The Cyber 5 online sales records set in 2025 did not happen by accident for ecommerce holiday shopping. In an unpredictable year, defined by economic uncertainty, tariffs and a wave of new artificial intelligence (AI) tools for retailers and shoppers alike, online merchants prepared ahead of time to make the most out of Thanksgiving and the four days that follow.
The full five-day period brought in $44.2 billion in sales, and Cyber Monday alone set a new single-day record for online sales in the U.S. So far, the Cyber 5’s 7.7% year-over-year growth appears to be in line with Deloitte’s ecommerce holiday prediction that growth would range from 7% to 9%.
Holiday shopping forecasts also called for AI, including agentic commerce, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) apps to see more use in 2025. As of the first week of December, those expectations appear to be warranted. However, online shopping behavior changed in other key ways as well. Here are five examples.
1. Holiday shoppers arrived on ecommerce sites more often using AI tools and agents
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity all debuted new shopping features in their generative AI and agentic commerce experiences ahead of the holidays. Meanwhile, Salesforce agents rolled out for shoppers on retailer websites built with its Agentforce Commerce platform. And two of the largest Mass Merchants in North America made significant moves, as Walmart partnered with OpenAI and Target announced its own new app in ChatGPT.
Shoppers seemed to warm up to these AI options in larger numbers than they did in 2024. In fact, Cyber Monday web traffic from AI sources to U.S. retail websites was up by 670% year over year, according to Adobe Analytics data. The same data showed that AI traffic to those sites was up by 760% year over year from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1.
2. Shoppers paid more for their purchases
Increased spending over the Cyber 5 appeared to accompany higher prices in checkout carts in 2025. Both in the U.S. and globally, Salesforce reported that it saw its average selling price metric increase 6% year over year on Cyber Monday.
In the meantime, Adobe reported that shoppers were gravitating toward more expensive purchases than a year ago, particularly when buying electronics, sporting goods and appliances. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 1, Adobe saw the “share of units sold” for the most expensive goods it tracks go up by 19%. In electronics, that increase was 54%. Meanwhile, it was up 52% in appliances and up 41% in sporting goods.
3. Shoppers used BNPL more often to make their holiday purchases
Cyber Monday in 2025 became the first day on record that U.S. consumers made more than $1 billion in BNPL purchases online. Their $1.03 billion in online BNPL spending was up 4.2% year over year, according to Adobe analysts. Notably, 79.4% of that Cyber Monday activity happened on mobile devices, as Adobe’s own survey data showed the highest likelihood for use being in electronics, apparel, toys and furniture purchases.
That trend demonstrated that even if shoppers were paying more in common holiday-season product categories, they may not have been prepared to do so with traditional credit or other payments options.
4. Mobile shopping only became more commonplace
Mobile commerce is no stranger to U.S. consumers, but shoppers in 2025 took to their mobile devices in greater force than they did in 2024 for Cyber 5 ecommerce.
As a result, mobile spending growth (8.0% year over year) outpaced online sales growth overall (7.1%) on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe. Ultimately, 57.5% of online sales occurred from a mobile device that day, up from 41.4% on Cyber Monday in 2020.
Moreover, Thanksgiving Day in 2025 saw mobile’s share of orders pass 60% for the first time, hitting 61.6% for the day, Adobe reported.
5. Social media increased the share of traffic it sent to retailers
As survey results show young shoppers are increasingly using social media for discovery instead of traditional search engines, those preferences appeared to be on display over the Cyber 5 as Salesforce data showed that social media drove 14% of retailers’ web traffic globally on Cyber Monday. That share was even higher in the U.S. at 15%. Importantly, both levels were up from 12% in 2024.
That growth underscored a fundamental movement happening among U.S. shoppers more generally. Whether they are using AI assistants and agents or video-heavy social feeds like TikTok and Instagram to find holiday gifts, they are discovering those purchases in larger numbers away from keyword-focused search portals.
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