The DataWeave Blog

Category: Private Label

Black Friday U.S. 2025: Comprehensive Analysis of Deals, Pricing Trends, and Brand Visibility Across Key Categories
Black Friday 2025 shattered records once again. U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 9.1% increase from 2024 and the first time online sales exceeded $11 billion. The National Retail Federation (NRF) projects holiday retail sales (November-December) to grow 3.7% to 4.2% over 2024, with total holiday spending expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time ever. Against this backdrop of robust consumer spending, how did leading retailers and brands perform across key categories this Black Friday?

At DataWeave, we conducted a detailed analysis of Black Friday 2025 pricing trends across five major categories: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Health & Beauty, Grocery, and Apparel. Our AI-powered pricing intelligence platform monitored nearly 80,000 SKUs across leading U.S. retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Home Depot, Sephora, and more, revealing interesting patterns in how retailers and brands approached this year’s sale season.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, DataWeave monitored average discounts across leading U.S. retailers during two distinct periods:
- Pre-Black Friday: Up to November 23, 2025 – capturing early holiday deals and baseline pricing
- Additional Discounts During Black Friday Week: November 24 – December 1, 2025 – covering Thanksgiving week through Black Friday (November 28) and Cyber Monday (December 1)
Our sample encompassed the top-ranked products across subcategories on major retail sites. We also analyzed Share of Search data, which measures brand visibility by monitoring which brand names appear in the top 20 search results for critical keywords.

Black Friday 2025: The Big Picture

Here’s the snapshot of average discounts during the Pre-Black Friday period compared to Black Friday Week:

Key Insight: Pre-Black Friday discounts were significant across all categories. This suggests retailers front-loaded their promotions to capture early holiday shoppers, with additional discounts during Black Friday Week adding to the baseline discounts already in place.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics remain one of the most anticipated categories during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Notably, AI traffic to retail websites grew 805% year-over-year, with consumers using AI tools most frequently for video games, appliances, and electronics categories. Our analysis of 10,356 SKUs reveals how discounts varied across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

In Consumer Electronics, Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 14.6% across subcategories, while Black Friday Week saw an additional 2.6% discount on average. Audio & Video products led the pre-sale discounting at 17.5%, indicating retailers were eager to move inventory early. During Black Friday Week, Audio & Video, Accessories, and Wearables saw the highest additional discounts (2.9-3 %), while Computers and Storage had already been heavily discounted pre-sale, leaving minimal room for further reductions during the main event.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Our Share of Search analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week:

The Takeaway: Our analysis reveals significant shifts in brand visibility during Black Friday Week compared to the pre-sale period. Computing and mobile-focused brands like Apple and Asus gained substantial ground, while audio brands like Logitech, JBL, and Beats saw their visibility plummet. Apple’s Share of Search jumped from 1.58% to 6.2%, a gain of 4.6%, suggesting strong promotional activity or heightened consumer interest. Meanwhile, Logitech dropped nearly 8%, from 9.9% to just 1.2%.

Home & Furniture

The Home & Furniture category continues to be a consumer favorite during Black Friday. Our analysis of 12,610 SKUs shows how discounts were distributed across subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Home & Furniture saw Pre-Black Friday discounts averaging 13.9%, with Black Friday Week adding just 1.7% on average, the second-lowest additional discount among all categories. Bedding led pre-sale discounts at an impressive 18.6%, followed by Furniture at 16.4% and Outdoor at 15.1%. This suggests retailers aggressively promoted home goods early in the season to capture deal-seekers.

During Black Friday Week, Bedding maintained leadership with 2.4% additional discounts, while Kitchenware saw the smallest bump at just 0.9%, indicating early promotions had already captured most of the discount opportunity.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The Takeaway: The Home & Furniture category saw some of the most dramatic Share of Search swings in our entire analysis. Emerging and value-oriented brands dominated the gains, with Swedrea surging from 8.7% to 19.6%, a remarkable 10.8% increase. Similarly, Clickbin and Costway each gained over 9%. On the flip side, established premium brands like Beautyrest and Livabliss saw sharp visibility declines, dropping over 7-8%.

