Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday, November 27, 2026, the day after Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26, 2026). Cyber Monday follows on Monday, November 30, 2026.
The NYSE and Nasdaq stay open but close early, at 1:00 p.m. ET, and most major retailers — Walmart, Target, and Best Buy among them — remain closed on Thanksgiving Day itself before reopening for Black Friday.
This guide covers the November 2026 shopping event, the separate Spring Black Friday sales that already ran earlier in the year, retailer and category deal patterns, consumer-protection rules that govern discount advertising, and 2025 spending data used as a benchmark for 2026 planning.
Table of Contents
What Is Black Friday? Origin and Definition
Black Friday is the retail shopping day that falls on the Friday immediately after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, marking the traditional start of the winter holiday shopping season.
It is not a federal holiday, has no fixed calendar date the way New Year’s Day does, and instead moves each year based on the fourth Thursday of November.
The Origin of the Name “Black Friday”
The name did not originate from store profits moving from financial “red” to “black” on ledgers, despite that being the most common modern explanation.
The term was first used by Philadelphia police in the 1950s and 1960s to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic that clogged the city the day after Thanksgiving, as shoppers and Army-Navy football fans filled downtown streets simultaneously.
Retailers only adopted the “black ink” profitability explanation later, as a more marketing-friendly reframing of a term that originally described congestion and disorder rather than commerce.
How Black Friday Became a National Shopping Event
Black Friday became a nationally recognized shopping event through decades of retailer-driven promotional expansion, not through any legislative or federal designation.
What began as a single post-Thanksgiving shopping day expanded into a multi-day event by the early 2000s, then into “Black Friday week” as retailers moved doorbuster promotions earlier to capture shoppers before competitors did.
By 2025, this expansion was well documented: 45% of consumers began holiday shopping before November even started, showing that the promotional window now extends well beyond the single Friday the event is named for.
Black Friday 2026 vs. Cyber Monday vs. Cyber Week
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are three distinct days within a single five-day promotional window often called Cyber Week. Each has a different primary channel and deal focus.
| Event | 2026 Date | Primary Channel | Typical Deal Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Friday | Friday, November 27, 2026 | In-store and online | Doorbusters, electronics, toys, appliances |
| Small Business Saturday | Saturday, November 28, 2026 | In-store (independent retailers) | Local and independent businesses |
| Cyber Monday | Monday, November 30, 2026 | Online only | Electronics, software, online-exclusive pricing |
| Giving Tuesday | Tuesday, December 1, 2026 | Online and in-person donations | Charitable giving, not retail deals |
| Cyber Week | November 27–December 1, 2026 | Both | Rolling promotions across all five days |
Small Business Saturday, unlike Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is not a discount-driven event in the same sense — it is a campaign (originally launched by American Express in 2010) encouraging spending at independent and locally owned businesses rather than large chains.
When Is Black Friday 2026? Full Holiday Weekend Calendar
Black Friday 2026 is confirmed for Friday, November 27, 2026, because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday of November, which lands on November 26 in 2026.
The Black Friday 2026 Date and Day of the Week
The date is fixed by the U.S. Thanksgiving calendar rule rather than by retailers. Because Thanksgiving 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26, Black Friday automatically follows on Friday, November 27. The same rule places Small Business Saturday on November 28 and Cyber Monday on November 30, 2026.
| Date | Day | Event |
|---|---|---|
| November 25, 2026 | Wednesday | Thanksgiving Eve |
| November 26, 2026 | Thursday | Thanksgiving Day |
| November 27, 2026 | Friday | Black Friday |
| November 28, 2026 | Saturday | Small Business Saturday |
| November 29, 2026 | Sunday | Cyber Weekend |
| November 30, 2026 | Monday | Cyber Monday |
| December 1, 2026 | Tuesday | Giving Tuesday |
Is Black Friday 2026 a Federal Holiday?
No, Black Friday is not a federal holiday. Thanksgiving Day is the only federal holiday in that week; Black Friday itself has no official government status, which is why courts, most federal offices, and the U.S. Postal Service operate on normal or modified Friday schedules rather than closing.
