An uncertain economy did nothing to slow shoppers down this Black Friday. The annual promotional period—which seems to get longer every year—broke records, including a new high for online shopping: $11.8 billion. Though home retailers aren’t typically big winners on Black Friday, many benefit from the overall excitement. To get a sense of what this year’s retail frenzy looked like in the home world, Business of Home spoke to seven brands and retailers.

Big Rebound
Across the board, these home players found that 2025 marked a huge improvement over 2024, with several seeing a resurgence in sales after recording a dip last year. “We were really happy with how Black Friday went for us this year,” says Phantila Phataraprasit, CEO of direct-to-consumer furniture brand Sabai. “We were up for the month of November, up around almost 50 percent year over year, and so that’s really exciting growth for us. [Our] store in Williamsburg did well, but [sales were] definitely online-heavy.”

Other DTC companies had similarly positive results. Parachute says it sold an item every seven seconds throughout a weeklong promotional window, while Canadian bedding and mattress purveyors Silk & Snow saw “double-digit year-over-year growth.” Many independent retailers saw a boost as well. “Our Small Business Saturday last year was not good,” says Michele Varian, owner of her eponymous Brooklyn shop. “This year was [more than] double 2024, and about 64 percent over 2023.”

Online Growth
Last month, the reality of Black Friday was less about lines stretching out of the door—as in years past—and more about a frenzy of online activity culminating in Cyber Monday.

The Savannah, Georgia–based design shop belonging to Leah Bailey Interiors saw a 20 percent jump over 2024, almost entirely due to growth in online sales (its in-store sales were down about 30 percent). “People were shopping for us more online—on the website or through social media—rather than [by] foot traffic in either one of our shops, which is much different than years past,” says Molly Thomas, the company’s director of operations. “We are not in a strip mall, or a mall area, or near a big-box store at all. I feel like the clientele probably did more of that foot-traffic shopping at the large chain retailers that were offering larger deals and door busters for Black Friday.”

Larger retailers saw a similar effect. “Traffic was much stronger online and in our outlet than in our regular stores,” says Sam Grawe, chief creative officer at Minneapolis-based furniture brand Blu Dot, which focused its promotion around outlet sales. “We hadn’t done a Black Friday event before—we historically are not a brand that loves to be super promotional. People tend to go to a Blu Dot store, our typical fleet, more in the context of ‘We’re shopping for furniture,’ not ‘We’re out getting Black Friday deals,’ so store traffic was soft versus online, and outlet was strong.”

Longer Promo Period
Over the years, Black Friday has evolved from a one-day shopping event to a weekend-long promotion—and now it seems many brands are stretching the festivities out over an entire month or more.

“One change we saw this year is that people were shopping earlier,” says Phataraprasit. “The bigger peak was actually at the beginning of the sale, so I think people are viewing it more as a sale period. For furniture specifically, the earlier the better, because people are hoping to have new furniture for the holidays.”

“Our annual sale is always in October. We extended it this year,” says Grawe. “We’ve had a pretty strong promotional period. Generally across the industry, everyone’s on deep discount right now, but this little spike of a warehouse sale with dedicated marketing around that seemed to hit.”

New Ideas
Though Black Friday is typically a period to lean into bestsellers, it’s also an opportunity to experiment, a chance to introduce new product or new ideas during a time in which consumers are in the mood to spend.

This year, Fromental—a bespoke, to-the-trade wallcoverings brand—gave Black Friday a shot. “It was an interesting time for us, because we have done it once before,” says co-founder Tim Butcher. “Our core business model really isn’t about last-minute and discount sales. But over the last couple of years, we’ve been dipping our toe into some e-commerce business with a range of framed artworks, so we’ve been slowly experimenting with a business where we’d be making salable individual items or accessories.”

The brand put a 20 percent discount on select merchandise and saw what Butcher calls a “massive acceleration” in sales. “I think our previous record month was about $45,000,” he says. “Not a huge business, but if you could do it all the time, it’d be good. This time around, we were having a decent November anyway, but we got such a big spike last week. I think we did a better part of $50,000 in the seven days around [Black Friday alone]—so for us, that made the month.”

“It was interesting that the sales across new products and older products are normally quite balanced, but the preponderance of the [Black Friday] sales were the ones that have been on the website for quite a long time,” he adds. “So you get the impression that it really is people who already like your product, but are not decided—it’s probably [a financial decision]—and in that week, [a sale] gets them over the line.”

Looking Ahead
Above all, the timing of Black Friday offers a natural window onto consumer behavior and brand performance in the new year.

“Customer [response] was surprisingly strong,” says Mehdi Ait Oufkir, CEO of Parachute. “I think this is the confirmation that, at least for the segment that we target, our customer is still doing really well, even though a lot of macro things could be impacting their spending. The customer showed up. Usually what we see on Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a lot of demand for gifting products. [This year] from what we’ve seen, our gifting assortment just didn’t perform as well as our core product. I think people were buying for themselves. For our industry, which has gone through a lot over the past few years, I think it’s a very strong sign. It makes me very excited about what [2026] could look like, because if customers are just ready to reinvest into their home, I think that’s going to fare really, really well for the industry as a whole.”

Varian agrees, though she’s staying cautious: “Last year, the whole year was soft for us, and people had pivoted to doing all the things they hadn’t been able to plan for and do during and shortly after the pandemic. People’s budgets were more focused on travel, life events and entertainment, versus nesting. I am hoping that the strong sales now are a new normal, but I recognize this is very possibly wishful thinking.”

Additional reporting by Aidan Taylor.