Black Friday retail sales soared this week with billions of dollars spent despite a jittery economy, prompting President Donald Trump to celebrate the “Trump Bump.”
Savvy shoppers in the U.S. spent a record $11.8 billion online on the year’s biggest shopping day, jumping up 9.1 percent from 2024, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks e-commerce sales.
U.S. shoppers also spent more in the days leading up to Black Friday, with a record-setting $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving, up from $6.1 billion in 2024.
Top areas that saw an uptick in sales include video games and consoles, electronics and toys, including Labubu Dolls, LEGO sets, and Fisher-Price Little People, according to Adobe.
The holiday shopping season comes this year amid economic uncertainty for Americans, many of whom have tightened their budgets amid soaring prices and high unemployment rates.
Even as many tighten their wallets, Adobe predicts customers will spend $5.4 billion on Saturday and $5.9 billion on Sunday, as discounts remain elevated.
Cyber Monday is expected to be this holiday season’s biggest shopping day once again, according to Adobe. The data firm expects U.S. shoppers to spend $14.2 billion, up 6.3 percent from last year.
Retail sales, excluding autos, increased 4.1 percent the day after Thanksgiving, according to data from Mastercard Spending Pulse.
In-store sales rose 1.7 percent above last year’s pace, whereas online sales rose 10.4 percent below last year’s gain, according to Bloomberg.
“It clearly shows that the consumer has the ability to spend,” Michelle Meyer, the chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute, told Bloomberg.
Artificial intelligence-powered shopping tools helped drive the surge, with AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites soaring 805% year over year, according to Adobe.
"Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster," said Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer, according to Reuters. "Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided."
This year’s Black Friday and surrounding sales came as companies continue to navigate an uncertain economic environment, worsened by the volatility of Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imported goods.
Following this year’s Black Friday sales, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to share a news article with the headline “Trump Bump: Black Friday spending soars as 2025 poised to be first quarter trillion dollar season.”
The phrase “Trump Bump” originated after Trump was elected, when Americans saw a sudden rise in stock market share value or revenue as a result of his taking office.
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