Some private employers give staff the day off as a company holiday, but this is a business policy decision, not a legal requirement.
Is the Stock Market Open on Black Friday 2026?
Yes, the stock market is open on Black Friday 2026, but the session is shortened. The NYSE and Nasdaq close early at 1:00 p.m. ET (1:15 p.m. ET for eligible options contracts) on Friday, November 27, 2026, rather than the standard 4:00 p.m. ET close that applies to both major U.S. stock markets.
This early close, alongside a similar shortened session on Christmas Eve, is one of only two half-days on the 2026 trading calendar. The bond market follows a slightly different schedule, with a 2:00 p.m. ET recommended close on the same day.
Banks are not required to close on Black Friday, since it is not a federal banking holiday, though hours can vary by institution.
Black Friday 2026 Store Hours: Which Retailers Open, and When
Most major retailers close on Thanksgiving Day and reopen with early Friday hours, a pattern that has held consistently since 2020.
Official 2026 hours are typically announced by individual retailers in late October or early November, so the figures below reflect the confirmed 2025 pattern, which is the most reliable indicator available in August 2026.
Which Major Retailers Close on Thanksgiving Day
Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Costco, and Sam’s Club all remained closed on Thanksgiving Day in 2025, continuing a policy each retailer first adopted between 2020 and 2022.
Walmart, Target, and Best Buy specifically kept their doors shut through Thanksgiving before reopening for Black Friday shopping, and this closure has become standard practice rather than a pandemic-era exception.
REI goes further, closing on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday as part of its long-running “Opt Outside” campaign, which encourages outdoor activity over shopping.
What Time Does Walmart Open on Black Friday 2026?
Walmart opened at 6:00 a.m. local time on Black Friday in 2025, and this has been the retailer’s standard opening time in recent years.
Assuming the pattern holds for 2026, shoppers should expect a similar early-morning opening, though Walmart typically confirms exact hours in early-to-mid November.
Typical Black Friday Opening Times by Retailer
Opening times vary by chain and sometimes by individual store location. The table below reflects confirmed 2025 hours as the most recent complete data point.
| Retailer | Thanksgiving 2025 Status | Black Friday 2025 Opening |
|---|---|---|
| Walmart | Closed | 6:00 a.m. local time |
| Target | Closed | 6:00 a.m. local time (some markets reported 7:00 a.m.) |
| Best Buy | Closed | 6:00 a.m., open until 10:00 p.m. |
| Home Depot | Closed | 6:00 a.m. |
| Lowe’s | Closed | 6:00 a.m. |
| Costco | Closed | 9:00 a.m. |
| Sam’s Club | Closed | 7:00 a.m. |
| Kohl’s | Closed | 5:00 a.m. |
| JCPenney | Closed | 5:00 a.m. |
| Dick’s Sporting Goods | Closed | 6:00 a.m., open until 10:00 p.m. |
| REI | Closed | Closed (Opt Outside) |
Best Buy, Costco, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Home Depot, JCPenney, Kohl’s, and Lowe’s all followed this early-Friday opening pattern in 2025, and grocery-anchored retailers such as ACME and Albertsons remained open on Thanksgiving itself with reduced hours, unlike the general-merchandise chains above.
Black Friday 2026 Deals by Product Category
Category-level demand concentrates around a consistent set of verticals each year: electronics, gaming hardware, home appliances, mattresses, tools, and toys account for the largest share of Black Friday transaction volume.
Toy sales alone saw the sharpest single-category swing in the most recent cycle, with a 622% year-over-year increase in one tracked dataset, driven by discount depth on branded toy lines rather than expanded selection.
Electronics, TVs, and Laptops
Electronics remain the highest-volume Black Friday category, led by televisions, laptops, and tablets. Brands such as Samsung, LG, Sony, and Hisense typically anchor TV promotions, while Apple, Dell, and HP lead laptop discounting.
Buyers comparing 75-inch-and-larger televisions should expect this size class to see some of the deepest percentage discounts, a pattern driven by manufacturers using large-format sets as loss leaders to draw store traffic.
