Block, the parent company of Square and BNPL firm Clearpay, said that UK transaction volumes on its platform jumped +23.6% year-on-year on Black Friday.

It said over 1.7million consumers engaged with Square and Clearpay on Black Friday, prompting BNPL orders via Clearpay to rise +6.1%.

And it wasn’t just retail transactions which saw a boost; Food & Beverage order volumes from its Square solution experienced a +37.8% uplift on Black Friday as consumers combined shopping with socialising.

It said that “despite higher costs and tightening purse strings” following last week’s Autumn Budget, “consumers have shown they’re willing to spend ahead of the festive period.”

Black Friday footfall delivered a “mixed start” for retailers, as store traffic performance fluctuated, says the latest data from Sensormatic Solutions.

Insight from its ShopperTrak Analytics platform, which captures 40billion store visits globally each year, showed retail visits on Black Friday decreased -3% compared to 2024, as consumer caution and constrained purchasing power curbed demand. 

However, in the week leading up to Black Friday, shopper traffic did improve +1.1% year-on-year (22 – 28 Nov 2025 vs 23 – 29 Nov 2024), with High Street store counts rising +2.8% compared to 2024 across the same period.

Week-on-week, footfall rose +54.9%, giving retailers “cause for cautious optimism” with “polling suggests it’s a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ consumers will buy,” said Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic’s EMEA Retail Consultant, adding:

“Even though many retailers started their BFCM promotions early as is now tradition, many shoppers are still holding out for the best deal.  Retailers will need to react dynamically to drive up demand whilst balancing out the margin implications of deep discounting.” 

Nationwide said that by 4pm on Black Friday its customers had made over 7.3million transactions since the start of the day – +9.18% higher than in 2024.

The highest number of payments recorded per minute was 15,345 – equating to 255 per second.

Mark Nalder, Service, Operations & Performance Director at Nationwide, said Black Friday had “surpassed expectations” and had been “busier than expected” for retailers:

“Despite concerns around the deals and value for money available to shoppers, Black Friday clearly remains a preferred day for consumers to treat themselves to higher ticket items or household brands, indulge in their hobbies and interests, or stock up on Christmas presents.”

Insight from ecommerce personalisation platform, Nosto, showed that digital sales on Black Friday (28 Nov 2025) rose +15.2% year-on-year.

Despite pre-BFCM predictions from Mangopay that shoppers would shop “smarter, not bigger” – expecting total transaction volumes to increase but on smaller order values – Nosto’s figures painted a more positive picture for online trading.

It said ecommerce Average Order Value (AOV) across its platform saw a marginal boost on Black Friday, up +0.6%, while conversions also remained above 2024 levels (+16.2%).

Ecommerce revenues on Saturday (29 Nov 2025) saw an even greater uplift, rising +20.2% versus 2024. Meanwhile, despite AOV remaining flat at +0.17%, conversion rates were higher than that seen on Black Friday itself and up +22.8% against last year.

After a mixed start, in-store footfall recovered and started to build across the Black Friday weekend, according to data from Sensormatic Solutions.

Total UK footfall over the weekend was up compared to 2024 (+0.7%) – traffic on Sunday (30 Nov) jumped +5% year-on-year and +13.2% week-on-week. Saturday (29 Nov) saw lower levels of store visits compared to 2024 (-1.9%) but rose +19.4% against the week prior.

High Streets were the best performing retail destination across the weekend, with footfall rising +1.5% year-on-year across the two-days, followed by Retail Parks (+0.7%). On Sunday, High Streets also saw a significant boost to shopper counts versus 2024, rising +13.5%, while Shopping Centres also experienced a 2.8% increase.  

“After a mixed start, the Black Friday weekend delivered a welcome boost to retailers, even amid consumer anxieties around tightening budgets and rising costs,” said Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant at Sensormatic Solutions.

“Despite these worries, UK shoppers showed up and have kicked off their Christmas planning – and purchasing – in earnest, leaning into the discounting and offers available across Black Friday to make sure their festive budgets work as hard as possible.

“The holiday rush is only beginning, and retailers still have time to make last-minute adjustments that can help capture conversions and drive performance,” said Sumpter.

“And that means staying close to the data – from sales floors throughout their supply chains and into the market – while focusing on streamlining experiences and promotions. This work will not only help ensure they win share of wallet during the Peak Trading season but the year to come, as the majority of retailers who overperform in December carry that momentum into year ahead.”

TopCashback has shared its latest figures for the Black Friday weekend, showing steady demand and consistent engagement from UK shoppers.

Traffic reached its highest point between 10 and 11am on Friday, up 112% on last week and 14% compared with Black Friday 2024. Activity then remained stable across the rest of the weekend.

The biggest spikes came from categories including Department stores, Health & Beauty and Marketplace (e.g. eBay) with offers from the likes of eBay, Argos, and LookFantastic driving huge interest, noted Adam Bullock, UK Director at TopCashback.

