-and-mortar (excluding automotive) rose 4.1% YoY, with online sales jumping 10.4% YoY.
Target took heat this year from shoppers who waited in line for hours before stores opened to claim a “Target swag bag,” only to discover that the “swag” was worthless clearance items like UNO cards, travel-sized shampoo, and small Nerds candy boxes.
Pretty much every major retailer got berated this year for offering “fake deals” that appeared to heavily discount items, but were actually priced equal to or higher than they normally are throughout the year. Retailers must think we're pretty stupid to fall for those fake deals, which I guess we are! The numbers this year speak for themselves.
