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Black Week

Black Week 2025: what online stores emailed, and how to prepare for 2026

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We followed 17 online stores through Black Week 2025: every marketing campaign they sent between 1 November and 7 December, 323 in all. We picked these 17 because we can show we captured all of their email that autumn; the stores are named at the end. Here is what they did, and seven things to take into Black Week 2026. Black Friday is on 27 November.

  • 2.0×campaigns per store in Black Week vs October (2.7 → 5.4 a week)
  • 55%typical headline discount in Black Week (40% in October)
  • 20 Novemberwhen the median store sent its first Black Week email, 8 days before Black Friday
  • 4 of 17stores never said "Black Week" or "Black Friday": three luxury houses and Filippa K
Campaigns per day, 10 November – 7 December 2025
0102010 Nov: 5 campaigns, 0 naming Black Week10 Nov11 Nov: 9 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week12 Nov: 7 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week13 Nov: 11 campaigns, 3 naming Black Week14 Nov: 3 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week15 Nov: 8 campaigns, 1 naming Black Week16 Nov: 9 campaigns, 3 naming Black Week17 Nov: 6 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week17 Nov18 Nov: 11 campaigns, 4 naming Black Week19 Nov: 7 campaigns, 3 naming Black Week20 Nov: 9 campaigns, 6 naming Black Week21 Nov: 5 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week22 Nov: 8 campaigns, 4 naming Black Week23 Nov: 9 campaigns, 4 naming Black Week24 Nov: 11 campaigns, 8 naming Black Week24 Nov25 Nov: 12 campaigns, 6 naming Black Week26 Nov: 12 campaigns, 3 naming Black Week27 Nov: 11 campaigns, 8 naming Black Week28 Nov: 18 campaigns, 14 naming Black WeekBlack Friday · 1829 Nov: 11 campaigns, 8 naming Black Week30 Nov: 17 campaigns, 8 naming Black WeekSunday · 171 Dec: 12 campaigns, 9 naming Black Week1 Dec2 Dec: 8 campaigns, 1 naming Black Week3 Dec: 7 campaigns, 2 naming Black Week4 Dec: 9 campaigns, 0 naming Black Week5 Dec: 8 campaigns, 0 naming Black Week6 Dec: 6 campaigns, 0 naming Black Week7 Dec: 9 campaigns, 0 naming Black Week

Dark part: campaigns whose subject or preview text names Black Week, Black Friday or Cyber Monday. 17 stores, each campaign counted once.

Show the numbers as a table
DateCampaignsName Black Week
10 Nov50
11 Nov92
12 Nov72
13 Nov113
14 Nov32
15 Nov81
16 Nov93
17 Nov62
18 Nov114
19 Nov73
20 Nov96
21 Nov52
22 Nov84
23 Nov94
24 Nov118
25 Nov126
26 Nov123
27 Nov118
28 Nov1814
29 Nov118
30 Nov178
1 Dec129
2 Dec81
3 Dec72
4 Dec90
5 Dec80
6 Dec60
7 Dec90

1. It starts earlier than the name says

13 of the 17 stores named Black Week, Black Friday or Cyber Monday at some point. 10 of those 13 did so before Black Week itself began on 24 November. The first came on 6 November, and half had started by 20 November, 8 days before Black Friday.

Home and interior went first: 4 of the first five stores to name it sell home and interior. The first fashion store followed on 19 November.

2. Most stores doubled their sending, not all

Together the 17 stores went from 2.7 campaigns a week per store in October to 5.4 during Black Week (24 November – 1 December). One electronics store did a lot of that on its own; without it, the rise is 1.7×.

Store by store: 11 sent at least a quarter more, 4 sent about the same and 2 sent fewer. Black Week is a choice, and not every store chose volume.

3. Friday and the weekend after are one long peak

Black Friday (18 campaigns) and the Sunday after it (17) were the two busiest days, too close to call a winner. Saturday in between was quiet (11), and Cyber Monday added 12 more. 14 of Black Friday's 18 campaigns named the day.

4. "Black Week" is said more often than "Black Friday"

Of the 107 campaigns that named the event, 56% said "Black Week" and 36% "Black Friday" (some said both); Cyber Monday appeared in 8. Most stores used both names at some point: 10 used Black Week, 9 Black Friday. Singles Day (11 November) barely registered, with 3 campaigns.

5. Twice as many discounts, and deeper ones

In October 40% of the campaigns carried a discount. In Black Week 78% did, and the typical headline discount rose from 40% to 55%. Two out of three discounts were 50% or more.