Gaming: Consoles, Steam Deck, and Meta Quest 3
Gaming hardware discounts typically cover consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X), handhelds such as Valve’s Steam Deck, and VR headsets including the Meta Quest 3.
Console bundles — hardware paired with games or accessories — tend to offer better effective savings than standalone console price cuts, since the console itself is rarely discounted as deeply as the attached software.
Home Appliances and Kitchen Equipment
Major appliances (refrigerators, washers, dishwashers) and small kitchen equipment (air fryers, stand mixers, robot vacuums) both see significant Black Friday promotion, but for different reasons: major appliances are discounted to clear floor-model inventory ahead of new model-year releases, while small kitchen appliances are discounted as high-margin, high-gift-appeal items.
Mattresses and Bedding
Mattresses carry some of the highest markup-to-discount ratios of any Black Friday category, with direct-to-consumer brands such as Purple and Tempur-Pedic running some of their steepest annual discounts during this window.
Mattress pricing is also one of the categories most affected by the reference-pricing practices discussed later in this guide, since mattress retailers frequently use “compare at” pricing that differs meaningfully from actual recent selling prices.
Furniture and Patio
Indoor furniture and patio sets both see Black Friday promotion, though patio and outdoor furniture deals are smaller in scale during November than during the Spring Black Friday event described below, since outdoor furniture is a seasonally mismatched purchase in late November for most U.S. climates.
Tools and Outdoor Power Equipment
Power tool brands including DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Ryobi run some of the year’s best cordless tool bundle deals during Black Friday, frequently structured as “buy one, get one free” tool-plus-battery bundles rather than simple percentage discounts.
Apparel, Footwear, and Jewelry
Apparel and footwear discounting spans the full price spectrum, from mass-market chains to premium and luxury brands.
Luxury retailers rarely advertise discounts the way mass-market chains do; instead, they tend to offer gift-with-purchase incentives or early access to limited restocks rather than published percentage-off pricing.
Beauty, Toys, Tires, and Hobbyist Tech
Beauty and personal care brands, toy manufacturers, tire retailers, and hobbyist tech brands such as Bambu Lab and Elegoo (3D printing) round out the category list.
Tire deals differ from most other categories in that they are frequently structured as rebates processed after purchase rather than instant point-of-sale discounts, which shoppers should account for when comparing advertised savings.
Black Friday 2026 Deals by Retailer
Retailer-specific Black Friday strategy varies by category focus, closure policy, and how early each chain begins publishing its holiday ad.
Walmart, Target, and Amazon
Walmart and Target both run multi-week “early access” promotional windows leading into Black Friday itself, rather than concentrating all discounting into the single Friday.
Amazon similarly runs deals throughout November under its own Black Friday branding, with the added distinction of running deals continuously online rather than around fixed store hours.
Best Buy and Apple
Best Buy remains the primary destination for the deepest electronics-specific discounting, including doorbuster-tier TV and laptop pricing.
Apple, by contrast, does not discount its own products as aggressively; Apple’s own Black Friday promotions have historically taken the form of gift cards with purchase rather than direct price cuts, while third-party retailers such as Best Buy, Target, and Amazon typically offer the deepest direct discounts on Apple hardware.
Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Costco
Home Depot and Lowe’s concentrate their November Black Friday discounting on tools, holiday décor, and select appliances, distinct from the outdoor-and-garden focus of their Spring Black Friday events.
Costco and Sam’s Club run warehouse-club-specific Black Friday pricing that requires membership, which differentiates their deal structure from open-access retailers.
Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Department Stores
Department stores including Kohl’s and Macy’s tend to open earliest among major chains — both have historically opened at 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. local time — and rely heavily on stacking mechanisms (store credit cards, coupon codes, and loyalty rewards combined) rather than single flat discounts.
Spring Black Friday vs. November Black Friday 2026
Spring Black Friday and the November Black Friday event are two separate, unrelated sales — not two names for the same event.
