Black Friday Shoppers waiting in line to enter Macy’s flagship store in New York on Friday,. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
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Consumers spent record amounts online on Black Friday, but it is less clear how traditional retail stores did on the official kickoff of the peak holiday shopping season, with one tracking company showing a slight increase in foot traffic and another showing the big drop.
Adobe, which studies Adobe Analytics date culled from over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, reported that U.S. ecommerce sales reached a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, up 9.1% year-over-year. That exceeded Adobe’s forecast of 8.3% ecommerce growth on Black Friday.
Over $12 million spent every minute
Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Black Friday, online shoppers spent $12,5 million every minute, according to Adobe.
“The record spending yesterday shows that Black Friday has cemented its role as a major e-commerce moment, as more shoppers opt to stay home and take advantage of deals,” Adobe reported in releasing the results this morning.
“Cyber Week is off to a strong start, with online spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday both coming in above Adobe’s initial forecasts,” said Vivek
Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “This was driven in large part by competitive deals across categories like electronics, toys, and apparel. Discounts are set to remain elevated through Cyber Monday, which we expect will remain the biggest
online shopping day of the season and year.”
Salesforce, which also tracks online spending drawn from 1.5 billion consumers using global ecommerce platforms, reported today that $79 billion was spent online globally on Black Friday, up 6%, with U.S. sales of $18 billion, up 3%.
AI-Driven Traffic Up 805%
Both Salesforce and Adobe saw a surge in AI-driven traffic to ecommerce sites on Black Friday.
Adobe reported that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites was up by 805% compared to the previous Black Friday.
Salesforce reported that $14.2 billion in global online sales and $3 billion in U.S. online sales were driven by AI agents on Black Friday.
“This holiday season proves that AI is no longer a tool for just cost-cutting—it’s a massive revenue engine,” Caila Schwartz, Director of Consumer Insights at Salesforce said.
Tariffs Contributed to Spending Increase
The impact of tariffs can be seen in the Black Friday data, according to Salesforce. Average selling prices were up 7% year-over-year, while order volumes were down 1%.
“Black Friday delivered an important signal for the U.S. economy. On the surface, sales were strong, hitting $18 billion, a 3% jump year-over-year. But with the average selling price for goods climbing 7%, U.S. shoppers continued to feel the bite of inflation,” Schwartz said.
The final verdict on Black Friday and the holiday season won’t be known until physical stores and traditional retailers – which still are where the majority of holiday budgets are spent – report their fourth quarter results in early 2026. On one key early indicator – how many shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday – initial results are mixed.
Retail intelligence and traffic analytics company RetailNext reported that Black Friday in-store traffic was down 3.6% nationwide compared to 2024.
Consumers shopping With ‘Surgical Precision’
“The story isn’t just that shoppers stayed home; it’s that they’re changing how and when they shop,” said Joe Shasteen, RetailNext’s global manager of advanced analytics. “We’re seeing a consumer who is still spending, but doing it with surgical precision. They’re waiting for the right price, stretching purchases across a longer promo window, and walking into stores with a far narrower mission than we’ve seen in past holiday seasons,” Shasteen said.
“The era of the impulse holiday spree is ending. Consumers are in control, and they’re treating Black Friday as one data point in a much longer hunt for value,” he said.
Foot traffic analytics company Pass_by, which analyzed 53 million visits to physical retail stores on Black Friday, reported that traffic was up 1.17% for the day, with a surprisingly strong 7.9% traffic increase at department stores, a gain Pass_by attributed to return to a desire for one-stop shopping.
“A 1.17% gain is the definition of a ‘stabilized’ consumer,” said James Ewen, VP Marketing at Pass_by. “We aren’t seeing the frantic revenge-spending of previous years, but crucially, we aren’t seeing a recessionary retreat either. This data paints a picture of an American shopper who is resilient but highly calculated, they are still showing up to physical stores, but their movement is driven by necessity and specific value rather than broad impulse.”
Additional reports about Black Friday and holiday weekend traffic from other tracking sources are expected to drop in the coming days.
Gen Zers Showed Up In-Store For Deals
Retail analysts Michael Brown and Katherine Black, with the global strategy and management consulting Kearney, spent Black Friday visiting malls, shopping centers, and stores in New Jersey and Connecticut and saw both bright spots and causes of concern.
Gen Z showed up for mall deals, according to Michael Brown, partner and Americas Retail Leader in the consumer practice of Kearney.
“The morning was won by retailers for tweens, teens and twenty somethings.” Brown said. “The Gen Zers were out aggressively shopping deals that spanned 20 to 50% off. Customer purchasing was robust. I’d say that on average shoppers were walking away with two bags per person,” he said.
Brown say fewer super-big discounts this year. “Absent from this year’s promotions were last year’s pervasive “60% off” signs, as retailers try to save price and mitigate the impact of tariffs on their margins,” he said.
“Retailers seem to have had a successful start to the season, but there are still 28 days to Christmas and the season is rarely won on Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” Brown said. “Retailers will need to continue to entice the customer to keep shopping without eroding slimmer margins due to tariffs.”
Katherine Black, a partner in the consumer practice of Kearney, where she leads food, drug, and mass market retail, noticed that even in physical stores online deals seemed to be driving much of the store traffic.
“Online shopping is clearly the big traffic driver,” Black said. “One shopper told me that she waited 20 minutes to check out online at midnight last night for a toy brand. There was a huge wall of self-service BOPIS at Kohl’s.”
Black also noticed signs that inventory. out-of-stocks, and delivery issues could cause problems for consumers and retailers this season. A shopper told Black that an order she had purchased online for in-store pickup last week had been cancelled because it was out of stock.