Strategy

Black Friday 2025: 6 Ways Retailers Need to Adapt

The best teams are starting to live The Calm Advantage, treating peak as a system they design, not a storm they react to, but many are still operating in the spirit of our original 11 tips for eCommerce success: Black Friday 2021.

This Black Friday 2025 guide isn’t a contradiction of that thinking; it’s the secondary route: six ways to adapt inside the reality you’re in, while you’re still building towards the calmer version of peak.

Black Friday isn’t a weekend spike anymore; it behaves like a long buying season shaped by earlier discovery, higher expectations, and customers who only commit when they feel confident. Around 42% start their holiday shopping before November, which changes how retailers need to plan campaigns, nurture demand, and run fulfilment – if you’re still planning for one noisy weekend, you’re already behind.

Here are six shifts to focus on for Black Friday 2025.

1. Be ready when intent actually peaks

Customers act long before Black Friday officially begins. They respond to relevant offers surfaced through personalisation, retargeting, and email – and increasingly buy when algorithms surface products they already care about rather than when your “official” sale starts.

Early-season moments such as Halloween and late-October promotions now attract first-time buyers who stay active into peak. Within the week itself, patterns are shifting too – for example, the Wednesday before Black Friday has become one of the highest-converting days, while Cyber Monday is driving some of the strongest basket values, with averages around £130.

The job isn’t just to be “live” for Black Friday. It’s to be visible at every point where intent spikes – and to remove the friction that stops people converting. Watch:

• Where stock levels break trust
• Where delivery promises look weak or vague
• Where on-site search and navigation slow people down
• Where checkout performance and form design create drop-off

Track these issues through the season and fix them early in the new year. That’s how you compound performance rather than starting from scratch every autumn.

2. Follow where customer intent now begins

Black Friday intent now begins long before a shopper lands on your homepage. TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and live shopping formats shape which products people notice, trust, and search for – and which brands they’re even willing to consider.

On top of that, hyper-targeted banners, email journeys, and dynamic on-site content keep nudging people back to items they’ve viewed before, wishlisted, or added to basket.

Retailers that win here do two things:

• Treat social and creator activity as demand signals, not just “brand noise”
• Combine these signals with first-party data so they know which audiences, products, and messages are actually driving revenue

When social, CRM, and on-site data talk to each other, the season becomes more predictable. It’s easier to forecast, easier to plan stock, and easier to keep the right customers coming back after peak.

3. Availability still beats price – but the brief has expanded

Price still matters, but it rarely wins the decision on its own. Customers want certainty first: when something will arrive, how it will be delivered, and whether the options fit their life.

Recent patterns underline that:

• Around 51% of UK online orders include free shipping
• Top carriers include Evri, DPD UK, Hermes, Royal Mail, and UPS
• Parcel locker deliveries have grown by roughly 147% year on year in early 2024

At the same time, discount depth still changes behaviour. In one data set, 80% discounts converted at about 78%, compared with around 60% for 10% discounts. That doesn’t mean you should race to the bottom on price – it means promotions need a clear story, strong stock position, and delivery promises that feel safe.

Cut through by linking value, availability, and experience:

• Be explicit about stock levels on key products
• Show realistic delivery windows and cut-offs per option
• Use free or reduced shipping tactically on high-intent products, not across everything

When customers feel confident they’ll get what they paid for, price stops being the only lever.

4. Be clear and honest with customers

Shoppers pay close attention to how you communicate under pressure. Over-optimistic delivery promises, vague returns language, or hedged messaging about stock does more damage than a slower but honest timeframe.

Three simple principles perform better than any clever campaign line:

• Say what’s in stock – and what isn’t
• Say when it will arrive – and keep that promise
• Say how returns work – in one or two short lines, not a wall of text

Accuracy beats optimism during peak. If your operations team says next-day shipping isn’t realistic beyond a certain cut-off, your website needs to reflect that, not fight it.

This is also where service teams and on-site messaging need to line up. If support, email, and the website tell different stories, customers will believe the worst – and they won’t be back in January.

5. Offer delivery choices that fit real life

Delivery expectations have widened. Customers want a mix of options that actually fit their routines – lockers, parcel shops, click and collect, and standard home delivery. Locker usage alone has grown by around 147% in early 2024, which shows how quickly behaviour can shift when options are convenient and trusted.

Choice on its own isn’t enough, though. Choice only works when the information behind it is clear. Around 63% of shoppers have abandoned a checkout because delivery details were unclear, and almost a quarter left during Black Friday when pages loaded slowly or didn’t spell out what would happen next.

Practical moves here:

• Show delivery options, pricing, and timings as early as possible – ideally on product pages
• Make cut-off times obvious, not hidden in FAQs
• Keep delivery messaging consistent across PDPs, basket, and checkout
• Invest in performance – slow pages cost more revenue during peak than they do in a typical week

Customers decide in seconds. Clear delivery information and low-friction options work together to keep them moving.

6. Offer flexible payment options and strip checkout friction

The easiest revenue to lose during Black Friday is in the last few steps of the checkout. The good news is that improvements here continue to pay off long after peak.

Promotional periods are also a strong acquisition moment – around 71% of shoppers return to retailers they first discovered during promotions. If the first experience is fast, clear, and feels safe, you’re building a customer, not just booking a one-off sale.

Payment flexibility now plays a visible role in that decision. Around 62% of shoppers say flexible options influence whether they complete a purchase, and streamlined payment flows have been shown to increase conversions by up to 10%.

Focus on:

• A small set of trusted payment methods – cards, wallets, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options that match your audience
• Fewer fields, fewer steps, and clear error messages
• Strong security cues (copy and design) without adding friction

Every second added to the checkout is a trade-off. Make sure it’s doing real work.

Black Friday 2021 vs Black Friday 2025: what the data confirms

JH – The Breakthrough Agency.

Black Friday is no longer a single bet – it’s the most visible stress test of how well your whole operation holds under pressure. Retailers who treat 2025 as a long season, not a long weekend, will see the benefit. The ones who win will be those who prepare early, stay calm through demand spikes, and give customers simple reasons to come back once the banners come down.

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