Key Takeaways:

• Shoppers spent big despite economic uncertainty, driven by AI and deep discounts.
• Beauty outperformed, with Amazon leaders thriving through creators and off-platform traffic.
• Mobile, social commerce, and BNPL reshaped holiday buying behavior across categories.

Cyber Week 2025 unfolded against a backdrop of economic whiplash: Americans are spending aggressively despite persistent anxiety about savings, credit card debt, and inflation that never quite cooled. The early months of the Trump administration amplified the volatility, with markets swinging on regulatory announcements, tariffs, consumer confidence pulling in opposite directions, and retailers bracing for shifts in tax and trade policies.

Yet, shoppers showed up in force. Over the five-day stretch from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, consumers spent $44.2 billion online (+7.1% year over year (YoY), part of the nearly 203 million people who hit stores and websites during the long weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday

According to Adobe Analytics, Black Friday (+9.1% YoY) outpaced Cyber Monday (+7.1% YoY) growth for the second consecutive year, signaling a structural shift in holiday shopping behavior as retailers push deeper, earlier discounts. However, Cyber Monday still remains the most powerful day of the shopping season, as US consumers spent $14.25 billion online. At the peak hours of 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Cyber Monday, shoppers poured in $16 million per minute, powered by promotions and the fast-rising adoption of AI-powered shopping tools.

Adobe now predicts that the 2025 holiday (Nov. 1-Dec. 31) will reach $253.4 billion in online sales, up 5.3% YoY.

Vivek Pandya, Lead Analyst, Adobe Digital Insights, explained that US retailers leaned heavily on discounts to drive online demand. These competitive deals pushed consumers to shop earlier. “Shoppers have also become increasingly savvy in finding the best deals and locating the right products, embracing generative AI-powered chat services and browser tools for the second season in a row."

NeilsonIQ’s Cyber 5 Data

NeilsonIQ’s Cyber 5 report revealed deeper structural beauty shifts, with the category a top four in sales. Amazon accounted for 41.6% of online beauty sales.

• The average beauty spend per customer was $63.70 (-2% YoY)
• The average number of beauty items per order was 1.7 (flat YoY)
• Beauty purchase frequency was up 7% YoY

Notably, haircare became more prevalent, gaining traction ahead of skincare, a reversal of typical holiday patterns.

Beauty sales distribution:

• Haircare: 29.6%
• Skincare: 29.6%
• Cosmetics and Nails: 23.5%
• Fragrance: 12.1%
• Bath and Body: 5.2%

Additionally, shoppers began buying earlier than previous years over Cyber Weekend:

• Thursday: 12.2% of beauty sales
• Friday: 27.7%
• Monday 25.2%

NeilsonIQ’s data shows a very clear demographic profile:

• Gen X: 32.1%
• Millennials: 31%
• Gen Z: 18.4%
• Boomers: 18.5%

Thirteen percent of beauty sales came from shoppers earning $75K-$100K, with meaningful penetration up to $150K.

The Skincare and Fragrance Pattern

Data from Pattern reflected that treatment skincare and gifting fragrances drove the largest sales spikes, signaling strong demand for results-oriented beauty and high-emotion holiday purchases.

Key product categories by sales spikes:

• Facial Masks: +273% YoY
• Serums +169% YoY
• Women’s Fragrance +204%
• Mascara +135% YoY
• Foundation +120%
• Shampoo +85% YoY
• Hair Sprays +96% YoY

Branded search was dominated by prestige and viral beauty brands; top keywords included:

• Medicube 
• Sol de Janeiro
• E.l.f
• Summer Fridays
• Dyson 
• Waterpik
• Olaplex
• Billie Eilish Perfume

Amazon Beauty Surges

Beauty was one of Amazon’s strongest outperformers this Cyber Week. According to Navigo Marketing’s Amazon Black Friday & Cyber Monday Review, beauty brands on Amazon had dramatic gains, driven by a strong Sunday to Monday finish. Beauty’s momentum reflects e-commerce trends of high discounts, mobile-first shopping, and algorithmic discovery, with Amazon uniquely amplifying these shifts.

