US shoppers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday in 2025, up 9.1% year over year, according to Adobe Analytics. That single day was not even the season’s biggest: Cyber Monday pulled in $14.25 billion four days later. What follows is what the sales numbers say about spending, and what the return data says about what comes back.
How much did Black Friday 2025 online sales grow?
Black Friday 2025 online sales reached $11.8 billion in the US, up 9.1% from $10.8 billion in 2024, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks more than 1 trillion visits to US retail websites. Spending peaked at $12.5 million per minute between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Cyber Monday, four days later, outsold it: $14.25 billion, up 7.1% year over year, making it the single largest online shopping day of the year again.
Figure 1: Online sales on the two biggest shopping days of 2025. Source: Adobe Analytics, November-December 2025.
Adobe also recorded a sharp shift in how shoppers arrived at retail sites: traffic referred by AI tools and chatbots was up 805% on Black Friday 2025 compared with Black Friday 2024, a sign that shoppers are increasingly using AI assistants to find deals before they ever land on a retailer’s page.
How many people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend 2025?
A record 202.9 million consumers shopped somewhere between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday in 2025, up from 197 million in 2024 and above NRF’s own pre-season forecast of 186.9 million, according to NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics’ annual survey of 3,099 US adults, fielded November 26-30, 2025 with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.
Average spending across the weekend climbed to $337.86 per shopper, up from $315.56 in 2024, with gift purchases accounting for $225.74 of that total, roughly 67%. Clothing and accessories led the gift categories at 51%, followed by toys at 32% and books and other media at 28%, up from 22% the year before.
Did shoppers buy more online or in stores?
Online edged ahead of in-store for the first time by NRF’s count: 134.9 million people shopped online across the five-day weekend, up 9% from 124.3 million in 2024, compared with 129.5 million in-store shoppers, up 3% from 126 million. On Black Friday itself, NRF counted 85.7 million online shoppers against 80.3 million in-store shoppers.
Figure 2: Share of shopping instances by channel across the five-day weekend (people can shop both channels, so this reflects instances, not unique headcount). Source: NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics, 2025.
Warning
In-store foot-traffic trackers disagree on direction. RetailNext measured Black Friday 2025 in-store traffic down 3.6% nationally, while Pass_by, drawing on 53 million tracked store visits, measured overall traffic up 1.17% and department-store traffic up 7.9%. Both are cited by Forbes’ Black Friday recap; treat the in-store trend as mixed rather than settled, since the two panels measure different store samples with different methodology.
Order volume tells a related story: Salesforce’s global e-commerce tracking found average selling prices up 7% year over year on Black Friday 2025, while order volumes were down 1%, a pattern Forbes attributed partly to tariff-driven price increases pushing up per-order spend even as the number of orders held flat.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the full holiday season compared
| Metric | Black Friday 2025 | Cyber Monday 2025 | Nov 1-Dec 31, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online sales | $11.8 billion | $14.25 billion | $257.8 billion |
| YoY growth | 9.1% | 7.1% | 6.8% |
| Mobile shoppers | Not broken out by NRF | 46.9 million, up from 40.4 million | Not broken out |
Source: Adobe Analytics (2025); NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics (2025).
What is the return rate on Black Friday and holiday purchases?
The overall 2025 return rate landed at 15.8% of all retail purchases, down from 16.9% in 2024, according to NRF and Happy Returns’ 2025 Retail Returns Landscape report, based on a survey of 2,006 consumers and 358 retailers fielded in summer 2025. That same report forecasts holiday-season returns running closer to 17%, above the annual average, with a total returns value of $849.9 billion for the year, down from $890 billion in 2024.
Figure 3: Annual US retail return rate as a percentage of sales. Source: NRF and Appriss Retail (2023), NRF and Happy Returns (2024, 2025).
Black Friday week specifically ran hotter than the annual trend suggests. Returns platform Loop, which analyzed order data across roughly 2,600 e-commerce brands, measured a 12% year-over-year jump in return volume for the week spanning Black Friday through the following Thursday (November 28 to December 4, 2025). Loop’s figures come from its own merchant base rather than a government or trade-association sample, so treat the 12% figure as directional evidence from one large returns-technology platform, not a total-market count. This mirrors the broader post-holiday pattern; see our holiday returns data for the 2026 season for the full post-Christmas breakdown, and expect similar Cyber Monday and Christmas-specific spending breakdowns to follow as those pieces publish.
A refund policy generator that spells out the return window, condition requirements, and refund-versus-credit terms up front is the fastest way to get Black Friday and holiday sale terms in writing before the returns start arriving.
