How Much Was Spent on Black Friday 2020?

Remember Black Friday 2020? For most of us, it meant skipping the crowded stores and hunting for deals from the couch. You weren’t alone, but have you ever wondered just how much money we all spent during that massive, nationwide online shopping spree?

The final tally was staggering. According to Adobe Analytics 2020 Black Friday data, online shoppers spent a record-breaking $9.03 billion in a single day. This wasn’t just a small bump; the Black Friday 2020 vs 2019 sales comparison shows a massive 21.6% jump from the previous year, cementing its place in retail history.

So, what does a 21.6% increase actually feel like? In simple terms, for every $100 shoppers spent online during Black Friday 2019, they spent nearly $122 in 2020. The pace of this spending was just as mind-boggling, with the Black Friday 2020 online sales statistics showing we clicked ‘buy’ at an average rate of $6.3 million every single minute.

While Clicks Boomed, Did Stores Go Bust?

While online shopping carts were overflowing on Black Friday 2020, the scene inside physical stores told a completely different story. The familiar images of long lines and packed aisles were largely absent, replaced by a surprising quiet. It was a tale of two very different Black Fridays happening at the same time, with one thriving like never before and the other facing an unprecedented challenge.

The drop in physical shopping was staggering. Retail analysts track something called “foot traffic”—basically, a headcount of shoppers entering stores. On Black Friday 2020, that number fell by an incredible 52.1% compared to the previous year. To put it another way, for every ten people who braved the crowds for doorbuster deals in 2019, only about five showed up in 2020.

This dramatic split reveals a crucial point: people didn’t stop spending, they just fundamentally changed where they spent their money. The holiday shopping budget was still there, but it was being channeled through websites instead of store entrances. Of course, this historic pivot from the mall to the couch wasn’t a random choice.

The Real Reason for the Change: The Pandemic’s Unmistakable Push

The driving force behind this massive change, of course, was the COVID-19 pandemic. With health and safety at the front of everyone’s minds in 2020, the idea of packed malls and shoulder-to-shoulder checkout lines was simply a non-starter for millions of families. This wasn’t about a loss of interest in deals; it was a practical decision to stay safe, transforming the holiday shopping tradition from a physical event into a digital one.

Sensing this historic shift, stores didn’t just sit back and hope for the best. They pivoted their entire strategy. Instead of reserving the best “doorbuster” deals for those who showed up in person, retailers moved their biggest discounts online. Many even kicked off their sales far earlier than usual, effectively turning the single-day Black Friday sprint into a month-long online shopping marathon that customers could join from the comfort of their own homes.

This combination of cautious shoppers and proactive retailers created the perfect conditions for a record-breaking day. It funneled the nation’s holiday shopping energy directly onto websites and apps, lighting up servers and smashing previous online spending records. But what exactly were we all frantically adding to our digital carts?

So, What Were We All Buying? The Hottest Items of 2020

The items flying into our digital shopping carts painted a clear picture of life in 2020: we were all looking for ways to stay entertained at home. With movie theaters and social events largely on hold, our spending priorities shifted dramatically. We poured money into electronics, toys, and gadgets that could make our own living rooms a little more exciting.

According to data tracking the day’s sales, some of the most popular products were clear crowd-pleasers for a nation stuck indoors. The top sellers included:

• Hot Wheels and LEGO sets
• Apple AirPods and Apple Watches
• The brand-new Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X

Those new game consoles, in particular, became the holy grail of Black Friday 2020. Massive demand combined with limited supply meant they sold out within minutes of being restocked, fueling a nationwide sense of urgency. This frantic hunt for big-ticket items helped drive spending sky-high. So, what did the final bill look like for the average person?

What Was the Average Bill? Your Spending vs. The Nation

With all those hot items flying into digital carts, it’s natural to wonder how it all added up. Did your own spending feel high that year? According to the National Retail Federation’s 2020 holiday sales report, the average consumer spending over the five-day Black Friday weekend was $311.75. This number gives us a fascinating snapshot of how much a single person typically laid out during the shopping blitz that stretched from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday.

Before you compare that figure to your own credit card statement, it’s helpful to know what it includes. This wasn’t just money spent on presents for family and friends. That average also covers “non-gift” purchases—the great deals on clothing, home goods, or electronics that shoppers snagged for themselves. It seems many of us used the sales to treat ourselves, too, which helped push the average higher.

When you multiply that roughly $312 figure by the tens of millions of people who shopped, you can see how the total retail spending for the Black Friday weekend 2020 soared into the stratosphere. But while Friday’s online numbers were record-breaking, it wasn’t the only major shopping day that week. An even bigger digital gold rush was just around the corner.

But Was Black Friday the Biggest Day? Enter Cyber Monday

For all its jaw-dropping numbers, Black Friday wasn’t actually the peak of the online shopping mountain that weekend. That title belongs to its digital-native sibling, Cyber Monday. While Black Friday’s record-breaking $9 billion was a massive haul, it turns out shoppers were just warming up for the main event that followed.

When the dust settled on Monday, the final tally was even more staggering. According to Adobe Analytics, Americans spent $10.8 billion online for Cyber Monday 2020. This didn’t just eclipse Black Friday’s total; it crowned that day as the single largest online shopping day in U.S. history up to that point. The incredible 2020 e-commerce growth during the holiday season reached its absolute high point in that 24-hour window.

Together, these two days paint a clear picture: the holiday shopping season was no longer just about one frantic Friday. It had fully transformed into a massive, multi-day digital event, stretching from Thanksgiving well into the next week. This historic shift didn’t just break spending records; it set a new precedent for how we all shop.

What Black Friday 2020 Taught Us About Shopping Today

That strange Black Friday of 2020 might just be a memory of online deals and staying home. Now, you can see it for the landmark event it truly was. You don’t just know the record-breaking numbers; you understand the real story behind them—the massive impact of COVID-19 on holiday shopping wasn’t a creation, but a powerful acceleration of a trend already in motion.

From now on, when you see a holiday sale start online weeks before Thanksgiving, you’ll know exactly why. You can spot the lasting echoes of the 2020 holiday shopping season trends in every “buy online, pick up in-store” offer. You’ve moved from simply participating in these events to understanding the forces that shape them.

Ultimately, 2020 wasn’t a fluke. It was a high-speed preview of the future of Black Friday, pulling a decade of change into a single season. The couch-shopping habits formed during that time didn’t just fade away—they became the new blueprint for how we all shop today.