Black Friday 2025: AI drives $11.8B Online Sales

Black Friday 2025: A New Benchmark

The US Online customers have spent a record-breaking amount of US$11.8 billion in a single day. The Black Friday Sale was on the 28th of November, 2025, and this figure was calculated on November 29, 2025, to know the spending done by the US citizens. 

According to Adobe Analytics, there has been an increase of 9.1% in comparison to the numbers from 2024. This also shows that Adobe Analytics tracked a trillion visits to the retail businesses. 

Significantly, this increase in numbers has not happened in isolation. There has been an increase in the expenses, which corresponds with a huge uptick in the use of the AI-powered shopping tools, like the chatbots, agent-based assistants and recommendation engines. This signals a paradigm shift in how consumers discover, make purchase deals online and compare. 

The AI Effect: What Changed This Black Friday

Explosive Growth in AI-Driven Site Traffic

According to Adobe, traffic to retail websites generated via AI tools soared by a staggering 805% compared to 2024.

Such growth in the numbers and expenses shows a real transformation in the user behaviour and not just something unfamiliar. Now the purchasers are depending more on the digital assistants, such as the chatbots or the AI-based deal finders, rather than self-searching on browsers or manually visiting the website of a particular brand. 

In a season where prices are rising due to tariffs and inflation, many consumers were keen to make every dollar count, making AI tools a powerful asset to hunt down good deals quickly.

What People Bought: Trends & “Hot Sellers”

According to the reporting, the most popular items during Black Friday 2025 included:

• Home electronics and accessories, e.g. earbuds of Apple AirPods or any other brands.
  
• Sports and play, such as console systems including Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5.
  
• Items which are currently trending, such as collectable cards (e.g. Pokémon cards), toys (e.g. LEGO sets), and popular appliances like KitchenAid mixers.
  

The purchases made in these sections of gifting, entertainment and home-use have made it clear that the shoppers were influenced by the recommendations given by the AI tools, and they were not running behind the discounts offered to them in the Black Friday Sale. 

Worldwide Effectiveness: The AI Influence Extended Beyond the U.S.

While the figure is US$11.8 billion refers to the US clients only, the worldwide AI and digital agents have been reported to have influenced $ 14.2 billion in the online sales of the Black Friday Sale. It is seen that in this number, roughly US$3 billion is contributed by the shoppers from the US, according to the data from Salesforce.

This also means that the influence of the AI has already begun on the holiday season, and it has become a global phenomenon for the retailers, marketers and e-commerce platforms worldwide. This also means that the retailers, shoppers and the e-commerce platforms that haven’t adapted to the AI-run business should do so as early as possible. 

Underlying Dynamics: Why 2025 Was Different And Why AI Succeeded

Efficiency: AI Shortened the Path from Browsing to Buying

During high-pressure shopping events like Black Friday, speed matters. By leveraging AI-based bots and assistants, consumers could cut through thousands of product listings, compare deals and locate relevant offers or bundles in minutes, far faster than traditional manual browsing.

As cited by analysts, AI made “gift giving … quicker and more guided,” especially appealing to busy consumers. When discounts are fleeting, and goods often sell out fast, this efficiency translates directly to higher conversion and higher spend.

Decision Support: Better Discovery, Less Decision Fatigue

Large discount days can overwhelm shoppers: too many deals with tiny variations. AI tools simplified decision-making by summarising deals, recommending products based on user preferences or history and pointing out value-for-money bargains.

This kind of “decision support” may have especially helped during inflationary times, when shoppers are more price-sensitive and value-conscious. The result: even though many items were more expensive than in previous years (thanks to tariffs and inflation), AI helped shoppers feel more confident about purchasing decisions.

Accessibility: Removing Friction for Online Shopping

For many, AI tools lowered the barrier to online shopping. Instead of browsing numerous websites individually, users could rely on a centralised assistant to scan across retailers, suggest alternatives, and locate the best price, all without physical store visits.

Given economic uncertainty (rising prices, inflation, soft labour markets) and concerns around in-store safety or cost pressure, AI allowed shoppers to access deals with minimal friction — contributing to the surge.