Spring Black Friday is a retailer-created promotional term, used primarily by home-improvement chains, that has no connection to the Thanksgiving weekend shopping tradition beyond borrowing its name for marketing purposes.
What Is Spring Black Friday?
Spring Black Friday is an inventory-clearing sale event, run mainly by Home Depot and Lowe’s each April, that discounts outdoor and seasonal merchandise ahead of the summer buying season.
It does not offer the electronics, toy, or apparel discounting associated with the November event, and it carries no connection to Thanksgiving.
Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday 2026 Dates
Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday 2026 event already took place, running from Thursday, April 9, 2026, through April 22, 2026 — a 14-day window offering discounts across outdoor power equipment, patio furniture, grills, and other spring-focused product categories.
Some retailer promotions extended select categories, such as area rugs and organization systems, into early May 2026.
Because this event is already complete for the year, readers searching for “Spring Black Friday 2026” in the second half of the year are most likely looking either for a recap of deals already run or for a preview of the 2027 spring event, which historically follows the same early-to-mid-April timing.
Spring Black Friday vs. November Black Friday: A Comparison
| Aspect | Spring Black Friday | November Black Friday |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 dates | April 9–22, 2026 | November 27, 2026 |
| Primary retailers | Home Depot, Lowe’s, Harbor Freight | Nearly all major U.S. retailers |
| Typical categories | Outdoor power equipment, patio furniture, mulch, grills | Electronics, toys, apparel, mattresses, appliances |
| Connection to Thanksgiving | None | Direct — the day after Thanksgiving |
| Federal recognition | None | None |
| Origin | Retailer-created seasonal clearance event | Decades-old post-Thanksgiving shopping tradition |
Spring Black Friday does not apply to electronics, gaming hardware, apparel, or toys — categories that remain exclusive to the November event.
Black Friday 2026 Deals on Software, SaaS, and AI Tools
Software and subscription brands represent one of the least-covered categories in most Black Friday content despite consistent annual participation.
VPN providers such as NordVPN and Proton, productivity platforms including ClickUp and Notion, e-learning services such as Masterclass, financial software including TradingView, and e-commerce infrastructure providers such as Shopify have each historically run Black Friday promotions on annual subscription plans.
AI tool providers, including consumer-facing chatbot subscriptions, have also begun participating in Black Friday-branded promotions in recent cycles.
Specific 2026 offers from these categories are generally announced in November rather than earlier, so shoppers evaluating annual software commitments should compare any November discount against the provider’s list price for an annual plan purchased at a non-promotional time, since software “discounts” are more difficult to verify against a genuine prior price than physical retail goods are.
Black Friday, Live Sports, and Streaming in 2026
Black Friday now overlaps directly with a full NFL football schedule, a shift that has occurred entirely within the past several years and represents one of the least-covered intersections in most Black Friday content.
The NFL Black Friday Game 2026
The NFL’s 2026 Black Friday game features the Denver Broncos at the Pittsburgh Steelers, kicking off at 3:00 p.m. ET and streaming exclusively on Prime Video, as part of a broader Prime Video package that also includes fifteen Thursday Night Football games between Weeks 2 and 17.
This marks the fourth consecutive year the NFL has held a game on Black Friday, a scheduling practice that began in 2023 specifically to give Amazon Prime Video broadcast rights to an additional game, since the league’s standard Thursday Night Football rights do not apply on Thanksgiving itself.
The Broncos-Steelers matchup carries playoff implications, as both teams won their respective divisions the previous season.
The Black Friday game’s 3:00 p.m. ET kickoff time is not arbitrary. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL cannot broadcast games on Friday between the second weekend of September and the second weekend of December unless a substantial portion of the game concludes by 6:00 p.m. local time — which is why the league consistently schedules the Black Friday game for an early-afternoon start rather than a primetime slot.