Health & Beauty

Health & Beauty has emerged as a growth engine during Black Friday. The beauty industry is projected to grow 5% annually through 2030 according to a McKinsey survey. Our analysis of 16,141 SKUs reveals subcategory-level insights.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Notable finding: Health & Beauty presented a unique discounting pattern compared to other categories. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 7.1%, the second-lowest among all categories. But Black Friday Week discounts were relatively strong at 4.8%. This indicates the Beauty category held back more discounts for the main event.

Notably, Hair Care was the only subcategory across our entire analysis where Black Friday Week discounts (6%) exceeded Pre-Black Friday discounts (4.6%), suggesting retailers strategically saved their best hair care promotions for the big weekend. Fragrance led pre-sale discounts at 13%, making it an attractive early shopping category.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Health & Beauty saw some of the most dramatic Share of Search swings in our analysis, driven largely by celebrity-backed brands. Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez exploded from just 1.9% to 13.7%, a whopping 11.8% gain that made it the biggest winner across all categories. Haus Labs by Lady Gaga also surged (+4.1%), while prestige brands like Dior (+2.6%) and Clinique (+2.4%) gained ground.

The flip side? Retailer private labels took a hit: Beauty Finds by ULTA Beauty collapsed from 24% to 13.7% (-10.3%), and Sephora Collection dropped from 19.8% to 16.0% (-3.8%).

Key Takeaway: The Beauty category tells a compelling story about the power of celebrity brands during Black Friday. The Share of Search shifts appear to reflect how retailers and brands recalibrated their promotional focus for Black Friday. Celebrity-driven lines rose sharply in visibility, suggesting stronger placement, promotion, or search prioritization during the sale period. At the same time, private-label ranges from ULTA and Sephora lost ground, indicating a pivot away from house-brand visibility in favor of more spotlighted national and prestige brands throughout the event.

Grocery

While Grocery typically sees more modest discounts compared to discretionary categories, the sector remains a critical part of Thanksgiving weekend shopping. According to the National Retail Federation, grocery stores and supermarkets ranked as the third most popular shopping destination during Thanksgiving weekend, with 40% of consumers making purchases there. Our analysis of 18,823 SKUs shows how retailers approached promotions across essential and indulgent subcategories.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Grocery had the lowest discounts across all categories, reflecting the already-thin margins in food retail. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged just 5.2%, with Black Friday Week adding only 1.5%. Household Essentials and Beverages led pre-sale discounts at 6.9% and 6.7% respectively, and maintained their lead during Black Friday Week with 2.2% additional discounts each. Fresh categories like Meat & Seafood (1.4% pre-sale, 1% Black Friday Week) and Frozen Foods (3.3%, 1%) saw minimal promotional activity, consistent with perishable inventory constraints and tight margins.

Key Takeaway: Grocery discounting remains conservative, with shelf-stable and household items seeing the most promotional activity. The Beverages and Household Essentials subcategories, which have longer shelf life and higher margins, were the primary battleground for grocery promotions during BFCM 2025.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

The Grocery category saw some surprising Share of Search swings during Black Friday Week. Most notably, there was a dramatic divergence between beverage giants: Sprite surged from 1.7% to 6.8% (+5.1%), while Coca-Cola collapsed from 6% to just 0.1% (-5.9%). This stark contrast suggests vastly different promotional strategies or algorithmic visibility changes between the two brands. Private label 365 by Whole Foods Market continued its steady rise, gaining 3%, reflecting ongoing consumer interest in store brands as shoppers seek value.

The Sprite vs. Coca-Cola divergence is one of the most striking findings in our analysis. Additionally, brands like Amy’s (organic/natural foods) and McCormick (spices/seasonings) gained significant visibility.

Apparel

Apparel remains a Black Friday staple and performed strongly this year. Our analysis of 21,749 SKUs (the largest category in our study) reveals interesting patterns.

