Black Friday stats: everything you need to know in 2025
Black Friday, the annual sales phenomenon where eager customers go on a shopping spree and retailers and marketers roll out their most enticing deals. To help you capitalize on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, we’ve put together all the key statistics from last year’s sales event to inform your 2025 strategy. Looking at both consumer spending patterns and insights into marketing activity using data from the billions of email and SMS campaigns sent from the Dotdigital platform during the holiday season.
What is Cyber Week?
Cyber week, also known as the “cyber five”, is the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday and is one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Adobe data reveals that last year saw record spending online during the buster weekend in the US, and 57% of this spending was via mobile devices.
Thanksgiving spending was up 8.8% year-on-year to $6.1 billion, Black Friday sales were up 10.2% year-on-year to $10.8 billion, and the weekend of November 30 and December 1 saw sales totalling $10.9 billion, up 5.8% YoY. The biggest sales day of the period was Cyber Monday, seeing an increase of 7.3% year-on-year with sales of $13.3 billion.
So there’s a lot of revenue to be made, let’s explore how marketers played their part.
Black Friday statistics for 2025
Email sends grew 22% year-on-year
There’s often talk around Black Friday fatigue, but the data shows that the sales phenomenon is not slowing down. In 2024, the Dotdigital platform saw a 5% year-on-year increase in email send volume throughout the whole month of November. Black Friday promotions often begin early and span the entire month.
On Black Friday itself, 365 million emails were sent using the Dotdigital platform, an 8% increase on Black Friday 2023. The 4-day weekend, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, saw 14% more emails sent year-on-year, and Black Friday remains the highest send day of the bumper weekend.
This tells us that email remains a crucial part of any marketer’s strategy over the busy period. It also means competition in the inbox is super fierce, so your subject lines need to be on point to get your campaigns noticed. Busy inboxes, coupled with consumer preferences, are also why you should be incorporating mobile marketing into your strategy, such as SMS.
SMS sends grew 20%
SMS, or Short Message Service, is a powerful channel. Thanks to the fast turnaround time for marketers and the high read rates among consumers, SMS is a great channel for busy sales periods. In 2024, we saw a significant increase in SMS sends over the month of November, up 20% from November 2023. This growth indicates that marketers are really beginning to recognize the power of SMS as a targeted and effective marketing channel.
Dotdigital delivered a staggering 12 million SMS messages over the BFCM weekend in 2024, up 22% on 2023. As well as being quick to make, SMS campaigns drive action. SMS has a click-through rate of 19%, which is over six times higher than email’s 3%.
Text message marketing is a strategy designed to cut through the noise and there’s no noisier time of year than the holiday season. Bypassing the inbox entirely, SMS lands right on a consumer’s lock screen, making it the perfect channel for short, sharp, and time-sensitive messages such as flash sale alerts.
Many brands offer discounts to subscribers as an incentive to sign up for SMS. This is a smart tactic, as handing over a phone number can feel like a bigger deal than sharing an email address for consumers, so the incentive should be stronger.
Looking ahead to 2025
We anticipate even higher volumes of SMS sends. With the statistic that mobile shopping grew 57% year-on-year, mobile marketing is essential. To make your mobile messaging campaigns stand out visually, use multimedia messaging services (MMS) or WhatsApp. These offer a richer, more engaging experience, allowing brands to share images, videos, and GIFs along with their messages. This can be particularly effective for showcasing products, creating a sense of urgency, and driving clicks.
When is Black Friday 2025?
Once again, Black Friday falls on the last Friday of the month, November 28, coinciding with payday for many consumers. This also means that Cyber Monday is falling in December again this year.
There is also China’s Singles’ Day, also known as 11.11 on November 11, and Giving Tuesday the day after Cyber Monday. These once regional holidays are now celebrated globally, giving more opportunities for brands to drive sales.
Retailers are increasingly launching Black Friday deals well in advance of the main event. Many of these deals remain competitive throughout the entire sale period, emphasizing the importance of starting your marketing efforts early.
How to capture Black Friday attention early
To maximize your impact, align your email marketing and social media campaigns with this pre-Black Friday shopping trend. By launching campaigns earlier, you can capture the attention of early adopters and drive sales throughout the extended shopping season.
To avoid overwhelming your audience with repetitive emails, switch up your offers by focusing on a different category each day. Position it as a Cyber Week countdown or advent calendar-style promotion so customers look forward to something new every day. Also, encourage shoppers to curate their own wishlists in anticipation of the big discounts to come during Cyber Week. This means they’re already committing to your brand ahead of the promotion going live.
If you’re a Dotdigital customer you’re able to utilize our easy-to-use campaign builder to create beautiful, responsive, and engaging campaign designs without needing to rely on a team of designers or coders. This is especially valuable during the busy holiday period, when all teams are incredibly busy and you might have to create a last-minute email from scratch.
What about Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday falls on December 1, kicking off the busy lead-in to Christmas. Back in the day, when Black Friday was all about bricks-and-mortar, in-store sales, Cyber Monday was the online equivalent. Today, however, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have more in common as both days see online promotions galore.
At Dotdigital we saw 12% more email sends year-on-year and 21% more SMS sends year-on-year. Adobe data reveals that in the US last year, Cyber Monday saw the biggest spend of the ‘Cyber Five’ and the biggest growth year-on-year. Shoppers spent a total of $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday, up 7.3% on Cyber Monday 2023. During the peak hours of 8 pm to 10 pm, shoppers spent $15.8 million every single minute.
Cyber Monday saw the highest use of Dotdigital’s generative AI tools. This included the use of WinstonAI’s subject line assistant, grammar check, and copy rephrase. It’s safe to say that by Cyber Monday, marketers were tired and out of witty copy ideas – we totally get it.
Gen Z takes Black Friday sales seriously
When planning your Black Friday marketing strategy, don’t forget to consider the purchasing power of Gen Z.
84% of Gen Z are planning to spend this Black Friday, and nearly 40% are in “reconnaissance mode” (conducting serious research) for a full month before the peak season officially begins. This is because between 15% and 18% of Gen Z shoppers believe that the best deals happen before Black Friday itself.
The digital natives are also living up to their reputation, with 60% of their purchases happening online. Be sure to tap into mobile-first channels such as WhatsApp, MMS, and SMS – as well as activating social retargeting on sites like TikTok.
This tech-savvy and bargain-conscious generation holds remarkable potential for boosting your Black Friday sales performance. Ensure your marketing campaigns resonate with this younger audience by understanding their preferences, providing great value, and delivering an exceptional shopping experience tailored to their unique tastes.
Get ready for Black Friday
The holiday shopping season, particularly Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is an exciting time for both shoppers and marketers. This year, focus on utilizing multi-channel strategies, offering early promotions, and creating engaging content to capture shoppers’ attention. By embracing these trends and refining your marketing tactics, you can maximize your impact during this busy sales period.