Full 2026 NFL Thanksgiving Week Schedule
Thanksgiving week 2026 spans five games across three days, giving football-and-shopping crossover audiences a full slate to plan around:
| Game | Day | Kickoff (ET) | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams | Wednesday, Nov. 25 | 8:00 p.m. | Netflix |
| Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions | Thursday, Nov. 26 | 1:00 p.m. | CBS, Paramount+ |
| Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys | Thursday, Nov. 26 | 4:30 p.m. | FOX, FOX One |
| Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills | Thursday, Nov. 26 | 8:20 p.m. | NBC, Peacock |
| Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers | Friday, Nov. 27 | 3:00 p.m. | Prime Video |
Streaming Service Deals During Black Friday Week
Streaming platforms including Peacock, Hulu, and various live-TV bundles frequently run Black Friday-specific subscription discounts, timed deliberately to coincide with the NFL’s Thanksgiving week schedule concentration across Netflix, CBS/Paramount+, FOX, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video.
Shoppers evaluating a new streaming subscription during Black Friday week should factor in which platform carries the games they actually want to watch, since access is split across five separate services this year rather than consolidated on one.
Is Black Friday 2026 Worth It? Deal Verification and Consumer Trust
Black Friday deals are not uniformly discounted from a stable “regular” price — a meaningful share of advertised reference prices do not reflect a price the item was genuinely sold at for a substantial period before the sale. This distinction matters directly for how much a shopper can trust a percentage-off figure printed next to a Black Friday price tag.
How Retailers Set Reference Prices Before a Sale
Federal rules govern this practice directly. Under the FTC’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 C.F.R. Part 233), a “former price” used in a strike-through comparison must be a bona fide price the item was actually offered at for a substantial period of time, with genuine sales made at that price.
Setting an artificially high “was” price solely to create the appearance of a deep discount is treated as deceptive advertising under FTC Act Section 5.
This is not a hypothetical concern. A 2017 Consumer Watchdog analysis found that 61% of Amazon products carrying a reference price had a reference price higher than the same product’s price over the preceding 90 days — meaning the “discount” being advertised did not reflect genuine recent pricing.
Enforcement has followed at the state level as well: a Wisconsin shopper filed a class action against Kohl’s after finding that a speaker marked down from $129.99 to $99.99 had, in fact, first been listed at $99.99 with no period of sale at the higher price.
Doorbuster-Exclusive Products and Spec Differences
Some Black Friday doorbuster products are not discounted versions of a retailer’s standard inventory — they are separate, lower-specification models manufactured specifically for the sale.
This practice, sometimes called a “derivative” model, has been documented in televisions for well over a decade.
Consumer Reports has tracked major brands including Samsung and Panasonic releasing “derivative” sets — lower-priced models sold under a unique model name or number, available only during holiday promotions, that carry more basic specs and fewer features than the brand’s standard product line.
This lets a major brand compete on price against lesser-known competitors without discounting its own flagship product line.
The practice is identifiable by model number. Derivative or promotional models frequently carry a suffix or prefix that differs from the retailer-independent version of the same product line; checking whether a specific model number has any independent third-party review coverage is a reliable way to determine whether a “deal” model is the same product reviewed elsewhere, or a sale-exclusive variant with reduced specifications.
How to Verify a Black Friday 2026 Deal Is Real
- Check the model number against independent reviews. If a specific model number has no coverage from an independent test source, it is likely a promotion-exclusive variant rather than the reviewed flagship product.
- Compare the current price against a price-history tool, rather than trusting the retailer’s own “was” price, since the FTC’s bona fide former-price standard is not always met.
- Verify the discount window, since California and a small number of other states legally require a former price to have been offered for a minimum continuous period (three months in California) before it can be used in a discount comparison.
- Watch for early-November price hikes immediately preceding a Black Friday markdown, which is the exact pattern the FTC’s deceptive-pricing guidance is designed to prevent.
- Cross-shop the same item across two or more retailers before purchase, since identical-looking model numbers sometimes differ by retailer even for the same brand.
How to Shop Black Friday 2026 Safely and Strategically
Shoppers who plan ahead avoid both the financial risk of impulse spending and the physical risk associated with in-store crowd events.
