Black Friday 2025: Seven Categories Set to Surge
Black Friday is widely considered the official start to the holiday shopping season. This critical weekend also offers a real-time read on consumer behavior across the retail industry. The categories that outperform during this period reveal where shoppers are placing attention, what motivates them to visit stores, and which concepts are best positioned to carry momentum into early 2026.
Shoppers this year are showing clear preferences. They want value, they want novelty, and they want experiences that feel meaningful and memorable. Even with cost-of-living pressure influencing behavior and roughly 70 percent planning to cut back (McKinsey, 2025), participation remains strong. Nearly 87 percent of U.S. shoppers still plan to engage with Black Friday or Cyber Weekend in some capacity (YouGov, 2025).
At Blue Butterfly, we closely track these trends because the categories that surge now often become the concepts that drive leasing activity in the future. For landlords, Black Friday reveals concentrated insights. For brands, it highlights concentrated opportunity.
Here are seven categories we expect to lead the way.
Beauty and Fragrance
Beauty and fragrance continue to dominate Black Friday, driven by a mix of gifting and self-purchase. It is one of the few categories that consistently shows strong year-over-year growth (BlackFriday Statistics, 2024), and with 77 percent of consumers expecting higher holiday prices, beauty promotions remain highly compelling.
For landlords, beauty is a dependable traffic driver and fits well within high-visibility zones. For brands, seasonal sets, curated bundles, and limited-edition launches meet shoppers’ desire to explore something new.
Wellness, Athleisure and Accessories
Consumers are gravitating toward purchases that feel both useful and aspirational. This positions wellness, athleisure, and minimalist accessories as strong performers. Elevated basics, recovery tools, and everyday accessories appeal to shoppers who want products that blend practicality with lifestyle value. As value-seeking intensifies, these categories are benefiting from both planned purchases and impulse add-ons driven by mobile-first shopping behavior.
With holiday sales projected to grow 3.7 to 4.2 percent year over year (NRF, 2025), landlords can place these concepts quickly because they work well in flexible footprints. For brands, this window is ideal. These categories thrive during holiday gifting and typically accelerate again during the New Year reset.
Specialty Gifting and Seasonal Goods
Consumers are delaying purchases to secure Black Friday deals (Marketing Beat, 2025), but blanket discounts are no longer enough to influence decisions. Shoppers are prioritizing curated gifts, thoughtful bundles, and unique seasonal assortments. Thirty-six percent say they are less interested in generic promotions.
For landlords, specialty gifting concepts bring energy, creativity, and movement to small-format and mid-mall placements. For brands, limited drops and seasonal sets are outperforming broader holiday assortments and proving that novelty remains a powerful driver.
Home Fragrance and Décor
Home continues to sit at the center of holiday spending. Shoppers are investing in décor, home fragrance, and cozy seasonal accents. As shoppers focus on creating warm and inviting homes for the season, this category is especially well positioned to drive in-person discovery and strong gift conversions.
For landlords, home fragrance and décor add warmth, ambiance, and visual appeal to merchandising streetscapes. For brands, bundled candle and décor sets serve as easy gift solutions that convert quickly.
Toys, Games and Family Gifts
Family gifting categories surge every Black Friday, but toys and games are seeing some of the strongest global year-over-year lifts (BlackFriday Statistics, 2024). These concepts tend to generate high volume and consistent cross-traffic throughout the holiday weekend.
For landlords, they attract families into anchor-adjacent areas and support neighboring tenants through increased dwell time. For brands, a short-term toy or game activation can generate meaningful visibility and rapid turnover.
Food, Beverage and Seasonal Treats
Food concepts, from hot cocoa bars to seasonal baked goods, deliver exactly what today’s shoppers want: sensory, experience-driven retail. With U.S. shoppers projected to spend $80 billion on Black Friday day-of (DesignRush, 2025), even small-format food and beverage activations can have significant impact.
For landlords, these concepts create fast, flexible opportunities that lift traffic and enhance the overall environment. For brands, seasonal flavors, gifting boxes, and sample-led strategies convert exceptionally well.
Viral, TikTok-First and Creator Brands
TikTok-first and creator-led brands are capturing outsized attention because they offer freshness, personality, and a sense of discovery. With 87 percent of U.S. shoppers planning to engage in Black Friday or Cyber Weekend (YouGov, 2025), these digitally native brands are becoming strong in-person traffic drivers. The Black Friday to Cyber Monday window is expected to represent about 9 percent of all holiday retail spend, growing 11 percent year over year (Bain, 2025).
For landlords, these concepts create fast-moving pop-up to permanent opportunities and fill spaces that benefit from high buzz. For business owners, Black Friday is the ideal moment to convert online hype into in-store engagement.
Black Friday gives us a clear read on what shoppers want this season. Shoppers are prioritizing value, novelty, and experiences that feel fresh, and the categories leading this demand are shaping leasing momentum heading into Q1 2026. For landlords, these insights point directly to where activation efforts should focus. For brands, they highlight where discovery and conversion are strongest.
At Blue Butterfly, we stay closely aligned with industry trends and share these insights so our property owner and retail partners feel informed, and ready for what comes next.
