The numbers are in. Black Friday and the days around it are always an interesting moment to study ecommerce behavior. At Coveo, we’re fortunate to power some of the world’s largest retailers, giving us a unique aggregated view of how shopping patterns shift year over year.
Below is a data-driven look at the trends throughout Black Friday/Cyber Monday and what retailers should take away for 2026 planning.
BFCM Still Dominates with Sharp Surges
A few early stats stand out immediately. Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to be exceptionally large peaks. Compared to a typical week in November, Black Friday generated 71% more revenue than a normal Friday, and Cyber Monday drove 31% more than a typical Monday. These aren’t small bumps – they’re sharp, concentrated surges that reshape traffic, intent, and product-discovery pressure across the entire stack.
Bottom-line Insight
BFCM continues to be the week where search relevance, recommendations, and merchandising precision matter most. Small inefficiencies amplify instantly when volume spikes.
Black Friday 2024 vs. Black Friday 2025
Among Coveo-powered retailers, we saw strong gains in online revenue, especially within footwear and apparel, which grew by roughly 30% year over year compared to Black Friday 2024.
Many factors likely contributed to this uplift. While we don’t have in-store data to complete the picture, the digital momentum is notable on its own – even accounting for traffic and pricing increases.
A likely driver is the set of ranking and relevance optimizations tuned for Revenue Per Visitor (RPV), which surface higher-value products and strengthen monetization efficiency during peak periods.
Importantly, this wasn’t just an apparel story. Other verticals, including media retail, also showed strong digital momentum, with a 14.5% year-over-year uplift on Black Friday. This suggests the growth was broad-based rather than isolated to a single category.
Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: One for Consumers, One for B2B
Across all ecommerce customers, Cyber Monday was the bigger revenue day. Part of this is because our dataset includes B2B organizations, and Monday traffic is naturally high, giving Cyber Monday an extra lift that doesn’t necessarily reflect consumer behavior.
When focusing specifically on B2C retailers, however, Black Friday clearly comes out on top:
- In apparel and footwear, activity was about 18.5% higher on Black Friday than Cyber Monday.
- In electronics, Black Friday was nearly 90% bigger.
In short: Consumers showed up in full force Black Friday, while Cyber Monday benefited more from B2B demand. Black Friday drove the heavier traffic and engagement, but Cyber Monday still delivered strong revenue thanks to broader participation.
Shopper Behavior Across the BFCM Week
It was a very busy week overall, but each day revealed a distinct shopping pattern. Search activity peaked on Wednesday, when 83% of all sessions included a search – a clear sign that shoppers were in preparation mode, investigating products and hunting for deals ahead of the big weekend.
Black Friday and Saturday shifted behavior toward exploration, with recommendations peaking on those days. This shows that shoppers were browsing broadly, discovering new options, and getting inspired by additional suggestions.
By contrast, Sunday became the strongest add-to-cart day, with 36% of sessions leading to an add-to-cart action – the moment shoppers moved from exploration to decision-making and began locking in their choices.
Together, these patterns show that BFCM isn’t just high-volume – it follows a predictable rhythm of preparation, inspiration, and action.
Bottom-line insight
- Wednesday is prime for gift guides, content, and category pages.
- Friday/Saturday demand the strongest recommendations and browsing paths.
- Sunday is conversion optimization time — checkout clarity matters more than ever.
Build-Up Phase: Shopping Starts Earlier
Shoppers are beginning their holiday journeys earlier every year. Traffic patterns that once spiked mainly during Black Friday week are now climbing two – sometimes three – weeks ahead of the event. Retailers extending promotional periods reinforces this shift, keeping shoppers engaged over a longer window.
This is clear in the data. To quantify how unusual this early engagement was, we defined an “abnormally high” day as one where daily search traffic exceeded the average October baseline by at least 15%.
- 2024: 14 abnormal days
- 2025: 18 abnormal days
In other words, elevated shopping engagement wasn’t a short pre-BFCM spike – it swelled, stretching across a larger share of the month. Shoppers started earlier, and they stayed active for longer.
This trend reinforces that promotional calendars are no longer anchored to a single weekend. Shoppers warm up earlier, browse longer, and take more time to evaluate before buying.
Bottom-line insight
- Launch holiday discovery experiences earlier (mid-October isn’t premature anymore).
- Keep and relevance models fresh throughout November, not just during peak week.
- Expect higher-intent visitors well before discounts go live.
Black Friday Goes Global — But the U.S. Still Leads
Originally a U.S. phenomenon tied to Thanksgiving, Black Friday is now a global shopping moment. The top participating markets across Coveo retailers were:
- United States
- Germany
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Australia
The U.S. still dominates volume, but Europe’s participation continues to expand, turning the once-regional event into a worldwide ecommerce benchmark.
Post-BFCM Planning
Once the peak weekend has passed, the real opportunity begins. With traffic at its highest and a wave of new shoppers freshly acquired, the weeks following BFCM are all about retention – turning one-time buyers into loyal, high-value customers and driving revenue well into Q1.