U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online during Black Friday (Nov. 28), the annual shopping event held the day after Thanksgiving, according to Reuters.
Per the outlet, Adobe Analytics reported a 9.1% jump in sales from 2024, driven in part by the rise of AI-powered shopping tools. This year, shoppers increasingly skipped crowded stores and instead used chatbots to compare prices and find discounts.
Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion online retail visits, found that AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites surged 805% from last year, which was before tools like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus had launched.
“Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian, per Reuters. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.”
LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 consoles, Apple AirPods, and KitchenAid mixers were among the top-selling items on Black Friday, according to the outlet.
Data from software firm Salesforce reported that AI and digital agents accounted for $14.2 billion in global online Black Friday sales, with $3 billion from the U.S., per Reuters.
This data includes non-discretionary purchases such as groceries. Salesforce reported that U.S. consumers spent $18 billion online, up 3% from last year, with luxury apparel and accessories among the leading categories, according to Reuters.
Black Friday this year came at a time when tariffs and inflation have driven up costs, and U.S. unemployment is nearing a four-year high — a trend that continues to affect Black women disproportionately, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
According to Salesforce, these higher costs impacted the number of total items shoppers purchased with research showing a drop of 2% per transaction compared to last year. Discounts and promotions were also less than remarkable.
“There are two things driving up the average selling price in the United States,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights, per Reuters.
“The first is absolutely the impact of tariffs, especially on those discretionary categories where we’ve seen a lot of growth in selling price. The other is the fact that we’re seeing a much stronger higher-income earner than average-income earner, evidenced by the strength in the luxury category,” Schwartz added.