Mirakl has announced its Black Friday 2025 results with its marketplace ecosystem generating $154million in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) across the day, marking a +45% year-on-year increase.

Adrien Nussenbaum, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Mirakl, said the results highlighted the importance of the model for generating growth:

“These results confirm what we’ve been seeing since our foundation: the marketplace model is no longer optional, it’s essential for retailers who want to remain competitive. While traditional ecommerce grew at single digits, our customers are achieving double-digit growth by leveraging the power of marketplace economics.”

AI-powered shopping helped drive a surge in U.S. online spending on Black Friday, as American shoppers swapped stores for AI chatbots, according to Adobe Analytics data.

Analysis from a trillion web visits by Adobe showed that on Black Friday shoppers across The Pond spent a record-breaking $11.8billion online, up +9.1% on last year.

AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail websites soared +805% compared to last year, as shoppers adopted the technology to search for deals and compared prices.

Cyber Monday is expected to see an evening bigger surge in online spend, and is expected to drive $14.2billion in revenue, up +6.3% year-on-year.

Spending data from Barclays shows transactions on Black Friday (28 Nov 2025) reached their highest peak so far this year, up +62% on the average for 2025, as shoppers went ‘all in’ on findings deals.

“Our transaction data shows that Black Friday remains a vital retail milestone, with volumes spiking on the day itself once again,” said Rohan Kumar, Head of Barclays’ spending insights.

“Retailers will undoubtedly have been pleased to see such a considerable spike.”

Barclays poll of 2,000 UK shoppers showed 29% still consider Black Friday to be the best time to bag a bargain, however 44% say they don’t forward to the event as much as they used to.

IAP revenues rose +28% year-on-year, with higher-value shoppers making more purchases during Black Friday promotions, according to marketing cloud solution AppsFlyer’s data.

IAPs on Android devices grew +33% versus the +26% annual growth on iOS.

Total conversions rose +14% YOY, supported by significant iOS growth even as Android performance softened, while remarketing conversions increased by +17%, highlighting the UK’s continued reliance on re-engagement to drive efficiency.

“Black Friday 2025 saw higher conversion quality in the UK, driven by strong consumer intent,” said Sue Azari, Industry Lead Ecommerce at AppsFlyer. “Brands succeeded by doubling down on performance media and re-engagement to capture high-value audiences.”

Sports & Outdoor was the fastest growing category for online orders over Black Friday weekend, up +13.1% compared to 2024, according to data from delivery experience platform, Ingrid, and its live BFCM Live Data Tracker.

Order volumes for fashion also rose +2.7% year-on-year, while electronics remained relatively flat (0.9%).

When it came to delivery, Ingrid’s data showed that home fulfilment was the most popular choice offered by retailers (43%), while a quarter gave shoppers the option of delivering BFCM purchases to pick-up locations or lockers, boosting flexibility and convenience.

It also said consumer delivery promises became stretched throughout the week, from 2.7-5.6 days on Monday 24 Nov 2025 to 3.8-6.6 days on Sunday 30 Nov 2025, as order volumes increased and retailers sought to build in “buffers” for fulfilment.

Data from fulfilmentcrowd suggests Cyber Monday has surpassed Black Friday as the busiest day of Peak Trading, as shoppers hold off until the final moments to make purchases and secure the best deals.

Lee Thompson, CEO, fulfilmentcrowd, said:

“Interestingly, our data shows that the busiest day of UK peak trading wasn’t Black Friday itself, but Cyber Monday, showing UK shoppers delayed big purchases until the final moment of the BFCM weekend.”

He added that ‘Cyber Saturday’ saw the largest week-on-week order increase (+659%) of the four BFCM weekend dates.

New global data from Talon.One shows that retailers adjusted their Black Friday discounting strategies in 2025, with the average discount moving to 25%, up from 21% in 2024.

“In the current climate, value is the top priority for shoppers, and retailers have responded by increasing their Black Friday discounts,” commented Christoph Gerber, CEO at Talon.One, adding:

“The modest uplifts tells us that retailers acted strategically rather than resorting to deep, margin-draining cuts.”

“We’ve seen retailers increasingly diversify their incentive mix to deliver value while protecting profitability,” Gerber added, “with perks, such as free shipping, bundles, minimum order thresholds or tiered rewards.”

“Black Friday now behaves more like a season rather than a single day,” David Randall, VP Carriers at Metapack, commented. He said retailers were “spreading deals across weeks” while shoppers were “taking time to hunt genuine value.”

“Our data shows that the use of delivery options at the checkout (standard, next day, collection etc.) has increased by almost +25% vs last year, potentially highlighting that shoppers weigh convenience, cost and speed, reflecting more cautious, value-conscious behaviours.” 

He said these shopping patterns underline “the importance for retailers of supporting extended consumer decision-making” and the need for “clear, flexible and transparent delivery choices to help convert shopper interest into completed purchases.”