Welcome to the second version of our annual Black Friday Cyber Monday Tendencies Report. Like final yr, we performed a complete survey in July 2025 to grasp methods, challenges, and expectations for the upcoming peak season throughout retailers and businesses.
The findings take a look at how companies are planning to capitalize on the season and what new techniques they intend to implement. This submit is a recap of our report findings, and you may take a look at our upcoming methods information to prepare to your finest BFCM but.
In 2025, the give attention to web site efficiency and optimization greater than doubled, indicating a give attention to buyer expertise and decreasing friction to extend the underside line. In 2024, solely 13% of survey respondents selected web site optimization as their high precedence — a quantity that jumped to 33.4% this yr.
Retailers’ promotional methods are additionally altering. In 2024, new merchandise, particular reductions, and focused advertising methods have been on the high of the listing. However in 2025 the main focus is on subscriptions and product bundles, with many shops providing tiered reductions (purchase extra, save extra) and new subscription fashions for extra accessible gifting.
This yr, 42% of retailers are shaking up their method to BFCM. They’re pondering exterior the field, and plan to:
- Introduce or replace a subscription service (30%): A number of retailers famous new subscription plans, new memberships, and up to date choices for his or her current subscribers.
- Strive new promotional methods (25%): Many new promo methods are on the horizon for our retailers this yr, together with new and sale-specific product bundles, earlier gross sales, strategic electronic mail list-building, having an even bigger social presence, and model partnerships.
- Replace their infrastructure (12%): Others famous launching an up to date web site earlier than the busy interval — a giant venture, however one that can seemingly pay dividends. Internet hosting upgrades have been one other common selection.
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These methods sign a broader effort to enhance the shopper expertise, and the presents that deliver them in. To make these selections, companies are taking historic gross sales knowledge (29.8%), their advertising budgets (22.4%), and trade tendencies (19.4%) under consideration.
Bigger companies begin their planning earlier
Of the retailers who expertise a seasonal elevate throughout the vacation season, 36.4% plan one to 4 weeks forward, and 30.9% plan one to a few months forward. The remaining shops are break up between no preparation in any respect (20.6%) and greater than three months of preparation (12.1%).Â
These numbers shift as companies develop bigger: Of shops making greater than 1,000,000 in annual income, 37.5% begin their vacation planning one to a few months upfront, and one other 25% begin planning greater than three months forward.
Companies beneath 1,000,000 in annual income sometimes take much less time within the leadup. Of these shops, 22.2% put together one to a few months out, and solely 7.9% put together greater than three months forward of BFCM.
As I’ve seen from my very own vacation receipts, Black Friday Cyber Monday is a big income driver for ecommerce companies. In 2024, Black Friday alone generated $10.8B in income, up from $9.8B in 2023. Cyber Monday noticed the same enhance as customers spent $13.3B in ‘24 — up from $12.4B in ‘23.
Total, the vacation season (from November 1 to December 31) generated $241.4B in 2024, almost $20B greater than in 2023.
The height season is usually a make-or-break time, however that is shifting for a lot of retailers. Final yr, 66% of shops noticed a spike in gross sales from October to December, 9 factors greater than this yr’s 57%. This might point out that companies are ramping up promotional efforts all year long to cut back reliance on BFCM.Â
That stated, the vacation season nonetheless represents a significant bump in lots of retailers’ income schedules, with 73% of retailers reporting that this era accounts for over 20% of their annual income. That is according to the 72% of retailers who reported the identical in 2024.
Of that group, 28% reported that BFCM and the vacations account for 30 to 50% of annual income, and eight% of retailers attribute over 50% of income to the height season.
In 2025, 33.4% of retailers stated that web site efficiency optimization was their high preparation technique for the vacation peak season. An extra 7.5% will improve internet hosting, which can even enhance web site efficiency.
After efficiency optimization, growing stock was the second hottest precedence, with 32.6% of retailers rating it as first on the listing.
Companies additionally goal to maintain the shopper expertise streamlined with categorical checkout and purchase now, pay later (BNPL) choices. Almost half (49.8%) of respondents throughout the board provide categorical checkout, however companies over $1M in annual income have been three to 4 instances extra prone to provide BNPL than these beneath 1,000,000.
Advertising and gross sales methods: What’s the transfer?
Like final yr, this yr’s survey discovered that electronic mail advertising (23%) and natural social (21.1%) have been the simplest advertising channels throughout the vacation season.
Promotional methods different throughout the board, however product bundles and buy-more-save-more presents have been the preferred choices:
| Major promotional technique | Share of respondents |
| Product bundles or buy-more-save-more presents | 27.4% |
| Tiered reductions (e.g., spend $100, get 10% off) | 18.2% |
| Dynamic reductions (based mostly on cart, time, or habits) | 16.1% |
| Free presents or add-ons | 14.7% |
| Not one of the above | 13.9% |
| Particular checkout/cost choices (e.g., early entry, BNPL) | 6.3% |
| Different | 3.4% |
As we gear up for the busiest purchasing season of the yr, the message from our survey is evident: WooCommerce retailers are able to rock BFCM by refining their methods, investing in stock and web site efficiency, and leveraging key advertising channels.
And don’t overlook to deal with your self this vacation season, too. What are you shopping for this BFCM? I’m available in the market for a brand new hockey stick and skates (very Canadian of me, I do know), and am nice at making sauna suggestions for those who want one.
*Report info is predicated on 249 survey responses obtained by way of WooCommerce electronic mail outreach, accomplished in July 2025.
Tamara Niesen is the Chief Advertising Officer at Woo. With over 20 years of expertise in high-growth B2B SaaS, machine, and platform corporations, Tamara has led groups centered on model, go-to-market, demand era, product advertising, accomplice advertising, built-in lifecycle advertising, and efficiency advertising.
She beforehand led International Demand Era and Go-to-Market at Shopify, driving income progress and market growth for Shopify Plus. She has additionally held advertising management roles at Housecall Professional, D2L, and BlackBerry. Tamara resides in Waterloo, Ontario.
