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- Contactless is the Standard: The share of contactless in-store POS transactions rose from 81% last year to 85% this year
- Shopper behavior varies globally, with online peaks ranging 12 p.m. on Black Friday in the US to 8 p.m. on Sunday in France
- At peak demand, Adyen seamlessly processed 199,000 transactions per minute
NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — This year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) proved to be another record-breaking holiday shopping weekend, where consumer traffic and demand spiked, and the Adyen platform delivered, processing a total volume of $43 billion across the BFCM weekend (up 27% vs. last year), while maintaining an exceptional 99.9999% uptime. Transactions per minute on the Adyen platform reached a peak of 199,000 on Black Friday. Additional insights from this year’s BFCM are available on Adyen’s BFCM Unboxed Insights page.
How People Are Paying
Consumer habits have permanently changed, and flexibility at checkout is no longer a luxury—it’s essential: 54% of consumers globally will leave a store or abandon an online checkout if they cannot pay using their preferred method. This BFCM, the data revealed some clear trends:
- Mobile Wallets Soar: Digital wallets are establishing themselves as a key payment method at the Point-Of-Sale (POS). During this year’s Black Friday, the share of POS revenue paid with digital wallets reached 33%, up from 21% last year, and this momentum is expected to accelerate.
- Contactless Continuing as the Undisputed Norm: Contactless payments continue to gain ground worldwide. During last year’s Black Friday, 81% of in-store POS transactions were contactless, rising to 85% this year, further cementing contactless as the standard.
- Local Payment Methods Remain Highly Relevant: Their share is stable at 14-15% year-on-year across channels, underscoring the necessity for merchants to implement fitting regional options like Carte Bancaire, iDeal, and PayPal.
- Shoppers Continued to Embrace Flexible Payment Options During the Peak Period: The volume of online payments made via Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) on Black Friday rose 43% compared to the previous month and matched last year’s Black Friday levels, underscoring consumers’ preference for flexible financing during major spending events.
The Value of In-Store Purchases
Physical retail continues to hold a key advantage for high-value purchases during holiday sales. In 2025, the average basket size (ATV) from in-store Black Friday purchases was 28% higher than online. Overall, the ATV in Retail increased by 22% on Black Friday 2025 in comparison to a typical Friday.
From the US to Everywhere: The Global Embrace of Black Friday
While Black Friday originated in the US, it has grown in significance across other markets as well. This year, we tracked significant transaction volume uplifts compared to typical Fridays across key international markets:
- Denmark – 6.11x
- Spain – 4.47x
- Iceland – 3.75x
- Norway – 3.53x
- Finland – 3.51x
- Sweden – 3.36x
- Portugal – 3.33x
- US – 2.80x
- Canada – 2.77x
- Brazil – 2.75x
Pinpointing Peak Hours
Peak online shopping hours during the BFCM weekend vary globally, though most markets hit their local peak on Black Friday:
- US: Black Friday, 12 p.m.
- Sweden: Black Friday, 5 p.m.
- Poland, UK & Australia: Black Friday, 6 p.m.
- Netherlands & Italy: Black Friday, 7 p.m.
- Germany: Black Friday, 9 p.m.
- France: Sunday, 8.p.m.
Across most markets, the peak hour for in-store shopping falls on Saturday: 12 p.m. in Australia, 1 p.m. in Sweden and Poland, 2 p.m. in Germany, Canada, and the UK, 4 p.m. in France, and 5 p.m. in Italy. The only exception is the US, where the peak occurred on Black Friday at 1 p.m. Overall, peak in-store shopping times showed virtually no year-on-year change.
Shoppers buy more on Black Friday—but they also return more
While the average refund rate for online retail purchases across the whole past year was 8.33%, online retail purchases made during Black Friday last year saw a significantly higher refund rate of 11.32%.
About Adyen
Adyen (ADYEN:AMS) is the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies. By providing end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution, Adyen helps businesses achieve their ambitions faster. With offices around the world, Adyen works with the likes of Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.
About the Data Analysis
The analysis underlying this article compares received and authorized transaction counts, total transaction volumes, and average transaction values (ATV, equivalent to cart value) processed via the Adyen platform globally between BFCM 2024 (Thursday, November 28, 2024, 12 p.m. CET to Saturday, November 30, 2024, 9 a.m. CET) and BFCM 2025 (Thursday, November 27, 2025, 12 p.m. CET to Saturday, November 29, 2025, 9 a.m. CET), unless stated otherwise. "Black Friday" refers to the period from Thursday at 12 p.m. to Saturday at 9 a.m. CET. For market-level transaction volumes, the same time span is applied in local time. References to "the month before" are based on the average for September 17–October 14, 2025. References to a "typical Friday" use the average of the five Fridays preceding Black Friday 2025. The analysis includes breakdowns by payment method, sales channel, market, and hourly performance. References to sub-industries correspond to the respective merchant verticals. All figures represent only volumes processed through the Adyen platform.
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