Black Friday and Cyber Monday used to be built on chaos. Lines before sunrise, elbows in crowded aisles, and shoppers grabbing whatever was left on the shelf. Today, BFCM looks nothing like that. The shift didn’t happen suddenly, but by 2025, it’s unmistakable: buyers aren’t showing up to discover what’s on sale. They’re showing up to finish a decision they made weeks earlier.

Across Dopple’s ecosystem, we have watched the old-fashioned thrill of the bargain hunt fade as shoppers continue to prioritize clarity, confidence, and control in their holiday shopping. This year, those behavior shifts will shape BFCM more than the promotions themselves.

Preparation Now Happens Weeks Before the Sale

For most shoppers, BFCM no longer begins on Friday. The real beginning is early November, when buyers quietly start comparing products, reading reviews, bookmarking options, and watching prices. By the time Thanksgiving arrives, the research stage is already over. They know what they’re looking for, how it stacks up against similar products, and exactly what a “good” price should be.

The idea of the spontaneous holiday shopper is gone. Today’s consumer walks into the sale with a shortlist and a plan. The brands that show up early, consistently, and with enough depth for the shopper to feel informed are the ones who win the weekend. If that trust hasn’t been earned by turkey time, it won’t magically appear during checkout.

Interaction Is Beating Static Content Everywhere It Shows Up

With digital shopping as this generation’s dominant behavior, product availability has ballooned. Shoppers are no longer comparing five options on a store shelf; they’re comparing fifty tabs. In a sea of near-identical thumbnails, static images do nothing to help them separate good from great, or “might work” from “exactly what I need.”

That’s why interactive content has quietly taken over. When buyers feel overwhelmed, they instinctively look for ways to verify. They do this through reviews, customer photos, videos, and product experiences that let them explore rather than guess. Configurators and AR don’t stand out because they’re flashy. They stand out because they give shoppers the autonomy to confirm that the product in front of them aligns with their intention for the purchase. Interaction gives them confidence, and confidence is the true currency of BFCM.

The “Big Spike” Is Flattening (And That’s a Good Thing)

One of the most misunderstood storylines this year is that Black Friday is losing momentum. It isn’t. It’s stretching.

With brands offering promotions all month long, shoppers are no longer bottlenecked into a 72-hour frenzy. The energy of the season now builds slowly and steadily. For brands that still depend on the calendar to create urgency, this feels like a loss. But for brands that embrace convenience and show up consistently throughout November, the payoff is a more stable and predictable path to conversion.

The tradition hasn’t disappeared—it has simply evolved. BFCM is no longer about the rush. It’s about the runway.

Configured Builds Are Becoming the New Indicator of Intent

Brands that rely on clicks or page views to estimate demand are flying blind in 2025. This year, the clearest signals are coming from configured builds. When a shopper personalizes a product they’re telling the brand exactly what they’re weighing and why.

These interactions happen well before checkout and often well before BFCM even begins. Brands with configurators are essentially getting a preview of demand: what variants matter, what features draw attention, and which combinations are emerging as favorites. In a season defined by preparation, this kind of insight turns guesswork into strategy.

Immersive Content Will Outperform Generic Creative By a Wide Margin

By November, ad fatigue is at an all-time high. Shoppers scroll past anything that feels templated, stock, or too generic to hold meaning. The creative that performs best during BFCM is the creative that clarifies.

Visual assets derived from 3D, tied to real variants, and connected to real shopper choices break through because they help people understand something, not just look at something. These aren’t ads designed to be loud. They’re ads designed to be useful. As a result, they earn attention rather than demand it.

We expect the performance gap to widen this season as shoppers become even more blind to repetitive, non-specific creative.

BFCM Isn’t About the Weekend Anymore, It’s About the Work You Do Before It

The biggest shift in BFCM 2025 isn’t about promotions, shipping windows, or the size of the discounts. It’s the new reality that shoppers arrive fully informed, fully prepared, and looking for the brand that give them confidence early enough to matter.

This year, the winners won’t be the loudest brands. They’ll be the clearest.
The ones who show up before the sales begin.
The ones who help shoppers understand their options.
The ones who turn exploration into certainty.

BFCM used to belong to the brands who could shout the loudest.
In 2025, it belongs to the brands who help shoppers believe they’re making the right choice.