Adyen processes record $43bn as Black Friday weekend sets payment benchmark

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:

1. Denmark – 6.11x
2. Spain – 4.47x
3. Iceland – 3.75x
4. Norway – 3.53x
5. Finland – 3.51x
6. Sweden – 3.36x
7. Portugal – 3.33x
8. US – 2.80x
9. Canada – 2.77x
10. 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%.