Black Friday and Cyber Monday began as U.S. retail experiments. In 2025, they’re a global season – a rolling wave of discounts, livestreams, abandoned carts, and record-breaking checkouts stretching from Lagos to London, Nairobi to New York.
This year’s numbers confirm two things:
- Globally, online holiday shopping is still booming.
- Africa is no longer a spectator – it’s one of the most dynamic frontiers of Black Friday growth.
Global Picture: Records, But More “Strategic” Spending
Adobe Analytics reports that U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday 2025, up 9.1% from 2024. Cyber Monday was even bigger: $14.25 billion in U.S. online sales, bringing total U.S. Cyber Week (Thanksgiving–Cyber Monday) spend to $44.2 billion, up 7.7% year-on-year.
Zooming out, Salesforce estimates global Cyber Monday online sales at about $53 billion, roughly 7% growth, while Black Friday generated around $79 billion in global sales.
Yet behind these big numbers, customer behaviour is changing:
- Fewer items, higher value. Average selling prices rose while order volumes were flat or slightly down – people bought better, not more.Newsweek
- “Buy Now, Pay Later” goes mainstream. BNPL spending across November hit about $10.1 billion in the U.S., with $1.03 billion on Cyber Monday alone, as shoppers used instalments to manage tight budgets.The Washington Post
In short: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer wild impulse-buy events. They’re increasingly planned and data-driven.
Across Africa, the story is more than just big TVs and gadgets. For many households, Black Friday has become a budget strategy, not a splurge.
- From One Day to “Black November”
Payment data from PayU and other providers shows that extending promotions from a single day to a full “Black Friday week” (or even month) led to dramatic gains. In 2024, ecommerce sales across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa surged by about 83% versus the average 2023 daily spend, as merchants stretched deals from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.
This playbook has now stuck: 2025 campaigns, especially on Jumia, Takealot and local Kenyan/Nigerian platforms, are running all November, with flash sales, daily drops and mega-weekends instead of one 24-hour stampede.
- South Africa: Online Overtakes the Mall
South Africa is now one of the continent’s clearest Black Friday barometers:
- Capitec data shows the Black Friday 2025 weekend generated about 55 million transactions worth R25.3 billion, making it the biggest spend weekend of the year. Black Friday spend was 15% higher in value and 8.8% higher in volume than the January payday weekend.
- Groceries and household staples were among the top categories, with about R3 billion spent on groceries aloneover the weekend.
- Payment processors such as Peach Payments reported more than 2.69 million online transactions worth R1.86 billion over the four-day Black Friday–Cyber Monday stretch, with some platforms seeing 80–90% growth in online volumes and value.
The message is clear: South Africans increasingly use Black Friday to buy essentials online, not just luxuries in-store.
- Nigeria & the Jumia Effect
Nigeria’s ecommerce growth is tightly linked to Black Friday campaigns:
- Jumia’s 2024 month-long Black Friday generated 2.6 million orders, up 18% from 2023, with discounts of 20–70% across phones, fashion and lifestyle.
- DHL’s 2025 report indicates that Nigerian shoppers make over 63% more purchases during Black Fridaycompared with normal periods – one of the highest uplifts on the continent.
- By turning Black Friday into a nationwide online festival, Jumia has helped push ecommerce adoption beyond major cities into smaller towns and peri-urban areas.
- Kenya & East Africa: Mobile-First, Cyber Monday Included
In Kenya, payments data from PayU and others show that by stretching deals into “Black Friday week”, ecommerce sales across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa combined rose 83%, with an 11% increase in average basket size and 13% rise in transaction value.
For Kenyan shoppers this is heavily mobile-led: most discovery and checkout happens on smartphones, with M-Pesa and card-not-present payments driving the surge.
Cyber Monday is now effectively just Day 4 of Black Friday – the same deals, but often with extra pushes on electronics, travel and digital services.
- Africa’s Ecommerce Base Is Getting Bigger
All this is happening on top of substantial structural growth. Jumia estimates that Africa’s ecommerce revenue is on track to exceed $40 billion in 2025.
That means Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer just imported marketing concepts – they’re critical test days for Africa’s digital infrastructure, payments systems, logistics and customer trust.
The Winning Formula: What Successful Brands Are Doing
Across both global and African markets, high performers share a few habits:
- Value + Essentials, Not Just Gadgets
African retailers are shifting Black Friday discounts from only electronics to staples like sugar, rice, nappies, school supplies and everyday fashion – helping families stretch budgets into January. - Omnichannel and Mobile-First
The strongest results come from retailers who blend mobile apps, web, social commerce, strong customer care and physical stores – letting customers browse on their phones, pay digitally, and choose home delivery or store pickup. - Long Campaigns, Not One-Day Chaos
“Black November” – week- or month-long campaigns – spreads out demand, prevents website crashes and gives brands time to tell stories, not just shout prices. - Trust, Security & Clear Communication
With fraud attempts spiking around Black Friday globally and in Africa, retailers that invest in secure payment flows, transparent pricing and honest discounts are the ones building long-term loyalty.
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