Strong Cyber Five sales bodes well for the holiday season

The insight: Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Target were among the big winners during this year’s Cyber Five sales.

• Amazon’s extended Black Friday and Cyber Monday event was its biggest ever, with record sales and items sold.
• TikTok Shop generated more than $100 million in sales on Black Friday, driven by over 30,000 livestreams from creators and sellers.
• Target’s Black Friday store traffic spiked 16.8% YoY, per Placer.ai, helped by its status as the exclusive retailer for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour book and for the CD and vinyl editions of “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”

The trends: Steep—and plentiful—discounts drove a healthy increase in Cyber Five spending this year.

Adobe’s final tally put online sales during the period at $41.1 billion, up 8.2% YoY (just a hair short of our forecast for $41.43 billion). Salesforce said online sales grew 7% YoY to $76 billion.

• About 197 million shoppers took part in the sales event, not far off last year’s record 200.4 million and exceeding the NRF’s expected 183.4 million participants.
• Cyber Monday in particular “was a day for splurge purchases,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce director for consumer insights, with considerable growth in the luxury handbag and apparel categories.
• Electronics, toys, appliances, and beauty were also top performers—in part because some shoppers (and retailers) saw an opportunity to get ahead of tariffs that will likely drive up prices in the coming year.

Brick-and-mortar loses out: While shoppers were happy to spend online, retailers had a tougher time convincing them to shell out on in-store purchases. Visits to stores and retail centers from November 24 to December 1 were down 2.3% YoY, per Sensormatic Solutions.

However, there were some notable exceptions:

• Apple’s, HomeGoods’, and Marshalls’ Black Friday foot traffic surged 31.1%, 17.3%, and 11.1%, respectively, per Placer.ai.
• Malls also reported robust visits throughout the weekend: Premium mall operator Simon said traffic at its centers rose 5.9% YoY on Black Friday, 6.3% YoY on Saturday, and 8.2% on Sunday, resulting in double-digit sales increases for popular brands.
• In-store transactions involving Block’s payment brands—Square, Afterpay, and Cash App—increased 17% YoY during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, although the company noted that online cart sizes were twice as large as those in physical stores.

Our take: The Cyber Five’s success is good news for retailers as they enter the home stretch.

At the same time, shoppers’ clear enthusiasm for deals—and their willingness to hold off on spending until they feel the price is right—could create difficulties in 2025, particularly if tariffs drive costs up and reduce buying power.

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