US online Black Friday sales hit a record $11.8 billion, as reported by Adobe Analytics on November 29, 2025, surpassing previous years and highlighting a powerful surge in digital shopping at the start of the holiday season. The figure underscores the dominance of e-commerce, with AI-driven traffic jumping 805% to fuel the spending boom, even as in-store results remained mixed and shoppers confronted underlying costs despite the headline deals.
Record-Breaking Online Sales Figures
Adobe Analytics tracked US consumers spending a record $11.8 billion online during Black Friday on November 29, 2025, marking what the company identified as the highest single-day e-commerce total to date. Reporting on the firm’s data, outlets noted that the $11.8 billion tally for Black Friday 2025 set a new benchmark for digital holiday spending and confirmed that shoppers concentrated a significant share of their seasonal budgets into a single 24-hour window, a shift that retailers now treat as a critical test of pricing, logistics, and website performance.
The $11.8 billion in US online Black Friday sales also represented a clear escalation from prior years, with coverage of Adobe’s figures emphasizing that the jump was driven by heightened digital engagement and more intensive use of online promotions. Analysis of the numbers in reports on Black Friday US online sales hitting a record $11.8 billion highlighted how the growth rate outpaced many retailers’ expectations, signaling that consumers are increasingly comfortable making big-ticket purchases online and that brands that underinvest in e-commerce risk losing share on the most competitive shopping day of the year.
AI’s Role in Boosting E-Commerce Traffic
Alongside the headline revenue figure, Adobe’s data pointed to a dramatic shift in how shoppers reached online storefronts, with AI traffic to US Black Friday online sites jumping 805% on November 29, 2025. Coverage of the surge in reports that US online Black Friday sales hit US$11.8 billion as AI traffic jumped 805% underscored that automated tools, recommendation engines, and AI-driven search are no longer peripheral features but central pipelines feeding customers into digital carts, a development that raises the stakes for retailers that have been slower to adopt advanced personalization and targeting.
Adobe Analytics also highlighted how AI tools enhanced shopper experiences by accelerating the path to purchase and amplifying the online spending peak, according to coverage that detailed the firm’s breakdown of traffic sources and conversion behavior. Reporting on how AI helped drive record $11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending described retailers using machine learning to surface more relevant deals, optimize discount timing, and streamline checkout flows, a combination that not only lifted sales but also signaled a broader shift in retail technology adoption as companies race to integrate AI into every stage of the customer journey.
The 805% increase in AI-driven traffic also served as an early indicator of how quickly these tools are reshaping the competitive landscape, with early November 29 data cited in coverage of Adobe’s Black Friday online sales report underscoring its real-time impact on e-commerce volume. For shoppers, that meant more tailored offers and faster discovery of products, while for brands it raised new questions about data governance, algorithmic transparency, and the risk that smaller retailers could be crowded out if they lack the resources to plug into the same AI ecosystems as the largest platforms.
Online vs. In-Store Shopping Dynamics
Black Friday data from November 29, 2025, showed online shopping triumphing over in-store visits, with Adobe’s $11.8 billion figure emphasizing e-commerce’s lead in the holiday kickoff. A detailed recap of the day’s performance in coverage of Black Friday data on online shopping versus in-store described digital channels outpacing foot traffic as consumers opted for the convenience of home delivery and curbside pickup, a pattern that reinforced the long-running shift away from doorbuster lines and toward all-day, app-based browsing that can be adjusted in real time as new promotions go live.
In-store Black Friday results were mixed compared to the robust online performance, with early reports noting that physical retail struggled to match digital gains even as some categories, such as beauty and experiential retail, still drew crowds. Analysis of the split in reports that Black Friday data showed online sales strong and store results mixed pointed to uneven traffic across malls and big-box locations, suggesting that retailers with strong omnichannel strategies were better positioned to capture demand, while those relying heavily on in-store-only promotions faced a tougher environment as shoppers compared prices and inventory across multiple sites before deciding whether a trip was worth it.
Consumer Costs Amid the Sales Surge
Despite the record $11.8 billion in US online Black Friday sales on November 29, 2025, shoppers paid a price through factors such as inflation and selective deals that did not always translate into meaningful savings across every category. A closer look at the trade-offs in coverage of how, despite breaking online Black Friday records, US shoppers paid a price emphasized that while headline discounts on electronics and popular gift items grabbed attention, many households still faced higher baseline prices on essentials and tighter budgets, which meant that the apparent windfall for retailers did not necessarily ease financial pressure for consumers.
Adobe’s reporting also revealed that while online spending hit $11.8 billion, underlying economic pressures tempered the perceived value for consumers during the holiday kickoff, as some shoppers prioritized buy-now-pay-later options and credit over cash. Coverage of the firm’s breakdown in reports that U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online during Black Friday sales noted that the combination of aggressive promotions and lingering inflation created a complex picture in which retailers celebrated volume while many buyers weighed the long-term cost of financing their purchases, a tension that could shape spending patterns through the rest of the season.
The juxtaposition of record sales and shopper burdens highlighted a nuanced impact, with November 30 updates building on initial Adobe data to show sustained digital trends even as questions persisted about how far consumer wallets could stretch. Follow-up analysis in reports on US online Black Friday sales hitting US$11.8 billion as AI traffic jumped 805% pointed out that the strong start to the holiday period did not erase concerns about household debt and the possibility that some of the spending spike reflected pulled-forward demand rather than a broad-based increase in purchasing power, a dynamic that retailers and policymakers will be watching closely as the season unfolds.
