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As holiday shoppers looked to fill their online carts, Black Friday delivered the biggest surge for ecommerce — but it wasn’t the only moment that mattered.
New data from Constructor shows that while Black Friday (Nov. 28) was the busiest day of the season, online shopping activity remained strong throughout the Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend, and even much earlier in November.
Across hundreds of retail sites, Constructor powered 2.27 billion product discovery interactions — from personalized search results to autosuggest completions to product recommendations and more — on Black Friday alone.
But the days surrounding it also saw unusually strong demand:
- Search and discovery traffic in the days leading up to Black Friday climbed about 40% above late-October levels — reflecting an extended ramp-up in demand ahead of the big day.
- The following Saturday, Sunday and Cyber Monday each saw 80%+ more shopper searches than a typical day in late October — extending the weekend’s momentum.
- While Cyber Monday remained a major day, it no longer stands out as a distinct spike. Saturday and Sunday matched — and in some cases exceeded — Cyber Monday’s search and product discovery levels, flattening the traditional BFCM curve.
Additional insights from Constructor’s data include:
- A broader period of holiday demand — Black Friday was still the clear high point, with a 50% jump in search traffic over the previous day. But elevated traffic began earlier in November and stayed strong across the BFCM weekend.
- Shoppers continue to rely on familiar platforms to kick off their journeys — Facebook and Google were by far the top drivers of traffic to retail product detail pages, followed by Instagram in a distant third. TikTok and ChatGPT ranked much lower, with ChatGPT placing 15th overall and accounting for less than 1% of referral traffic.
- Retailers’ on-site AI had a bigger impact than external AI — While platforms like ChatGPT played only a minor role in bringing shoppers in, on-site AI agents had a big impact once they arrived. On sites that have AI shopping agents — tools that can answer shoppers’ questions and provide personalized recommendations — more than 10% of BFCM revenue came from shoppers who engaged with them.
- Promotions triggered sharp traffic spikes — Some retailers saw a 4x surge in search and product discovery activity within minutes of deals going live. At peak, Constructor’s systems handled 37,200 requests per second on Black Friday, powering searches, autosuggest, recommendations and more without disruption.
- Regional patterns showed a clear contrast in shopper behavior — U.S. shoppers generated a sharp Black Friday spike, with search traffic jumping 90–130% over November baselines. In contrast, European traffic followed a slower, more sustained build, with activity rising earlier in November and peaking more modestly on Black Friday — at just a 20–25% lift over late-month averages. Volume remained consistently high across the second half of the month, reflecting a longer, more distributed shopping period.
“Black Friday was the year’s high point, but the activity around it tells an equally important story,” said Nate Roy, strategic director of ecommerce innovation at Constructor. “Shoppers started earlier, stayed active longer, and kept traffic high throughout the weekend. And AI made a real impact behind the scenes — connecting shoppers to what they needed faster, and helping retailers convert queries into meaningful revenue. Retailers planning for 2026 should expect more of the same: a longer season, a high bar for product discovery, and real ROI for those who get it right.”
