Disappointing Black Friday 2025 was lost in a sea of sales, say retailers
Saturday, 13 December 2025
It could be the high cost of living eating into household budgets, or it could be that the constant onslaught of sales advertising Black Friday discounts earlier than ever sent shoppers running.
But one thing is evident: this Black Friday was not as lucrative as last year.
One entrepreneur said “Black Friday fatigue” had hit shoppers, and recent figures from Worldline, which processes about 70% of the country’s electronic transactions, could support this.
Core retail spending on Black Friday and through the weekend following was down 4.6% this year, according to Worldline.
On Black Friday itself, November 28, spending was down 6.2% on last year.
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An underlying total of $50.7 million was spent on Black Friday, compared with $54.1m a year earlier, which surpassed this year’s previous spending high of $49.1m on Easter Saturday.
Worldline said Black Friday “was busy but not up on last year”.
The sales event that typically falls on the last Friday of November following American holiday Thanksgiving has often been retailers’ busiest trading day of the year, marking a surge in spending ahead of Christmas.
But could this year’s underwhelming performance spell the end of the Black Friday as we know it, or are weak sales simply a symptom of recessionary behaviour?
Hannah Porter, founder and owner of children’s goods retailer Bear & Moo, says the dynamic of Black Friday has changed in recent years.
When Porter first started doing Black Friday sales five years ago, she said it was a way to give discounts to customers prior to Christmas to help them with their Christmas shopping.
However, sales had become so frequent through the year ‒ often marking every occasion and public holiday in the calendar ‒ and with Black Friday promotional activity getting earlier and earlier, the once compelling Black Friday offer had become diluted.
A tough economy had also made it harder to get shoppers to part with their money.
“Nobody's got any money, and there’s an expectation they need sales [in order to spend]. But also, from a business perspective, everybody’s scrambling to make revenue and therefore they're shooting themselves in the foot profitability wise, trying to one-up every other business on discounts, which then just becomes a race to the bottom,” Porter told The Post.
This year’s Black Friday sales period for Bear & Moo was not as strong as it was in 2024, Porter said. “It was down on last year, and our October was better than our November was.”
The first day of Black Friday sales was typically Bear & Moo’s busiest trading day of the year.
“November wasn't what we expected. I think having a bricks and mortar retail store has been nice, with people being able to come in and see the products, but with online ‒ still our main source of sales ‒ it just didn't hit the mark this year, which was disappointing, but also a sign of the times.”
The level of discounting Bear & Moo offered this year wasn’t different to last, but the duration and type of goods on sale was, Porter said.
“Last year we ran a full two-week Black Friday sale. This year we did 10 different promotions through the month; different brands on sale at different times, plus the full Black Friday weekend as a store-wide sale. We also offered free shipping all month, so people could buy multiple promotions and not pay multiple lots of shipping. We thought we'd made it easy and enticing for people, but it just didn't hit the mark.”
Many retailers across a range of categories say the same.
“2025 felt like it was going to be the comeback year after the last few years, and we all got half-way through it and went, where's the comeback?”
Patrice Green of Wellington-based bed retailer Wellington Beds said Black Friday had become less exciting for consumers, a result of retailers offering too many discounts and for too long a time.
Black Friday sales were also down for Wellington Beds this year.
“The economy hasn't helped, retailers have been desperate for cash flow so there's been stronger discounts, which has caused a little bit of sale fatigue,” she said.
“People are not as impressed by some of the Black Friday deals as they would have been maybe this time last year, with a little bit less competition in the market. I think it has also lost its urgency. Traditionally, the sale was Black Friday. It was the day or the weekend, but what we're noticing each year is that period is getting pushed out, to the point that some of our competitors were running month-long sales,” said Green.
This was problematic, she said, as it forced the likes of her own business to put discounts on stock in order to keep sales coming in.
“We actually did move a weekend earlier than anticipated this year. We were going to do the week, which again, pushes the limits for me, because I'd rather just the weekend, but when just about all of your competitors are already pushing big sales in such a competitive industry, you kind of get left behind those weekends you aren't matching.”
