Black Friday is coming with booming heat, and if your entire strategy is “Okay, let’s run some paid ads” or “30% off everything!”—it’s hard to tell, but you may struggle to win this Black Friday season with such guessing, emotional, and habitual decisions.
Every year, the game may change A LOT: shopping tendencies shift, customer behavior evolves, and last year’s winning strategy becomes this year’s missed opportunity. So, of course, you need to be the ones who see the new trends coming and move first.
This blog will equip Shopify merchants with the essential Black Friday trends in 2025 (also with the remaining patterns since the 2024 season) and actionable strategies to turn trends into revenue.
BFCM 2024: Trend highlights recap
Before we dive into 2025 predictions and strategies, let’s rewind to 2024 highlights to see what shaped the battlefield:
#1 Early Black Friday fever
If you think Black Friday was just one day, that might be a totally wrong opinion! Now Black Friday stretches to a great shopping sales season, starting from Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday, and even to the week after Cyber Monday.
In fact, Tapcart’s 2024 BFCM report revealed that 6 in 10 shoppers had already started online shopping in October or early November. Another notable insight has shown that 35% of consumers want to start hearing from brands as early as October 29 (a full month before Black Friday).
The term “BFCM” now better represents this entire shopping marathon.
#2 Peak season also begins earlier
According to the report from Global E-Commerce, sales momentum was already heating up in early November, with the real rush kicking off nearly three weeks before the big week itself. Why? Brands stretched their promos across the whole month, and customers happily jumped on the early deals.
For merchants, this means waiting until Black Friday to launch deals is no longer an option: Your audience has already been converted by early movers.
#3 Mobile shopping boom
Shopping with a thumb (phone swiping and browsing 😉📱) did set the trend in 2024. Based on Salesforce’s analysis, mobile devices facilitate 70% of U.S. and worldwide online purchases. More than 80% of both U.S. and global e-commerce traffic originated from a mobile device during Cyber Week.
AI-powered features like personalized recommendations, push notifications, and mobile-optimized checkout made the mobile experience smoother than ever, turning phones into the primary shopping destination.
Simply saying: if your store isn’t mobile-first, you’re already behind.
#4 “Mindful shopping”
Black Friday used to be all about impulse buys and checkout chaos… but not anymore. Statistics from Tapcart shows that in 2024, shoppers brought their calculators and cool heads:
- 44% planned their Black Friday purchases more than a week in advance.
- Last-minute deals? Nope. December was the least likely month for people to start shopping.
- 71% of shoppers budgeted between $100–$500 for BFCM spending.
For merchants, that meant transparent pricing, clear discounts, and well-timed communication matter more than flashy “limited-time” banners.
Black Friday 2025: Trends & Actionable strategies
If 2024 showed us anything, it’s that consumer behavior keeps evolving. Some trends are sticking, while others are fresh on the horizon. Here’s what to watch, and how to respond.
Black Friday trends that remain
Trend #1: Longer shopping period
As said by Steven Bell, Director of Revenue at KnoCommerce:
“BFCM 2024 taught us that the biggest shopping moments aren’t always the peak days anymore.”
Like the trend in previous years, customers aren’t just showing up for the main event; they’re engaging with key retail moments during the shopping season. Two-thirds of shoppers now begin their holiday buying in October or earlier, and about 30% spread purchases across the entire year.
👉 This presents both an opportunity and a threat to merchants: more time to reach customers, but increased competition to retain their attention across a longer shopping period.
💡Strategies to apply to your store
- Raise interest in October, convert through the peak period, and keep it going through December.
- Run small offers (free shipping week or 10% warm-up) to test demand and shopping flow.
- Be different at the peak period (using exclusive bundles/flash hour deals/spin-the-wheel discounts) and keep post-purchase transparency with support/order confirmation/packaging notes.
- Tip: Utilize Shopify Sidekick to monitor real-time store performance and get AI-powered insights on traffic patterns and conversion drops.
Trend #2: Mobile shopping dominance
Almost all shopping activities happen on the phone now. According to Shopify, around 76% of adults purchase using a smartphone in the United States. That accounts for 200 million US mobile shoppers – a huge number to mind.
When it comes to the shopping holiday period, mobile shopping apps were overwhelmingly the top choice for holiday shoppers in 2024, with 81% planning to use them during BFCM (an increase from 68% in 2023 and 2022). This trend is no doubt to continue this year. So, for any businesses (especially small-scale ones), being mobile-first is essential.
💡Strategies to apply to your store
- Get your store website fully optimized for mobile devices regarding factors such as site speed, design, performance, mobile checkout experience…
👉 If you’re running a Shopify store, consider some mobile-friendly themes such as Eurus, Wonder, or Flow.
- Pick the right channel for every promotional/reminder message (SMS, push notifications, WhatsApp…). Don’t forget that message timing and relevance matter more than frequency. Here’s a lil reference for you:
- SMS: Best for time-sensitive offers (flash sales ending in 2 hours), order updates, and back-in-stock alerts
- Push notifications: Use for personalized product drops or abandoned cart reminders
- WhatsApp: Reserve for more conversational, customer service-oriented interactions, especially if you have an international audience
- Utilize AI to:
- Craft mobile email content and SMS messages.
