Cyber Monday was the largest online shopping day of 2025 (and of all time in the U.S.), but Black Friday online sales grew the fastest, according to Adobe Analytics data.
Adobe’s estimates are based on analysis of 1 trillion web visits to U.S. retailers and 100 million SKUs.
U.S. shoppers spent $44.2 billion online during the five-day peak shopping period of Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, Nov. 27-Dec. 1, according to Adobe. This is a 7.7% year-over-year increase, bolstered by strong Black Friday growth.
By day, U.S. consumers spent online:
- Thanksgiving — $6.4 billion, a 5.3% year-over-year increase
- Black Friday — $11.8 billion, up 9.1%
- Saturday — $5.8 billion
- Sunday — $6.0 billion (online sales from Saturday and Sunday combined increased 8.7% compared with these Thanksgiving weekend days in 2024)
- Cyber Monday — $14.25 billion, up 7.1%
Competitive discounts drove Cyber Monday sales, with discounts peaking at 31% off the listed price, according to Adobe. Discounts in key categories, such as toys (28% off list price), apparel (25% off) and computers (20%), spurred shoppers to hit buy.
“U.S. retailers leaned heavily on discounts this holiday season to drive online demand,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, in a press release. “Competitive and persistent deals throughout Cyber Week pushed consumers to shop earlier, creating an environment where Black Friday now challenges the dominance of Cyber Monday.”
For the holiday season so far, online sales have increased 7.1% year over year, which is ahead of Adobe’s 5.4% increase forecast. Early deals have driven increased sales, especially the week leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend.
Consumers Discover Products on Social Media, Research with AI Chat
Sales attributed to social media have increased significantly year over year, with the channel generating 3.6% of the online revenue on Cyber Monday 2025, up from a 2.3% share last year, according to Adobe. This doesn’t include social media influencers, which are in Adobe’s “affiliates and partners” bucket. This channel drove 21.8% of revenue on Cyber Monday, up from 20.3% last year.
Traffic to U.S. retail website from generative AI chat platforms, like ChatGPT, increased 761% for the holiday season so far (Nov. 1-Dec.1), according to Adobe. The base of consumers using AI search tools is “modest” but the year-over-year increase shows that consumers are turning to these platforms to help them find deals and research products, according to Adobe.
Marketing vendor Attentive said that brands that used AI-personalized messages increased their conversion rates by 30%-40% Nov. 24-Dec. 1, compared with brands that did not use AI to write messages. This data is based on 8,000 global brands that use Attentive’s platform. About 80% of Attentive’s clients use the vendor’s AI tools.
Attentive also found that consumer engagement with email peaked on Monday, Nov. 24, as shoppers browsed before buying. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the most popular time to send emails among its clients varied by day:
- Thanksgiving – 6 p.m. was the most popular time to send an email
- Black Friday – 9 a.m.
- Saturday – 8 p.m.
- Sunday – 8 a.m.
- Cyber Monday – 9 a.m.
For SMS, across the board for these five days, brands most frequently sent text messages at noon.
Adobe also found:
- Shoppers financed $1.03 billion online on Cyber Monday using a buy now, pay later service. This is a 4.2% year-over-year increase. At 79%, the majority of these buy-now-pay-later purchases were made on mobile devices.
- Consumers buying on mobile devices continues to increase, with 57.5% of sales made on mobile on Cyber Monday and 61.6% of sales on Thanksgiving were via mobile.