The top movers on Amazon by YoY sales increase were:

• Medicube +12.5%
• Wonderskin +1.9%
• Shark Beauty +2.7%

Brands declining on Amazon were:

• L’ange Hair -7.5%
• Laneige -4.6%
• Revlon -2.8%
• CosRX -1.3%
• Burt’s Bees -2.6%

Medicube, Sol de Janeiro, Shark Beauty, TYMO, and Laura Geller New York held the largest share of Amazon beauty sales, with the top 10 brands capturing 53% of category revenue, reflecting increasing concentration among leaders even as ad activity decreased 9.8% YoY. Navigo’s report shows top SKUs with discounts reaching up to 52%, contributing to substantial sales spikes.

“As brands continue to leverage off-Amazon traffic they drive huge incremental revenue with brands like Medicube and Sol de Janeiro generating massive sales on very little on platform spend when comparing share,” said Jacob St. John founder of Navigo Marketing. “Concentration of sales and ads are splitting further apart with top brands taking just over 50% of sales while top sponsored brands account for only 12%.”

This reflects creator-led off Amazon traffic increasingly outperforming paid media. NeilsonIQ data confirms this concentration as Amazon captured 41.6% of all beauty e-commerce share during Cyber 5.

Front Row’s Forecast

Gabby Maksian, Senior Director, Global Marketing & Communications, told BeautyMatter that Front Row marked one of the strongest surges its portfolio has ever seen across Beauty, Health, and Wellness on Amazon, with the demand far outpacing last year’s benchmarks. Beauty brands under Front Row management grew 50% YoY during the Turkey 12 window, and 67% YoY for brands that ran promotional activity.

Demand accelerated earlier and more intensely than in 2024:

• Daily page views increased 66%, with Black Friday alone up 173% vs. baseline, a dramatic jump compared to 2024’s +96% surge.
• Consumer shopping intent was meaningfully higher than last year, signaling that earlier deal-seeking and tentpole-event planning are reshaping the path to purchase.

Beauty and wellness sales surged throughout the entire period:

• Sales during the full 12-day holiday window were 77% above baseline, compared with 47% in 2024.
• Black Friday delivered +219% in sales vs. baseline, and Cyber Monday followed closely at +200%, showing broad, sustained momentum rather than a single-day spike.

Deal timing was one of the biggest predictors of success:

• Products that launched deals before Thanksgiving grew 143%, compared with just 25% growth for products that waited until later in the week.
• The most successful brands paired early visibility with consistent promotional coverage throughout the full Turkey 12 period.

Beauty drove outsized order growth across categories:

• Participating beauty products saw 163% order growth vs. the prior 12-day period.
• CPG brands grew 66%, and VMS products grew 75%, reinforcing that the beauty and wellness shopper is especially active, engaged, and deal-responsive during Cyber Week.

Market Defense: The “How” Behind Cyber Week on Amazon

Market Defense revealed a clear divide between brands that strategically navigated Cyber Week and those that struggled under pressure.

Performance highlights included:

•  Deeper discounts are seeing higher wins. Brands offering 30% or more discounts saw a +5% boost in cost value reconciliation (CVR), particularly legacy brands. 
• Ad performance was strong. Sponsored brand videos and digital signal processing (DSP) excelled, with DSP delivery 45% new-to-brand sales. 
• Cross-channel activations such as email and influencer programming saw the highest lifts. Post-event retargeting also performed strongly.

Alongside the wins, Market Defense saw challenges:

• Cost-per-clicks (CPCs) surged in some cases, reaching $16 on day one, heavily impacting fragrance, where margins are thin. 
• Tariffs came in softer than expected, and deeper discounting drove down average order value (AOV). 
• Ulta Beauty’s competing event forced price matching, creating Amazon badging issues and suppressed visibility. 
• Brands' performance was also constrained by Buy Box suppressions and Amazon's favoring legacy brands for page one placement.

Market Defense also noted that most brands ran a full T12 promotional calendar and simultaneous promotions across DTC, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, and Nordstrom. This created significant strain on execution and budget allocation. 