Set a Budget Before You Shop
Set a fixed dollar budget before Black Friday begins, not after browsing has started. Consumers who set a spending ceiling in advance are less likely to be swayed by artificial urgency tactics such as low-stock countdowns, which are specifically designed to compress decision-making time.
Build a Wishlist to Avoid Impulse Buys
A pre-built wishlist, created before Black Friday itself, limits purchases to items already identified as needed or wanted, rather than items encountered for the first time inside a promotional ad.
This single step is consistently cited as the most effective way to avoid impulse purchases that later go unused or returned.
Common Black Friday Scams to Avoid
Shoppers should avoid unsolicited “too good to be true” ads sent via text or social media rather than found on a retailer’s verified website, avoid entering payment information on any site reached through an ad link rather than a direct search, and avoid gift-card-only payment requests, which are a well-documented indicator of fraud rather than a legitimate retailer payment option.
In-Store Safety Tips for Crowded Sales
Shoppers heading into physical stores for early-morning doorbuster openings should avoid standing directly in front of entrance doors when a store opens, avoid carrying large amounts of cash, and keep bags and personal items zipped and close to the body in high-density crowd areas.
Black Friday 2026 Return Policies and Price Matching
Return and price-match policies frequently change during the holiday period, and not always in the shopper’s favor.
Price-Match Suspensions During Black Friday
Many retailers explicitly suspend standard price-match guarantees during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, since matching a competitor’s doorbuster-tier pricing would eliminate the retailer’s own promotional margin.
This is one of the most commonly misunderstood retail policies: a price-match guarantee that applies in October frequently does not apply on Black Friday weekend itself, even at the same retailer.
Extended Holiday Return Windows
Most major retailers extend standard return windows for purchases made between early November and December 24, allowing gift purchases made on Black Friday to be returned into January rather than under the retailer’s normal 30- or 60-day policy.
This extended window typically applies automatically at checkout rather than requiring a separate request, though receipt retention remains necessary to claim it.
Payment Options: Gift Cards, Buy Now Pay Later, and Cash Back
Buy Now, Pay Later services, including Klarna and Afterpay, have become a standard Black Friday payment option rather than a niche one.
BNPL spending reached $8.2 billion between November 1 and November 28, 2025, a 9% year-over-year increase, with the full holiday season forecast to reach $20.2 billion by year’s end, an 11% increase over 2024.
Shoppers using BNPL should treat it as a financing decision rather than a discount mechanism — it defers payment but does not reduce the total price, and missed installment payments can carry fees depending on the provider.
Cash-back browser extensions and stacked credit card rewards remain the most common way to layer additional savings on top of an already-discounted Black Friday price.
Black Friday Spending Statistics: 2025 Benchmark Data
Because Black Friday 2026 has not yet occurred as of this writing, 2025 figures — the most recently completed cycle — serve as the working benchmark for 2026 planning and forecasting.
| Metric | 2025 Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Black Friday online sales | $11.8 billion (record, +9.1% YoY) | Adobe Analytics |
| U.S. Black Friday online sales (independent estimate) | $18 billion | Salesforce |
| Global Black Friday online sales | $79 billion | Salesforce |
| Shopify merchant sales worldwide (Black Friday) | $6.2 billion | Shopify |
| Total shoppers, Thanksgiving–Cyber Monday | 202.9 million (record) | National Retail Federation |
| Black Friday in-store shoppers | 80.3 million | National Retail Federation |
| Black Friday online shoppers | 85.7 million | National Retail Federation |
| Mobile share of online retail revenue | 52.2% (first year exceeding desktop) | Adobe Analytics |
| AI-referred retail site traffic growth (Nov. 1–28) | +805% YoY | Adobe Analytics |
| BNPL spending (Nov. 1–28) | $8.2 billion (+9% YoY) | Adobe Analytics |
| 2025 holiday season sales forecast (Nov.–Dec.) | $1.01–$1.02 trillion (+3.7–4.2% YoY) | National Retail Federation |
Online spending on Black Friday itself has now grown every year since 2014 with a single exception in 2021, and 2025’s total online spending was more than triple the $3.54 billion recorded a decade earlier, in 2015.