Retailer Adoption: E-commerce Platforms Leaned into AI

On the supply side, several e-commerce platforms make efficient use of AI that helps in personalising recommendations, optimising search algorithms, tailoring marketing and managing inventories. These AI-driven optimisations have eventually increased conversion rates and allowed retailers to deliver deals and discounts to the right audience at the right time. 

Besides this, some authentic academic research has also suggested that adopting AI can smartly boost the overall productivity of the company. There was a large-scale experiment on an online retail platform that showcases the impact of integrating generative AI enhancement across customer-facing workflows, leading to meaningful sales and higher conversions.

What the Data Reveals: Patterns, Trade-offs & Limits

Though the 2025 Black Friday results are impressive, a deeper look reveals some nuances and warning signs.

Fewer Items per Transaction But Higher Spend per Item

According to Salesforce, even though total spending rose, order volumes fell ≈1%, while average selling prices rose ≈7%.

Moreover, the number of units per transaction reportedly fell about 2% year-over-year — indicating consumers bought fewer items but spent more per item.

In other words, people were more selective, possibly replacing bulk buying habits with value-focused purchases. This aligns with inflation, tariff-driven price hikes and a rise in luxury/lower-volume items.

Discount Depth Remained Flat — Real Value of Deals Declined

Despite the surge in spending, discount rates on many items reportedly remained similar to 2024. Because of inflation and tariffs, the “real value”, what the consumer saves relative to previous years, decreased.

This means that while the consumers have been and are responding strongly to the discounts, the blend of the higher base prices and the substantial price cuts means that the deals were less dramatic than the years in the past, yet the AI-driven discovery still motivated purchases.

Socio-economic Divergence: Larger Share From Higher-Income & Luxury Buyers

The data assessed shows that there is a disproportionately large share of the increased spend that comes from the higher-income buyers and the luxury or discretionary categories. 

The average selling price being higher and the shift being fewer means that there are more expensive items in support of this. This also means that there are some segments of consumers who use the Black Friday Sale and deals to make purchases from the premium categories, while the more budget-conscious buyers could be holding back. 

Implications for The Future: What Black Friday 2025 Means for Holiday Shopping, Retail & AI

For Retailers and E-commerce Platforms

1. AI Tools Are Essential: The 805% surge in AI-driven traffic shows clearly that the shoppers are increasingly expecting smart assistants, chatbots, recommendation engines and AI-powered search. Retailers that delay investing in AI risk being left behind.      
2. Focus on Personalisation and Dynamic Deals:  General bulk discounts may not have a drastic impact. Whereas personalised offers and dynamic pricing that are based on past behaviour preferences and income level using AI, will likely be more effective. 
3. Optimise for Mobile and UX Friction Reduction: AI tools that simplify search and checkout, especially on mobile, can significantly improve conversion, particularly during peak sale events. 
4. Target Luxury & Premium Buyers More Intentionally: Given the shift toward higher-price items and fewer units per order, luxury and premium categories may see higher growth during sale events, especially with effective AI curation.

For Consumers — Smart Shopping in the AI Era

• Use AI shopping assistants to navigate overwhelming deals. AI can help compare products, check discounts across retailers and filter for the best value, saving time and effort.
  
• Be value-conscious: Given higher baseline prices and flatter discounts, it’s more important than ever to evaluate whether a deal is genuinely good, not just marked down.
  
• Focus on quality over quantity: As shopping habits shift to fewer, higher-priced items per transaction, shoppers might get more long-term value from durable or high-end purchases rather than bulk buying.
  
• Stay aware of potential bias: AI recommendation systems often favour higher-margin items or retailers incentivising them. Consumers should cross-check deals manually when possible.
  

For the Broader Retail & Tech Ecosystem

The 2025 Black Friday results show that AI isn’t just a “nice-to-have” — it’s reshaping the retail landscape at scale. A report on generative-AI integration in retail workflows showed sales increases up to 16.3% for firms adopting AI enhancements.

As the dealers, whether small or large, put into use the AI for search, distinct needs, recommendation and dynamic pricing, the line between the AI-powered sale and regular sale may become a blur. In the forthcoming years, the seasonal shopping season might depend more on the AI-driven discovery than on deep discounts alone. 