Campaigns with a discount

October 40%
Black Week 78%

Discounts of 50% or more

October 46%
Black Week 66%

6. The number moves into the subject line

36% of Black Week subject lines carried a percentage, against 14% in October. Subject lines also used emoji twice as often (30% against 15%) and urgency words like "last chance", "ends tonight" or "today" twice as often (15% against 8%).

A % in the subject line

October 14%
Black Week 36%

Emoji in the subject line

October 15%
Black Week 30%

Urgency words

October 8%
Black Week 15%

7. The luxury brands never said the words

Burberry, Filippa K, Gucci and Prada emailed through Black Week without once naming Black Week, Black Friday or Cyber Monday in a subject line or preview text. They were the only four that did not: the three international luxury houses in the group, and Filippa K. In a week when most subject lines look alike, staying out of it is a position too.

8. Then it stops

The last mention came on 3 December. From 2 to 7 December the stores sent 47 campaigns, about their October pace again, and only 3 still named Black Week.

Ask ChatGPT or Claude what a store is sending

Signal by StackEnhance is also a free app in ChatGPT and a free connector in Claude. Add it once and ask in plain words: how often a store emails, what it sent last week, or which stores in your market email the most. It answers from the same public archive as this report, and every answer links to the store’s page here. No account needed.

During Black Week it is the quickest check on a competitor: ask on the Monday, and again on the Friday.

Questions to try this November:

  • “How many marketing e-mails did Jollyroom send last week?”
  • “Which home-interior stores email the most in Sweden?”
  • “Compare how often Mio and Royal Design emailed this month.”

Open in ChatGPT →Open in Claude →How to connect it →

See it on the store’s own page

The Signal Chrome extension does the same while you browse. Open any online store, click the icon, and you see when it last sent a newsletter, how many e-mails a week it sends and its recent subject lines. Sites are matched on your device.

Install from the Chrome Web Store →How the extension works →

Black Week 2026: the dates

  1. Singles DayBarely used in 2025
  2. First Black Week emailWhere the median store was in 2025
  3. Black Week startsThe Monday of Black Week
  4. Black FridayTied for the busiest day
  5. Cyber MondayThe last push

Seven lessons for Black Week 2026

What last year says about this one. Black Friday is on 27 November, Cyber Monday on 30 November.

  1. Send your first Black Week email by 19 November

    That is where the median store was last year, 8 days before Black Friday. 10 of 13 had started before the week itself.

  2. Expect your competitors to send about twice as much

    Most stores doubled their pace. Decide in advance whether you match it, and how many sends your list and your offer can carry.

  3. Plan Friday to Monday as one push

    Black Friday and the Sunday after were tied for the busiest day, and Cyber Monday came next. A plan that ends on Friday misses half the peak.

  4. Say "Black Week", and Black Friday on the day

    Black Week was the more common name (56% of the campaigns that named the event), and most stores used both.

  5. A 50% headline is the norm, not a standout

    Two thirds of the discounts were 50% or more. If you cannot go deeper, stand out on something else: the products, a clear end time, or a reason to buy from you.

  6. Put the number in the subject line

    36% of Black Week subject lines carried a percentage. If your offer is the point, say it before the email is opened.

  7. Not joining in is a strategy too

    The luxury brands kept sending without the Black Week words. If your brand does not discount, you can still be in the inbox that week on your own terms.

The 17 stores in this report

Each one links to its page in our brand directory, with its sending since.

How we counted

As observed by Signal: the marketing campaigns that reached Signal's own subscriber inboxes, 1 November – 7 December 2025. Each campaign is counted once, however many inboxes received it. Welcome, birthday and other non-campaign emails are excluded. Days are in each store's local time.

Signal followed fewer stores in 2025 than it does today (more than 10,000), and for many of them it did not capture every email. So this report uses only stores whose capture we can show was complete: at least one campaign captured in every week from 29 September to 14 December 2025, and a sending pace before Black Week within 25% of the pace we capture from the same store today. 17 stores pass; all are listed above. Stores we could not verify are left out, however well known. Signal's 2025 email comes from one subscriber inbox, loaded into Signal afterwards.

A Black Week email is one whose subject line or preview text names Black Week, Black Friday, Black Weekend or Cyber Monday. Discounts are the headline discount Signal reads from each campaign. A store that mails segments Signal is not on sends more than shown. We have no open, click or sales data, and none of these numbers estimate them.

Free to quote with a link to this page.