The 2025 holiday shopping season just rewrote the playbook. Black Friday and Cyber Monday didn’t just break revenue records—they fundamentally changed how people find products, how they pay for them, and where they click “buy.”
We analyzed data from Adobe Analytics, Shopify, and retail traffic reports to give you a clear view of what happened. Here is the complete breakdown of the quarter-trillion-dollar shift that defined the end of 2025.
Black Friday Cyber Monday sales 2025 shattered expectations
Despite inflation fears and economic uncertainty, shoppers showed up with unprecedented spending power. The numbers confirm that the holiday sales event is no longer just a weekend; it is a season-defining economic engine.
Shoppers spent a staggering $137.4 billion online between November 1 and December 1 alone, a 7.1% increase year-over-year. Black Friday itself set a new record with $11.8 billion in online sales, up about 9% from 2024. Shopify merchants added to this wave, generating $14.6 billion globally, a massive 27% jump that proves independent brands are winning alongside retail giants.
The momentum didn’t stop on Friday. Cyber Monday is forecasted to remain the biggest ecommerce day of the year, pushing total holiday season online spend past $253 billion for the first time in history. Daily revenue charts show a vertical spike during Cyber Week that dwarfs all other shopping days, proving that while early deals exist, you still wait for the “Big 5” days to open your wallet.
Mobile devices are now the primary point of sale
For years, mobile was for browsing and desktop was for buying. That era is officially dead. In 2025, smartphones became the primary cash register for the internet.
Mobile devices captured 52.8% of all online revenue this season. This is a historic tipping point—more than half of every dollar spent online now comes from a phone. Mobile spending hit $73.7 billion in just one month, growing 7.2% year-over-year.​
The gap between mobile and desktop revenue is widening. If you are a retailer, this means your “mobile-friendly” site is now your only site that matters. The friction of entering credit card numbers on a small screen is gone, replaced by instant wallets and one-tap checkouts that turn browsing into buying in seconds.
AI agents drove traffic, but humans switched devices
Artificial Intelligence moved from a backend tool to a frontline shopper. The data reveals a fascinating new behavior pattern: the “AI Research Loop.”
Referrals from AI sources to retail sites exploded by 758% compared to last year. However, the device split tells a deeper story. 74.5% of this AI-driven traffic came from desktop devices, while only 25.5% came from mobile.​
This reveals exactly how you shop now. You sit at a desktop to ask complex questions to AI agents like Amazon’s Rufus or ChatGPT, comparing specs and prices on a big screen. Then, once the decision is made, you switch to your phone to complete the purchase. You are researching with machines on desktop and buying with your thumb on mobile. Brands that can’t answer AI queries effectively on the desktop web are losing the mobile sale before it even starts.
Buy Now Pay Later fueled the spending spree
Record spending came with a hidden cost. Financial flexibility—or debt, depending on how you view it—played a massive role in unlocking these sales numbers.
Shoppers spent $10.1 billion using Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services in just the first month of the season, a 9.0% increase from 2024. Even more telling is where this debt was incurred. A massive $8.3 billion of that BNPL spend happened on mobile devices.​
This means over 80% of installment plan spending is mobile. The seamless integration of “pay later” buttons into mobile checkouts has lowered the psychological barrier to debt. While this fueled the $11.8 billion Black Friday record, it also signals that many consumers are stretching their budgets to the limit to participate in the holiday rush.
Electronics won the discount war
If you waited to buy tech, you won. The data on discount timing shows exactly which categories saw price capitulation and when retailers panicked.
Electronics prices fell off a cliff in late November, hitting average discounts of nearly 30% off. Televisions led the charge with cuts deeper than 25%. Retailers held pricing steady until about November 20th, then aggressively slashed prices to move inventory.​
Apparel followed a different curve. Clothing discounts remained shallow for weeks before crashing down to match electronics right at Black Friday. Meanwhile, furniture and computers saw more conservative price drops. In terms of total spend, electronics dominated the season with nearly $60 billion in sales, followed by apparel at nearly $50 billion. You clearly prioritized gadgets and wardrobe upgrades over home goods this year.
The new rules for 2026
The data from 2025 offers a clear roadmap for next year. The impulse-buy era is fading, replaced by a high-tech, high-intent shopping environment.
Traffic is now a mix of human intent and AI discovery. You need to optimize product data for AI agents that do the research work for your customers. Your store traffic is becoming more purposeful, with shoppers visiting physical locations to confirm online decisions rather than to browse aimlessly.​
And finally, the wallet is mobile. With mobile revenue passing 50% and mobile BNPL driving billions in sales, the purchase experience must be instant. The winners of 2025 were the brands that understood these shifts. The losers were the ones still waiting for 2019 to come back.