- Reach out when customers are most likely to engage with AI predictive analytics.
- Analyze user behavior to create targeted segments based on activity.
New Black Friday trends
Trend #3: Higher spend per person
When the deals drop, wallets open wider 💸. People are typically spending more in each transaction, and more over the entire shopping period. Despite economic uncertainty, 77% of consumers plan to spend the same or more during the 2025 holiday season compared to last year (following eMarketer).
Tapcart’s BFCM 2025 report shares the same pattern, with the fact that Gen Z (51%) and male shoppers (50%) are among the groups planning to increase spend, as do buyers in high-end segments like luxury goods and jewelry. That means merchants should prioritize premium positioning for these segments.
💡Strategies to apply to your store
- Launch early access campaigns (start in mid-October) that feel exclusive to warm up.
- Set up promotional campaigns better based on the psychology of Black Friday shoppers.
- Lift AOV without feeling pushy by bundling your products smarter.
- Using tiered discounts to reward better carts (“Spend $100, get 10% off; spend $200, get 20% off”).
Trend #4: The need for a shopping website with rich features
The higher the price tag, the higher the expectations. Tapcart 2025 BFCM report indicates that high-value category buyers crave an immersive shopping experience. To be specific, luxury and jewelry buyers are keen on rich features on the shopping platform, like video, recs, and interactive product detail pages.
As Shir Frig from Tolstoy (Tapcart’s partner) also highlights the power of the shoppable video feature in conversion:
“Shoppable video stands out as a proven conversion lever. Video-rich product detail pages (PDPs) can deliver up to +152% lifts in conversion rate (Tolsoy data).”
This proves that high-converting features on the site answer unspoken questions, showcase quality, and build the confidence needed to complete the purchase. In a crowded BFCM marketplace, an immersive shopping experience isn’t just nice to have: it creates a huge difference between browsing and buying.
💡Strategies to apply to your store
- Integrate short video shopping that lasts 15-30s, highlight product details, or show the item in use. You can also use UGC videos to build trust.
- Make your product detail pages interactive with features like zoom-in, customization options, product comparisons, product recommendations…
🤔 Sometimes, the effort of building those features into your store costs a lot of time and money. If you want a faster and more effective route: Pick a feature-rich Shopify theme that already supports these add-ons.
✅Problems solved! What would take a developer up to 6 weeks to build and test, you can activate faster within 2-3 weeks. That also means you can focus your energy on what actually drives sales: creating compelling content, optimizing your offers, and marketing your store.
Trend #5: Buy now, pay later
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is reshaping how people pay. The BNPL option is a type of short-term loan that lets shoppers pay for products in small installments spread over a set period of time.
📈 What do the numbers say?
- Monthly BNPL spending increased almost 21% from $201.60 in June 2024 to $243.90 in June 2025 (Empower Personal Dashboard data).
- The US BNPL market was projected to grow by 20.4% in 2025, reaching approximately $97.3 billion (Coinlaw data).
- BNPL payment options tend to be most popular among Gen Zers and Millennials, and are used more regularly by women when compared to men (Empower data).
These stats prove it: BNPL isn’t a trend anymore—it’s a must-have at checkout if you want to keep up with shopper expectations. If you don’t offer it, you’re literally losing customers at the final step!
💡Strategies to apply to your store
- Offer a range of payment options, including BNPL. Also, integrate multiple BNPL providers such as Shop Pay Installments, Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna—not just one. Why? Simply because offering 2-3 options increases the likelihood that shoppers will find their preferred method.
- Make BNPL visible: Display BNPL messaging prominently on product pages, not just at checkout. For example, show the math clearly: “Or 4 interest-free payments of $37.50 with Afterpay” right under the price, or near the “Add to Cart” button where decision-making happens.
- Highlight trust and transparency to sway shoppers’ hesitation about “hidden fees” away by adding a simple FAQ section that explains how BNPL works, when payments are charged, or what happens if they miss a payment…
Secret weapon: Omni Themes Toolkit for Black Friday 2025
To truly crush it this BFCM, discount is just a part of the story. Think of your Shopify store as an army going into battle. The deals are your ammo, but you need more – a weapon. Omni Themes has got your back, supporting you with the free ebook: The Ultimate Checklist for Building a Shopify Store BFCM 2025.
Here’s the sneak peek of the book 👀:
Chapter 1: Planning: Checklist to define goals, forecast demands, inventory, and compliance check.
Chapter 2: Setting up a Shopify store: The must-do setup moves that make your store look legit and convert visitors.
Chapter 3: Marketing strategies: Practical campaign ideas that actually drive traffic and spark urgency.
Chapter 4: Optimize conversion & retention: Smart tweaks to lift AOV and turn first-timers into repeat buyers.
Chapter 5: Ready for D-Day: Last-minute final checklist.
Last words
BFCM 2025 will reward merchants who start early, catch the right insights, and invest effort wisely. With Omni Themes on your team, you’re not alone in this battle.
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