What we learned from Black Friday 2025
What was once a one-day flash sale, Black Friday has grown into weeks of high-volume, high-reward selling for eCommerce brands. Sales now start in early November and run well into December, overlapping with Amazon’s Prime Day and Cyber Monday.
This year, that pressure was especially clear. Adobe Analytics recently reported a 7.1% year-over-year increase in Cyber Week eCommerce sales in the US.
In the UK, despite lower consumer spending throughout October versus the same period last year, retailers experienced their busiest day of the year on November 28. Transaction volumes jumped by 62.5% compared to an average day. In Ireland, Black Friday spending rose 6.5% over 2024, marking one of the highest growth rates in Europe.
But what happens behind the scenes when those orders flood in? We looked at millions of address transactions across our global customer base to find out.
What Autoaddress saw in the data
We analysed API usage between November 17 and December 3. We compared this 17-day window to a typical period earlier in the autumn, October 13 to 29, to understand the real impact of Black Friday and Cyber Monday on address capture volume.
However, express checkout flows and digital wallets have added a layer of complexity by enabling customers to make purchases in as little as one click using personal information stored on various platforms.
1. Order volumes tripled
API traffic showed that transactions more than tripled during the Black Friday period. Some seasonal eCommerce businesses saw order spikes of over 300 percent.
Here’s a breakdown of the average order volume increase by retail category:
Fashion, Home, Lifestyle: 339%
Toys & Games: 260%
Gifts: 126%
Textiles: 87%
Health & Wellbeing: 37%
Furniture: 36%
These surges placed significant demands on checkout performance and fulfillment systems, particularly where address quality is concerned.
2. Speed and accuracy under pressure
Even at three times the usual traffic, our autocomplete API continued to return results in one-seventh of a second on average. This ensured checkout performance remained smooth, even at peak volume, helping to reduce drop-off rates and avoid errors. Every millisecond matters when a customer is ready to buy!
3. Platform trends: Shopify and BigCommerce
Some of the strongest performance came from Shopify users. One fashion and homeware retailer using our integration saw a 430% increase in orders during the Black Friday window.
BigCommerce customers also experienced notable growth. A US-based food retailer saw a 76% rise in orders, likely boosted by Thanksgiving demand.
Different platforms, similar challenge: delivering a seamless customer experience while managing spikes in order volume.
4. Why address verification still matters
Alongside autocomplete, we also analysed addresses submitted through our Verify service during the same period. Here’s what we found:
- Eircode usage remained strong, with 89 to 90 percent adoption
- In 10% of cases, we appended missing Eircodes
- Roughly 5% of all addresses were non-unique and were missing an Eircode
- We updated 8% of addresses with missing information based on the provided Eircode to ensure completeness
In total, we helped to prevent delivery issues by improving address quality for 21% of all online orders during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period.
What this tells us
During peak periods, operational gaps get magnified. Incomplete or inaccurate addresses lead to real consequences: failed deliveries, lost revenue, unhappy customers, and extra pressure on internal teams.
This isn’t just a data quality problem. It’s a business risk.
Autoaddress helps eliminate that risk. Whether it’s through high-speed address capture at checkout or backend verification, we give retailers the confidence that every address they collect is accurate, complete, and ready to ship.
Planning for peak in 2026?
If you’re reviewing your tech stack or looking to reduce delivery issues next year, we’d love to talk. Autoaddress provides retailers with the speed and accuracy needed to scale smoothly, protect delivery performance, and exceed customer expectations during important peak seasons.