Mobile Commerce as a Dominant Channel

Mobile commerce officially won the holiday season. On Cyber Monday alone:

• 57% of sales came from mobile (+8% YoY)
• $8.2 billion in mobile spend 
• Additionally, Thanksgiving mobile share hit 61.6%, hitting a new record

Just five years ago, mobile shopping represented only 41.4% of Cyber Monday purchases, an inflection point that is reshaping how beauty brands design storefronts, ad creative, and conversion flows.

BNPL Brilliance

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) usage also crossed a milestone.

• $1.03 billion spent through BNPL on Cyber Monday 
• 79.4% of BNPL purchases occurred on mobile 
• Season-to-date, BNPL has driven $10.1 billion, +9% YoY

For beauty in particular, premium and device categories fuel BNPL as an element of trial and gifting.

AI-Driven Holiday Shopping

In the age of rampant AI, the tool became one of the season’s most influential channels.

• AI-driven traffic to retail sites increased by 670% on Cyber Monday
• AI had an increase usage of 760% for the season of Nov 1-Dec 1
• The technology was most used for video games, appliances, electronics, toys, and personal care products

AI-assisted shopping through chat interfaces, search copilots, or browser tools, helped consumers compare ingredients, validate claims, and evaluate value more quickly.

Social Commerce Is Power

Social media’s share of retail revenue hit:

• 3.6% on Cyber Monday (+56.5% YoY)
• Affiliate and influencer channels contributed 21.8% of revenue (+7.4% YoY)

NeilsonIQ named 2025 as TikTok Shop’s breakout year:

• Health & Beauty equaled 22% of TikTok’s total sales 
• TikTok climbed one rank higher YoY in beauty revenue, penetration, and units sold
• Haircare and skincare equaled 60% of TikTok’s beauty sales 
• TikTok’s beauty sales were strongest between Gen X and millennials 
• 40% of TikTok beauty sales came from CA, TX, FL, NY, GA

TikTok’s holiday success was fueled by:

• Creator Bundles
• Quick-Hit Reviews
• Real-Time Deals
• Hyperpersonalized Algorithmic Push

Charm.io data confirmed TikTok’s dominance. On TikTok Shop, beauty surpassed $109 million, more than 20% of its $500 million sales total during the event (+50% YoY).

The top brands by sale on TikTok shop according to Charm.io were:

• Medicube: $6.8M
• Dr Melaxin: $3.1M
• Tarte Cosmetics: $2M
• Bellavita Luxury: $1.5M
• Color Wow: $1.5M
• Bask & Lather Co: $1.4M
• Skin1004: $1.2M
• Canvas Beauty: $1.1M
• Simply Mandy’s $1M
• QVC: $988.7K

This suggests a broader shift: Social platforms are no longer just upper-funnel. They are now direct conversion engines, particularly for beauty’s creator-driven ecosystem.

Navigo’s report echoes this trend: Top brands such as Medicube and Sol de Janeiro achieved massive sales on relatively low on-platform ad spend, suggesting off-Amazon channels and creator networks are driving disproportionate traffic and purchase intent.

Retail and Rampant Red Light

While e-commerce surged, physical retail had its own storyline. A Retail Industry Leaders Association survey cited that nearly 25% of major retailers have 1,000+ stores currently without pennies, with most rounding down and cutting costs, a margin erosion that is sure to surface during Q1 reporting.

Meanwhile, more seasoned shoppers continued investing in high-ticket beauty tech, notably LED and microcurrent devices.

• “Red light masks” were a top-trending search on LTK
• ShopMy reported CurrentBody Skin LED Mask, ZIIP HALO Microcurrent Device, and Omnilux Contour Mask were the three top-converting links for Black Friday through to Cyber Monday. 
• Countless creators linked to LYMA’s $2,695 Laser at Violet Grey, which also ranked in ShopMy’s top 10. 

Redefining Cyber Week

Cyber Week 2025 wasn’t just bigger, it was structurally different. AI, mobile, social commerce, and high-impact discounting converged to reshape how consumers discover and buy beauty products even in turbulent times. Amazon beauty leaders demonstrated that cross-channel influence, not just on-platform spend, now determines holiday-season winners. With total holiday e-commerce projected to top $253 billion, the brands that align with these shifts will define the next era of digital beauty retail.