Black Friday statistics 2026: marketing trends to watch

Black Friday Statistics 2024: Marketing Trends to Watch

By Dominik Elias

October 12, 2026

8 min read time.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday broke records again in 2025. More people shopped, they spent more, and more of them did it on their phones.

Here's what happened last year, what the forecasts say for 2026, and what it all means for how you reach customers.

What is BFCM?

BFCM stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday. It's one of the biggest sales events in the world and the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.

It kicks off the day after Thanksgiving in the US, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November. The five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday are often called Cyber Week.

BFCM 2026 dates

Thanksgiving: Thursday 26 November

Black Friday: Friday 27 November

Small Business Saturday: Saturday 28 November

Cyber Monday: Monday 30 November

BFCM 2025 at a glance

US shoppers spent a record $44.2 billion online across Cyber Week, up 7.7% year over year (Adobe)

Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day of the year at $14.25 billion, up 7.1% (Adobe)

Black Friday online spend hit $11.8 billion, up 9.1% (Adobe)

A record 202.9 million people shopped in the US over the Thanksgiving weekend (NRF)

Global Cyber Week sales reached $336.6 billion, up 7% (Salesforce)

Mobile drove 70% of online orders worldwide during Cyber Week (Salesforce)

BFCM 2025: US consumer spending statistics

Adobe tracks online spend at US retailers. Here's how the big days landed in 2025 (Adobe):

Thanksgiving: $6.4 billion, up 5.3%

Black Friday: $11.8 billion, up 9.1%

The weekend: $11.8 billion, up 8.7%

Cyber Monday: $14.25 billion, up 7.1%

At the Cyber Monday peak (8pm to 10pm), shoppers spent $16 million per minute

The full holiday season (1 November to 31 December) brought in $257.8 billion online, up 6.8%. On 25 separate days, US shoppers spent more than $4 billion online, up from 18 days in 2024 (Adobe).

Deals got deeper. Discounts peaked at 30.9% off for electronics, 29.6% for toys and 25.1% for apparel (Adobe).

Shoppers went online and in-store

The National Retail Federation surveys shoppers across the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. In 2025 (NRF):

202.9 million people shopped, up from 197 million in 2024

134.9 million shopped online (up 9%) and 129.5 million shopped in-store (up 3%)

The average shopper spent $337.86 on holiday purchases, up from $315.56

84% had already started their holiday shopping by Thanksgiving weekend

Cyber Monday drew 75.9 million online shoppers, with 46.9 million shopping on mobile

The takeaway: people don't wait for Black Friday anymore. Most have started before the big weekend, so your first message needs to land early.

BFCM 2025: global statistics

Salesforce tracks shopping data from retailers worldwide. Its numbers run higher than Adobe's because it measures differently, so compare like with like.

In 2025 (Salesforce):

Global Cyber Week sales hit $366.6 billion, up 7%. US sales were $79.6 billion, up 5%.

Black Friday was the biggest day globally at $79 billion, ahead of Cyber Monday at $53 billion.

Average selling prices rose 6%, while order volumes grew just 2%. People paid more per order rather than buying more

Shopify merchants alone made $14.6 billion in BFCM sales, up 27% year over year. More than 81 million people bought from a Shopify store, and sales peaked at $5.1 million per minute at midday on Black Friday. (Shopify).

Is Black Friday or Cyber Monday bigger?

It depends where you look.

US online spend: Cyber Monday wins. Adobe has it ahead every year

Global and in-store: Black Friday wins. It's still the day people head to stores, and it led global online sales in 2025

For most businesses, that means planning for the whole five days, not just one.

Mobile and AI shopping statistics

Phones are where BFCM happens

70% of online orders were placed on a mobile device during Cyber Week 2025, globally and in the US (Salesforce)

57.5% of US online sales on Cyber Monday came from mobile, worth $8.2 billion (Adobe)

Mobile made up 56.4% of US online spend across the 2025 holiday season, rising to 66.5% on Christmas Day (Adobe)

Buy now, pay later drove $20 billion in online holiday spend, and 82.2% of those purchases were made on a smartphone (Adobe)

AI became a shopping assistant

Traffic to US retail sites from generative AI tools jumped 693% over the 2025 holiday season (Adobe)

AI and AI agents influenced 20% of global orders during Cyber Week, worth $67 billion in sales (Salesforce)

Social media drove 15% of global digital traffic during Cyber Week (Salesforce)

What to expect for BFCM 2026

Adobe's 2026 forecast points to another record year (Adobe):

US online holiday spend is tipped to reach $275.1 billion, up 6.7%

Cyber Week is forecast at $47.5 billion, up 7.4%

Cyber Monday (30 November) is expected to hit $15.1 billion, and Black Friday $12.9 billion

Mobile is set to make up 63% of online spend on Thanksgiving

Discounts are expected to peak at up to 30% off during Cyber Week, compared with up to 14% in early November

AI-driven traffic to retail sites is forecast to grow 130% year over year

More shoppers will use AI to find deals faster. Once they’ve found you, it’s your messages that bring them back, so make every one of them useful.

What shoppers expect from your BFCM messages

Our friends at Sinch surveyed 2,501 consumers across eight countries, including the US, Australia and the UK, about BFCM 2026. Here's what they want from the businesses they buy from (Sinch):

58% want to hear about BFCM deals at least a month before. 82% expect it at least two weeks out

75% expect an order confirmation within five minutes of buying

93% say shipping updates are important

77% want personalised messages, up 4 points on 2025. Only 14% find them invasive

52% are likely to engage with interactive messages, like RCS, up 5 points

39% prefer SMS for order updates. In Australia, SMS is the top choice at 53%

Shoppers are also more careful with their money this year. 34% plan to spend less over BFCM 2026, and just 25% plan to spend more. When budgets are tight, the deal that reaches people first and feels relevant is the one that wins.

Why SMS belongs in your Black Friday marketing plan

Inboxes get flooded over BFCM. Every brand is sending deals, often several a day, and most of those emails end up skimmed, filed or deleted.

Texts land differently. They arrive on the phone your customers are already shopping on, and they sit in the same place as messages from friends and family. A short, useful text with a clear offer is hard to miss.

SMS also handles the messages that keep the rush running smoothly:

Order confirmations that tell customers their purchase went through

Shipping updates that cut down on “where’s my order?” calls and emails

Abandoned cart reminders that bring people back before the deal ends

Last-chance alerts that land in the final hours, when timing matters most

And it doesn’t need to be complicated. A few well-timed texts, sent to people who’ve asked to hear from you, can do a lot of work over five busy days.

What this means for you

Start early. Most shoppers are already buying before Thanksgiving, and most want to hear from you a month out. Build your list and tease deals from late October