Black Friday online spending hit a record high of $11.8 billion with shoppers leaning on AI to find deals

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Online shoppers spent more than $25 billion on Black Friday weekend

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Retailers enjoyed an unprecedented Black Friday as online shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion, surpassing 2024’s $10.8 billion online spend, according to data from Adobe for Business.

The data also revealed that shoppers are leaning on help from artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT to find gifts and other purchases. Retail website visits from AI (users clicking on a link their AI platform gives them) increased 770 percent year-on-year in November.

Black Friday represented wider spending trends

Though consumers appear to be more cautious about their holiday spending this year, it didn’t stop them from spending $123.2 billion online in November, up 7.2 percent from the same time period in 2024, according to Adobe.

In particular, online spending rose year-on-year on Black Friday weekend:

• Black Friday: $11.8 billion, up around $1 billion compared to 2024
• Saturday: $5.8 billion, up around $500 million compared to 2024
• Sunday: $6 billion, up around $400 million compared to 2024

In total, Black Friday weekend brought retailers around $23.6 billion in online spending, representing a $1.9 billion increase compared to the same weekend in 2024.

AI-driven traffic skyrockets nearly 800 percent in November

Adobe reported that visits to retail websites driven by AI rose 770 percent in November, a confirmation of prevailing trends that indicate shoppers are asking AI to help them find gifts and other purchases they’re looking for.

For example, Adobe noted in August that AI traffic to retail sites grew 4,700 percent year-on-year in July, and that the previous holiday shopping season (November through December) saw a 1,300 percent increase in AI-driven visits to retail websites.

It’s not just the amount of traffic retailers get from AI that’s important; it’s what happens once shoppers land on the website, too. AI-driven site visits have better metrics in key areas:

• Engagement is 10 percent higher from AI sources.
• Shoppers from AI-driven visits are on the site 32 percent longer.
• AI-driven visits lead to shoppers navigating to 10 percent more pages per session.
• The rate of users leaving the site immediately after landing on the page is 27 percent lower.

“This indicates that with AI tools, shoppers are becoming more informed and focusing on the most relevant retailers during the research/consideration phase,” Adobe noted in the report.

Adobe also found that nearly 75 percent of AI-driven traffic originated from desktop computers, a figure that may reflect shoppers’ slow adoption of AI tools on mobile devices that tend to make up the biggest share of holiday purchases.

Online spending across main retail categories will rise year-on-year, according to projections

Adobe is predicting that growth across seven key retail groups will help fuel this year’s online holiday spending surge, with apparel and electronics accounting for the biggest share of dollars:

Category

2024 holiday spend

2025 holiday spend (projected)

Year-on-year growth (projected)

Electronics

$55.3 billion

$57.5 billion

4.0 percent

Apparel

$46.6 billion

$47.6 billion

2.2 percent

Furniture and home goods

$29.2 billion

$31.1 billion

6.5 percent

Grocery

$21.5 billion

$23.5 billion

9.3 percent

Toys

$8.2 billion

$8.8 billion

7.3 percent

Cosmetics

$7.7 billion

$8.4 billion

9.1 percent

Sporting goods

$7.8 billion

$8.2 billion

5.1 percent

Adobe forecasts electronics and apparel will account for more than half of holiday online spending across the main retail categories this year, while grocery and cosmetics will see the biggest year-on-year growth.

Buy Now, Pay Later spend hit $9 billion in November

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) spending totaled $9 billion this past month, up 8.6 percent year-on-year, according to Adobe. The firm projects that the popular payment plans will generate a record $20.2 billion in spending this holiday season.

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