December 03, 2025
Black (Bleak?) Friday Fails to Shine! The Sad Truth and A Few High Points
The term Black Friday has a long and depressing history. And recent highly-repetitive sales efforts, plus overloading the concept have helped eradicate consumers’ sense of value or seasonal cheer. While some brands have made positive changes, digging for good news is tough.
Sure, consumers can save a small amount on that one thing they’ve waited a long time for. Or splurge and feel they are making big savings, as long as they don’t look too closely.
But recent days have seen the CXM inbox (and online news) split firmly into two camps. How Black Friday went (largely) without a technical hitch, with more relief than joy. And a growing sense that the event is years past its sell-by date.
One means retailers have sorted their online stores and checkouts, improved discoverability, and aligned their messaging. But did their customers really feel any joy from the event?
The Dark Spiral of Black Friday
Black Friday continues to be less a celebration and more a morass of sad retail experiences. Consumers see:
- Online media pushing endless tech and luxury products as “pocket change” buys for £/€/$100s or $1,000s, all hoping for their affiliate cut.
- In-store shoppers seeing the old sticker price under the same “sale price” on top, knowing retailers aren’t playing fair.
- The ruse of price dump-and-pumping is increasingly well known, seeing prices rocket before the sales.
- And anyone who remembers the “spirit” of true Black Friday in-store loss-leader deals knows they are long since dead.
These and other factors leave little to celebrate for consumers while retailers might see a modest rise in sales.
That sense of feeling gets worse when we see growing numbers of scams reported, with Riskified noting, “During Black Friday, a coordinated fraud attempt was observed targeting high-value products such as iPhones, AirPods, Nintendo devices, and Gimbal Cameras.”
“The activity involved account takeovers (ATOs), high-amount PayPal orders, and orders sent to store pickups. Some orders had suspicious indicators, including mismatched billing and shipping addresses, unusual IP connections, and shipping IDs linked to China.” Which adds another level of depression to the whole charade.
Deeper Into the Grey Friday Stats
According to Talon One data, Retailers began launching Black Friday promotions a week earlier than the 2024 average, on the 16th of November. Black Friday can now drag on over a couple of weeks, swamping what was once Cyber Monday and butting into the pre-Christmas sales.
Philippe Deblois, VP Solutions Engineering at Dynatrace notes that “Black Friday has evolved from a single day of deals to an extended shopping season. Retailers now rely on seamless digital experiences and robust AI, data, and cloud systems to manage increased website traffic and capitalize on revenue opportunities.”
“However, as these technical ecosystems become more complex, ensuring visibility, resilience, and operational readiness is challenging and only 22% of global sites are optimized for mobile users.”
Then there are accessibility barriers that can prevent consumers from checking out, with Accessiway reporting 76% of shoppers with disabilities, and 57% of all UK shoppers, report that accessibility barriers would prevent them from shopping online during peak sales.
Add to that, the marketing and messaging fatigue felt by consumers, with Optimove reporting that 56% of surveyed consumers for their latest report say marketing fatigue is caused by irrelevance. Noting, email overload drives marketing fatigue.
Looking on the Less-Gray Side of Black Friday
In the US, overall sales were reported as up 4.1%, hitting $11.8 billion on Black Friday, even as discounts remained flat, and actual sales volume dropped slightly.
In the UK, the British Retail Consortium reported that Black Friday early deals helped keep price rises down, “Shop price inflation decreased to 0.6% year on year in November, against growth of 1.0% in October. This is below the 3-month average of 1.0%.” But had very little cheery news.
And depending on who you believe, AI-driven sales rose from 300% to 800%, although likely off a far lower user base last year, with Amazon highlighting how Rufus and Amazon Lens can help shoppers.
With some suggesting skipping the whole Black Friday season is better for mental and financial health, we’d be delighted to hear of any personal or business success stories, but for now few are talking up their results.