Risks, Challenges & What to Watch Going Forward

While the increase of AI-driven shopping comes with advantages, there are many other crucial caveats and potential risks: 

• Over-reliance on AI recommendations: When the purchasers depend entirely on AI for the surface deals, they may misjudge the value of the smaller sellers or niche products that algorithms overlook or undervalue. 
• Privacy and data concerns: With the usage of AI personalisation and recommendation, the requirement of accessing the user data for browsing history, preferences and purchase histories will increase significantly. Without any powerful data protection, the users might be exposed to data misuse or over-targeting. 
• Economic inequity: As the data study shows, a higher-income purchaser and a luxury category purchaser may gain more benefits, potentially due to the widening gaps in access to the deals or value for the lower-income or budget shoppers. 
• Discount fatigue & perceived value drop: If the bottom-line prices keep on increasing and the discounts remain flat, the consumers may become disillusioned, even with the AI assistance, which may also reduce long-term engagement.
• Algorithmic bias & margin-driven promotions: The retailers and the vendors of AI may prioritise the promotion of the high-margin or the high-profit items, cutting the visibility away from the cheaper essentials or small-seller items.

What This Means for 2025–2026 Holiday Season & Beyond

• You can expect spending on Cyber Monday 2025 and the wider Cyber Week to move ahead of Black Friday, mainly because retailers are leaning hard into AI-driven deals and shoppers are getting used to relying on AI tools while they shop. Early signs already point to Cyber Monday turning into the biggest online shopping day of the year.
• Retailers will also likely put more money into improving the online experience with AI things like smoother chatbots, personalised suggestions, dynamic pricing and better search and filters. All of this is meant to help them convert more visitors during the big sale rush.
• Smaller retailers and direct-to-consumer brands may have to depend more on niche messaging, customer loyalty, openness and fair pricing to hold their ground against large retailers who use AI to capture most of the visibility.
• Consumers may shift their behaviour: rather than “buy-all-the-discounts,” expect a trend toward selective, value-oriented shopping — aided by AI, but driven by practicality, quality and long-term value.

Conclusion — A New Era of AI-Driven Shopping

Black Friday 2025 marks more than just another record-breaking sale; it may represent a structural shift in e-commerce. The combination of rising baseline prices, economic uncertainty and friction in manual deal-hunting created fertile ground for AI tools to flourish, and consumers, retailers and platforms responded in kind.

AI-enabled discovery, personalisation, ease of use and time savings transformed how people shop, helping them find value even amidst price inflation and economic pressure. The result: a record-breaking $11.8 billion online spend in the U.S. and, perhaps more importantly, a clear signal that AI-driven shopping isn’t a trend but is fast becoming the default.

For consumers, the age of “bargain hunting by scrolling through pages” may be fading; the future points toward “smart, efficient, AI-assisted purchase decisions.”

For retailers, investing in AI is no longer optional. Offering seamless, personalised, data-driven shopping experiences will define success in future holiday seasons.

For the broader retail industry, Black Friday 2025 may be remembered as the moment when AI moved, definitively, from novelty to necessity.

FAQs

How much did online spending increase this Black Friday compared to 2024?

U.S. online spending reached US$11.8 billion on Black Friday 2025, a 9.1% increase from 2024.

What role did AI play in driving those sales?

AI-powered shopping tools like chatbots, recommendation engines and digital assistants helped drive a surge in retail site traffic, which grew 805% over 2024 via AI tools. This significantly improved product discovery, deal comparison and checkout convenience.

Were consumers buying more items per transaction or spending more per item?

While total spend and average selling price went up, consumers purchased fewer items per transaction. Order volumes fell by ~1%, average prices rose ~7% and units per transaction dropped ~2%.

What kind of items sold the most during Black Friday 2025?

Hot sellers included gaming consoles (e.g., Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5), electronics like earbuds (e.g., Apple AirPods), popular toys and collectables (e.g., LEGO sets, Pokémon cards) and home appliances like KitchenAid mixers.

Is this trend limited to the U.S., or is it global?

It appears global: according to Salesforce, AI and agent-driven tools influenced US$14.2 billion in online sales globally, with ~ US$3 billion attributed to U.S. shoppers.

What should retailers and consumers take away from this?

Retailers should invest heavily in AI-powered personalisation, recommendations and user-experience optimisation; consumers should use AI tools to smartly navigate deals but remain value-conscious, cross-check deals and not rely solely on AI recommendations.