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Perhaps the executives at major payments processors are the only people who like seasonal holidays more than consumers do. That became even clearer early Wednesday when Adyen NV announced record results from the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday shopping bonanza.
The Amsterdam-based processor, which measured results in the U.S. and nine other markets—yes, the annual weekend shopping extravaganza is observed in countries other than the U.S.—enjoyed a new high in volume at $43 billion across the four days, a 27% rise over last year. Black Friday yielded the peak in transactions per minute, at 199,000, the company said.
Payment methods mattered. On Black Friday, digital wallets accounted for one-third of point-of-sale dollar volume, a sizable jump from 21% a year ago. “This momentum is expected to accelerate,” Adyen noted in its statistical release. Contactless technology accounted for 85% of POS transactions that Friday, up from 81% last year.
Online, buy now, pay later transactions on Black Friday equaled the number recorded in 2024, according to Adyen. But the average ticket in-store was 28% higher than online.
Overall, Black Friday is turning into a key shopping extravaganza across markets, even though it started in the U.S. In fact, the U.S. ranks only eighth among the top 10 markets, measured by a multiple of typical shopping volume on a Friday. Denmark ranked first, at a multiple of 6.11.
The holiday’s downside, though, is the tendency among consumers to return goods bought online. That return-rate figure isn’t in yet for 2025, but last year it was 11.32% for Black Friday purchases, according to Adyen’s numbers. For all of 2024, the rate was 8.33%.
