Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have evolved into a weeks-long shopping event, with deals appearing as early as the end of October. BFCM, technically covering Thanksgiving to the Monday after, remains one of the highest-volume shopping "holidays" of the year. Discounts and deals are at the heart of this holiday shopping frenzy.
Every year, we actively help clients offering Wildfire-powered cashback rewards programs to maximize their results over this critical holiday period. We deliver advice to help them market their programs and guide their end-user customers to the best discounts, deals, and richest cashback rewards.
To help prepare for the upcoming 2025 holiday shopping season, we've gathered key insights and strategies from our latest data and strategy review.
The shopping landscape for BFCM continues to shift, with online channels dominating. Most shoppers prefer online channels such as mobile, apps, and email for speed and deal access.
Wildfire data from November 2024 showed sharp spikes in gross sales compared to the daily average before the BFCM weekend: on Black Friday (an increase of 186.5%) and Cyber Monday (an increase of 138.8%).
Shoppers are active throughout November, browsing and adding items to carts, but purchases surge specifically during BFCM as they jump on the best deals. We anticipate seeing this same behavior as we approach BFCM 2025. In 2024, there was significant year-over-year growth, with Black Friday up 78.10% and Cyber Monday up 51.98% vs. 2023.
Understanding the modern BFCM shopper is crucial for a successful campaign.
BFCM shoppers are almost evenly split between men and women, with a high-spending demographic aged 35-44 who deliberately wait for BFCM to secure the best deals.
These shoppers are looking for ways to save and plan their purchases early.
AI is transforming BFCM engagement in 2025. Shoppers are increasingly relying on AI to guide, compare, and decide on purchases more quickly.
To capture the AI-empowered shopper, it is essential that your customers have their cashback browser extension installed early, so that it can surface cashback opportunities when shoppers are ready to buy.
For 2025, 64% of Black Friday shoppers expect better deals online. This emphasizes the importance of showcasing online advantages and cashback stacking. Shoppers are actively hunting for deals, with about 13% using Google to find BFCM offers.
Wildfire's data indicates 2x more cashback offer activations from search during this critical period. So driving early browser extension installs is key to ensuring visibility the moment shoppers begin searching and browsing for deals.
Shoppers also expect perks that stack value, such as cashback, loyalty rewards, free shipping, and easy returns.
Top product categories for 2025
Based on Wildfire's merchant data, the top categories to focus on in 2025, and some examples of merchants in each, include:
These categories are consistently popular, and rewards program marketers should tailor offers to products, categories, or merchants that users are personally interested in.
NEW: We also recommend considering three new categories that are gaining traction this year in our data:
BFCM sees shoppers spending over $38 billion online. This is a peak moment to capture attention, and best-in-class campaigns often run marketing impressions at 3-4x higher than the rest of the year, based on our own observations and competitive campaign monitoring.
Successful BFCM campaigns should be planned early, launched early, and with repeated messages to stay top-of-mind and maximize cashback program engagement. Campaigns should roll out in phases, beginning as early as October to seed awareness, peaking during November's deal frenzy, and extending through December for last-minute shoppers.
Here’s an example of a phased campaign structure for BFCM 2025:
To truly stand out and optimize your strategy this BFCM, remember these key points:
We hope these insights and strategies help you maximize the impact of your cashback rewards program and deliver unparalleled value to your customers this holiday season.