Black Friday, the annual sales phenomenon we know and love – and perhaps the busiest time of year for marketers and ecommerce brands. Make your Black Friday strategy planning easier with this roundup of the key data and learnings from last year’s sales event.
Get the lowdown on the consumer spending patterns from last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend. See how consumers have been shopping on the big sales dates of 2026 so far, and get a clear recommendation for when to send your first sales campaigns based on data from billions of email and SMS campaigns.
Cyber Week is the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday and is one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.
Adobe data shows that Cyber Week in 2025 brought in $44.2 billion online, up 7.7% year-on-year. Cyber Week is big business and marks the beginning of the holiday season. 73% of WooCommerce merchants report that the BFCM and holiday period accounts for over 20% of their annual revenue.
Black Friday itself saw a record online spend of $11.8 billion in 2025, up 9.1% year-on-year, and for the second year in a row Black Friday growth outpaced Cyber Monday.
Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026. But the opportunity doesn’t start and end on one day. Shoppers are active across several weeks, with key moments building up through November and into peak holiday season.
Key holiday sales dates for your diary
Holiday marketing for good
Giving Tuesday follows Cyber Monday; it’s a day to celebrate donations and support of not-for-profit organizations. It’s not just for the not-for-profit sector either; this is a great time to highlight any charity initiatives your company supports to showcase your brand values.
Check out holiday marketing ideas if you’re in the not-for-profit sector, including Black Friday campaign inspiration.
Knowing when to start promotions around key sales dates is an ongoing dilemma for marketers and ecommerce planners.
Go too early, and you risk giving away margin, overwhelming your audience, or prompting unsubscribes.
Go too late, and your competitors may have already captured the attention and sales.
So let’s have a look at what the data shows. We’ve analyzed billions of email sends to identify the average number of days before a major sales holiday that marketers begin referencing those holidays in their email subject lines.
Black Friday 2025
| Region | Days before |
|---|---|
| Global average | 12 |
| Americas | 16 |
| APAC | 14 |
| EMEA | 11 |
Aim for around two weeks before Black Friday itself, and use the lead-up to encourage people to sign up to mobile marketing channels like SMS, MMS and WhatsApp. This gives you another way to speak to your audience, which is especially valuable during some of the busiest weeks of the year for email inboxes.
Cyber Monday 2025
| Region | Days before |
|---|---|
| Global average | 3 |
| Americas | 7 |
| APAC | 1 |
| EMEA | 2 |
The global average in 2025 was three days before, meaning Black Friday itself. However, you don’t want to cannibalise your Black Friday strategy. Instead, consider that as soon as the clock strikes midnight and Black Friday ends, it’s Cyber Monday lead-up time.
In the US, brands are going earlier and beginning the Cyber Monday promotions a full week in advance.
Remember, this is an average number and what works best for your brand will be unique to you and your offering. This is the average data from 2025; check out the full three-year data for BFCM and other key sales holidays to see how the promotion window is changing over time.
Now you know when to send your holiday campaigns; get some design inspiration in our 2026 holiday lookbook. Take a look at the standout campaigns from last year alongside a review of why they worked, and tips on how you can make yours even better.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions go on for a lot more than just the days of the week they are named after.
Here are some ideas to keep your email marketing content varied and stop your audience from getting overwhelmed or disinterested during the build-up.
We’ve covered how BFCM played out last year; now let’s have a quick check-in on consumer behavior during large sales events so far in 2026.
Retail giant Amazon’s Prime Day in the summer is a good mid-year comparison and potential indication of the current sales appetite among consumers.
Adobe reports the sales event saw $26.4 billion in online spend over the four-day event from June 23 to June 26, which was a 9.3% year-on-year growth.
So what kind of promotions enticed consumers to shop? Data from Amazon’s Prime Day shows the top categories for discounting and the level of discount compared to 2025. Every category saw either a flat discount year-on-year or an increased discount percentage.
| Product category | Discount level 2025 | Discount level 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel | 24% | 24% |
| Appliances | 16% | 16% |
| Computers | 13% | 15% |
| Electronics | 23% | 24% |
| Furniture | 15% | 16% |
| Televisions | 18% | 19% |
| Toys | 19% | 20% |
| Sporting goods | 9% | 10% |
Great marketing campaigns can get people to your site, and then your on-site customer experience takes over.
Last year’s holiday season saw buy now pay later (BNPL) hit a record high with $20 billion in online spend, up 9.8% year-on-year.
The flexible payment method was used most on Cyber Monday, driving $1.03 billion in online spend.
The vast majority of BNPL transactions are happening on mobile devices. On Cyber Monday, 79.4% of BNPL orders were placed on a mobile device (vs. desktop).
Earlier this year, we surveyed 4,000 consumers to find out what they want from brands and how they shop. 44% of consumers report discovering new brands through the creators they follow on social media.
This tracks with Adobe data from last year’s holiday season, where ‘affiliates and partners’, which includes social media influencers, saw a revenue share of 21.8%, up 7.4% year-on-year.
Social Snowball helps you scale affiliate revenue with creators, and as it’s part of the Dotdigital group, getting started is super simple.
See what consumers actually want from brands and make sure you’re set up to turn new customers into loyal ones.