Green still believes Black Friday is important, and is not confident it has run its course.
“I don't know it's got the same ring to it as it had, but it will be interesting to see as we return to a slightly more normal, steady economy, whether people perhaps start hanging out for it again.”
Worldline NZ chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said offers of Black Friday discounts brought out many shoppers, but the spending pattern across the entire weekend was consistent with spending on non-food goods; running below year-ago levels over other weeks of November.
“It appears consumer budgets are still constrained at this end of the year. Clothing merchants experienced higher spending than Black Friday 2024 over the weekend but spending elsewhere was generally down,” said Proffit.
“Across the three groups we are tracking weekly, the pattern over the month continues to show more spending at food & liquor stores but less at hospitality providers and less amongst the general category of core retail.”
Black Friday fatigue
Entrepreneur Kennedy Anderson, founder of Auckland-based Tooth Whitening Company, said November was still a strong month for his brand, but not what he had expected.
While Tooth Whitening Company exceeded last year’s Black Friday sales target, overall customer spending was down, Anderson said.
Consumers appeared to have not been willing to “wait around” for promises of large November sales discounts, and instead sought to buy at a time when an offer was clear and compelling, he said.
Skincare company Ed&I Body hit the exact same revenue target as last year, but in a three-hour sale window. Founder Edna Swart said this showed that short sales windows now drove more engagement among shoppers than a longer offer specific for Black Friday month or week.
“Short, sharp and high-energy” sales were the only reason Ed&I matched last year’s performance in a softer market, she said.
“Black Friday fatigue is real, and my community is more responsive outside the cluttered late-November period.”
Swart said Black Friday generally had become “extremely overwhelming” for both consumers and businesses participating. “This year especially, it felt like many brands were trying to make up for what had already been a tough trading year. As a result, we saw sales launching earlier than ever, some starting at the beginning of November or even before, which diluted the impact of the actual Black Friday moment.
“The sheer volume of promotions has meant that Black Friday cut-through became camouflaged in a sea of competing offers, all battling for the same attention real estate. I don’t think Black Friday itself is losing relevance, it’s still a major sales opportunity, but its success now comes down entirely to execution and the prior work you do leading into the season.”
Hamish Acland, owner of Wānaka-based bike and outdoor apparel company Mons Royale, shared the frustrations over Black Friday sales
As a retailer, he said he felt the pressure to join in the Black Friday sales, and disagreed with the annual discounting.
“I wish there was no Black Friday; it’s driving people to buy things they weren’t needing.”
Unlike many retailers, the Mons Royale sale ran for just four days, which only included end of line and stock from least season.
But Acland said both online and in-store transactions saw more full-priced items sold over the sale period, driving a “strong November and first weeks of December”.
Porter said Black Friday had become over stimulating for consumers with sales advertised earlier than ever, and everywhere you’d look.
“It's diluting what used to be the biggest sales weekend of the year, because now it's confusing consumers. They don't know if this is best deal they're going to get for the month. They can't shop around and make comparisons, and it's become who's the cheapest and who's on sale the longest.”
An academic’s view
Massey University marketing professor Bodo Lang said several factors were behind lower Black Friday sales this year, particularly rising unemployment.
“Unemployment is slightly higher at this time of year compared with last year. That means more people are out of work, and it also suggests others may be working reduced hours. Both of these factors reduce households’ ability to spend,” said Lang.
“[Another] reason sales were not quite as strong this year is that many retailers may have offered lower discounts than last year. This is consistent with retailers signalling that maintaining profitability has become more difficult due to New Zealand shoppers’ high expectations for discounts. To increase profitability, retailers may have chosen not to discount quite as much as last year. That would lower sales.”
Lang said creativity in marketing and advertising was important, and Black Friday “may have lost some of its shine” simply because it is no longer as novel as it was a few years ago.
“It is possible that some Black Friday advertising was not as imaginative as it could have been, failing to attract consumers’ attention and, ultimately, failing to convert that attention into sales.”