U.S. shoppers set a record online during this year’s Black Friday, spending $11.8 billion on the day, according to Adobe Analytics. The firm, which tracks activity across more than 1 trillion visits to retail sites in the United States, said that the total exceeded last year’s $10.8 billion and served as evidence of how Black Friday has fully come of age as a digital shopping day.
The pace of spending reached a zenith late in the morning and early afternoon, as consumers were ringing up roughly $12.5 million per minute between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Adobe said.
The cadence reflects a deal-driven hurriedness that is increasingly coming from smartphones and laptops as shoppers snatch up time-sensitive promotions rather than waiting for doorbusters.
Record Spending and Growth Driven by Deep Discounts
The $11.8 billion sum equates to approximately 9% year-over-year growth, a significant gain off the back of an already large 2024 starting base. Adobe’s read is that aggressive discounting on high-ticket items — in particular, electronics, toys and small appliances — along with optimized checkout experiences and more availability of flexible payment choices combined to drive conversions.
Momentum like that could continue into the early part of next week. Reuters quoted Adobe forecasts that projected Cyber Monday to hit $14.2 billion, another record. For the entire holiday season, Adobe expects total online sales of $253.4 billion, compared to $241.1 billion last year — or approximately 5 percent growth that would keep online shopping on a consistent upward path.
Gains Largely Price-Led, Signaling Cautious Demand
Salesforce, which monitors e-commerce spending for its customer base, estimated that global Black Friday online sales reached $79 billion and U.S. sales passed $18 billion, rising 6 percent and 3 percent compared with last year. The firm’s data suggests that much of the increase was price-led: average prices were up ~7 percent while order volumes fell 1 percent — i.e., inflation and product mix did more work than a surge in unit demand.
That dichotomy goes some way to explaining the mixed signals consumers are sending. Shoppers are spending more in dollars, but they’re stretching their budgets and cherry-picking for deeper discounts — trading up only when a promotion creates sufficient value. Retailers that doubled down on transparent pricing, transparent shipping timelines and fast checkout generally reaped the best results.
AI’s Expanding Footprint in Holiday Shopping
Both Adobe and Salesforce cite artificial intelligence as an invisible force molding this season’s outcomes. The company said its AI features and agent-driven interactions had a hand in some $22 billion worth of sales globally between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, an expansive category that covers the gamut from personalized product recommendations to onsite search tuning to automated service chats designed to prevent buyers from abandoning their carts.
For retailers, AI’s influence is appearing in the basics: increased relevancy in product feeds, improved targeting of discounts and quicker handling of pre-purchase questions. Those are a bunch of small changes whose combined architectural improvements pile up, and they tend to rise in times of high traffic in ways that require no dramatic re-merchandising.
Stores Versus Screens as Shoppers Blend Channels
Data on foot traffic painted a complex picture of in-person activity. Nationwide, in-store visits declined 3.4% on Black Friday, according to RetailNext. Pass-by traffic and department stores were up 1.17% and 7.9%, respectively, Forbes was told. The difference shows how regional patterns, category mix and promotional strategy can push results one way or the other even on retail’s marquee weekend.
What is clear is that the lines of channels continue to fade. A lot of shoppers have been looking online for deals and doing curbside pickup or visiting stores to check out final options. Having synchronized pricing and inventory on all channels, and making pickup painless, gave retailers the best chance to capture both impulse buys and planned purchases.
What to Watch Next as Cyber Monday Approaches
All eyes now turn to Cyber Monday and the rest of the promotional calendar, when shipping cutoffs, return policies and restock cadence will matter as much as headline discounts. Analysts will also examine if unit volumes recover as consumers chase late-cycle deals, or whether price inflation continues to do the heavy lifting.
The throughline in this year’s data: digital convenience, targeted deals and subtle AI enhancements are now table stakes. With online spending at a record already, the issue isn’t whether shoppers will buy online — it’s which retailers can turn attention into profitable orders without squeezing too hard on margin-eroding markdowns.