What return-policy terms decide whether a Black Friday purchase qualifies for a refund?
Most retailers apply the same basic eligibility test to a Black Friday purchase as to any other sale, even when the return window is extended for the holidays. Three gates decide the outcome: the return window, the item’s condition, and proof of purchase.
Figure 4: The standard eligibility test most refund policies apply to a return. Illustrative flow based on common refund policy terms, not a single named source.
Retailers that extend the return window explicitly for Black Friday and holiday purchases, and publish the condition and proof-of-purchase rules plainly, cut down on the disputes that otherwise show up as chargebacks or support tickets in the weeks after the sale.
How much of the returns pile is fraud, and what do shoppers expect?
Return fraud stayed a top concern heading into the 2025 season. In NRF’s ReturnPro Returns Report, 2025 Holiday Edition, a survey of more than 500 senior retail leaders at companies generating $500 million or more in annual revenue, published November 3, 2025, 80% of respondents said the average shopper returned $51 or more in goods over the past year, and 75% reported an increase in holiday-season fraud attempts.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Overall return rate | 16.9% | 15.8% |
| Total returns value | $890 billion | $849.9 billion |
| Retailers reporting rising fraud | Not broken out by this report | 75% |
Source: NRF and Happy Returns (2024, 2025); NRF ReturnPro Returns Report, 2025 Holiday Edition.
The Bottom Line
The number worth remembering is $11.8 billion, what US shoppers spent online on Black Friday in 2025, up 9.1% from the year before. That single day is no longer the peak of the season; Cyber Monday out-earned it by more than $2 billion, and the two days together sit inside a $257.8 billion holiday season that keeps growing year over year. Shopper turnout hit a record 202.9 million people, and the return side of that volume is not shrinking to match: the annual return rate ticked down to 15.8% in 2025, but holiday-specific returns still run closer to 17%, and Loop’s data shows return volume in Black Friday week alone up 12% year over year. Retailers who publish clear return terms before the sale starts, rather than writing them after the returns arrive, keep more of that record turnout as repeat business instead of a dispute.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Black Friday 2025 online sales total? $11.8 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, up 9.1% from $10.8 billion in 2024. Cyber Monday remained the bigger day at $14.25 billion, up 7.1% year over year.
How many people shopped over Black Friday weekend 2025? A record 202.9 million consumers shopped over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend in 2025, up from 197 million in 2024, according to NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics’ survey of 3,099 US adults conducted November 26-30, 2025.
What percentage of Black Friday and holiday purchases get returned? NRF and Happy Returns’ 2025 Retail Returns Landscape report put the overall 2025 return rate at 15.8% of all purchases, with a holiday-season forecast closer to 17%. Loop, a returns-technology platform, separately measured a 12% year-over-year jump in return volume for the week spanning Black Friday through the following Thursday.
Do more shoppers buy online or in stores on Black Friday? Online edged ahead in the 2025 count: NRF tallied 134.9 million people shopping online versus 129.5 million shopping in stores across the five-day weekend, a 9% online increase against 3% in-store growth year over year.
Sources and References
- TechCrunch. (2025). “Black Friday sets online spending record of $11.8B, Adobe says.” Reporting Adobe Analytics data, published November 29, 2025.
- Adobe. (2025). “Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending.”
- National Retail Federation. (2025). “Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Draws a Record 203 Million Shoppers.” Survey of 3,099 US adults with Prosper Insights & Analytics, fielded November 26-30, 2025.
- Digital Commerce 360. (2025). “NRF: Consumers to return almost $850B in merchandise in 2025.” Reporting NRF and Happy Returns’ 2025 Retail Returns Landscape survey of 2,006 consumers and 358 retailers.
- National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail. (2024). “2023 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry.” Total 2023 return rate of 14.5% of sales.
- Retail Brew. (2025). “Early Black Friday returns up 12% over last year.” Citing Loop returns-platform data across roughly 2,600 e-commerce brands, published December 22, 2025.
- Forbes. (2025). “Black Friday Data Shows Online Sales Strong, Store Results Mixed.” Citing Adobe, Salesforce, RetailNext, and Pass_by data, published November 29, 2025.
- National Retail Federation. (2025). “ReturnPro Returns Report, 2025 Holiday Edition.” Survey of 500+ senior retail leaders at companies with $500 million or more in annual revenue, published November 3, 2025.
Note: All figures verified as of September 2026. Black Friday and holiday sales and return figures are refreshed at least twice a year as Adobe, NRF, and returns-platform data are updated.