The gap between NRF’s pre-season shopper survey and the final confirmed count is also notable: NRF’s late-October survey projected 186.9 million planned shoppers for the five-day Thanksgiving-through-Cyber-Monday window, but the confirmed final count came in substantially higher, at 202.9 million — a reminder that pre-season shopping surveys tend to undercount actual participation.
One of the most significant year-over-year shifts has nothing to do with retail categories at all: AI-driven traffic referrals to U.S. retail sites grew 805% year-over-year between November 1 and November 28, 2025, with overall AI-driven traffic growth for the season expected between 515% and 520% compared to 2024.
This reflects a structural change in how shoppers research purchases, shifting a measurable share of pre-purchase research from traditional search into AI chat interfaces.
Black Friday 2026 Predictions: Tariffs and Category Forecasts
Tariff-driven cost pressure is the dominant consumer-sentiment factor entering the 2026 holiday season.
85% of shoppers reported expecting gifts to cost more in 2025 specifically because of tariffs, a sentiment that carried directly into retailer hiring behavior: retailers planned to hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers for the 2025 season, down from 442,000 the year before, as retailers held back staffing decisions to monitor how tariff-driven pricing would affect actual demand.
For 2026, the National Retail Federation has separately forecast full-year U.S. retail sales growth of 4.4%, a broader economic indicator that, while not Black Friday-specific, suggests continued — though not necessarily accelerating — consumer spending capacity heading into the November event.
NRF typically releases its Black Friday-specific holiday sales forecast in early November; the 2025 forecast was published on November 6, 2025, and a similarly timed 2026 forecast should be expected in the weeks immediately before Black Friday 2026.
Categories most likely to see the deepest discounting in 2026, based on the historical pattern, include large-format televisions, mattresses, and major appliances — categories where markup-to-retail-price ratios are structurally highest and therefore leave retailers the most room to discount while remaining profitable.
Black Friday Around the World
Black Friday is observed, in some marketing form, well beyond the United States. Spanish-language markets refer to the event as Viernes Negro, Chinese-language markets as 黑色星期五, and Japanese-language markets as ブラックフライデー — each a direct translation rather than a locally originated shopping tradition.
Adoption outside North America has been driven primarily by multinational online retailers extending their U.S. promotional calendar into other markets, rather than by independent growth of the tradition in those countries.
Frequently Asked Questions About Black Friday 2026
When is Black Friday 2026?
Black Friday 2026 is on Friday, November 27, 2026, the day after Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26, 2026).
Is Black Friday 2026 a bank holiday?
No. Black Friday is not a federal or bank holiday. The stock market stays open with a shortened session, closing at 1:00 p.m. ET instead of 4:00 p.m. ET.
What’s the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Black Friday spans both in-store and online shopping and falls on November 27, 2026. Cyber Monday is an online-only event that falls three days later, on November 30, 2026.
Do stores price match on Black Friday?
Many retailers suspend their standard price-match guarantees specifically during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, even when the same guarantee applies during the rest of the year.
Are Black Friday deals available both online and in-store?
Yes. Nearly all major retailers run parallel online and in-store Black Friday promotions, though specific doorbuster items are sometimes limited to in-store stock only, with no online equivalent.
What time do Black Friday 2026 deals start?
Online deals typically go live at midnight local time or earlier. In-store deals begin when each retailer opens, with most major chains opening between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. local time based on the 2025 pattern.
How many days until Black Friday 2026?
As of today, August 14, 2026, Black Friday 2026 is 105 days away. Because this figure changes daily, the fixed date — Friday, November 27, 2026 — is the more reliable reference point.
Black Friday 2026 follows a predictable structure: a fixed date of November 27, a five-day promotional window running into Cyber Monday, and a deal landscape shaped as much by federal pricing regulation and NFL broadcast scheduling as by retailer marketing calendars.
Shoppers who verify reference pricing, check doorbuster model numbers against independent reviews, and set a budget before the promotional window opens are positioned to capture genuine savings rather than the appearance of them.