Subcategory Discount Analysis

Apparel showed strong discounting activity throughout the BFCM period. Pre-Black Friday discounts averaged 13.8%, with Black Friday Week adding 3.8%, the highest additional discount among all five categories. Men’s Clothing and Women’s Clothing led pre-sale discounts at 17.7% and 17.5% respectively, reflecting aggressive early promotions on core apparel. Interestingly, Plus Size Clothing saw the highest Black Friday Week discount at 5.4%, suggesting retailers pushed harder during the main event to drive conversions in this segment. Kids’ Clothing also saw strong Black Friday Week discounts at 4.4%.

Share of Search: Brand Visibility Trends

Apparel saw dramatic Share of Search movements during Black Friday Week. Fashion-forward brands dominated the gains: Madewell surged from 6.9% to 16.1% (+9.2%), while Alice + Olivia jumped from 14.7% to 23.6% (+8.9%). Nike also performed strongly with a 7.1% gain. Conversely, outdoor and athletic brands faced steep declines: The North Face dropped from 18.4% to 5.9%, a massive 12.5% decline, the largest in our entire analysis. Adidas fell 7.7%, Beyond Yoga declined 5.3%, and luxury brand Coach by 5%.

Key Takeaway: The data suggests fashion-forward and lifestyle brands (Madewell, Alice + Olivia, Saint Laurent) gained visibility at the expense of outdoor/athletic brands (The North Face, Adidas, Beyond Yoga). This could indicate that fashion brands invested more heavily in promotional visibility during the sale period.

Want to understand how DataWeave’s pricing intelligence platform can help your business make data-driven decisions during peak sales events? Contact us to learn more about competitive insights, price intelligence, assortment analytics, content analytics, and digital shelf analytics.

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December 9, 2025
Share of Keyword Search Cinco de Mayo 2022

As inflation continues to hike costs for consumers and supply chains challenge them to maintain loyalty, there is still an active audience willing to pay the ultimate price for the convenience of food and alcohol delivery. That being said, we analyzed 8 popular Retail and Delivery Intermediary websites and 11 popular ‘Cinco de Mayo’ keywords to see which Brands are predicted to win the battle of Digital Shelf Share of Search this holiday.

2022 Cinco de Mayo Share of Search Insights – Top Brands for ‘Cinco de Mayo’

Opportunities for Food & Bev on Cinco de Mayo

While most of our analysis focused on popular Cinco de Mayo food and beverage products, none of these brands populated on either Target (pictured on left below) or Walmart (pictured on right below) page 1 search results for the term ‘Cinco de Mayo’. Keyword search results for this term are dominated primarily by décor brands as indicated below.

Brands Achieving Top Share of Search for Food and Beverage Categories on Cinco de Mayo 2022

Share of Keyword Search Results – Alcohol Category

Three of the most popular alcohol types sought out during Cinco de Mayo are ‘Mexican Beer’, ‘Mezcal’, and ‘Tequila’. Below are the brands dominating Share of Keyword Search results on each of the major retail websites we researched.

AmazonFresh, Meijer, Kroger, and Sam’s Club Share of Search – Beer, Mezcal, and Tequila Keywords on Cinco de Mayo 2022

We also reviewed the same keyword performance across popular delivery intermediaries to see how Share of Keyword Search altered for ‘Mexican Beer’, ‘Mezcal’, and ‘Tequila’. The results are below for TotalWine, Instacart, Drizly and GoPuff:

TotalWine, Instacart, Drizly, and GoPuff of Search – Beer, Mezcal, and Tequila Keywords on Cinco de Mayo 2022

The keyword ‘Agave’ is also a popular search term within the alcohol category during the time leading up to Cinco de Mayo. We reviewed keyword search performance at various zip codes to see how price points that populated on page 1 search results varied given the change in median income. Below are the results:

Share of Search for Alcohol by Price Point and Zip Code on AmazonFresh

Share of Keyword Search Results – Grocery Categories

We also reviewed some of the most popular grocery items purchased during Cinco de Mayo by Keyword Share of Search results to see which brands are primed to win the Digital Shelf this year. Below are the results for Target.com and Walmart.com.

Walmart and Target Share of Search – Food and Beverage Keywords on Cinco de Mayo 2022

Below are the results for the same popular grocery items and alcohol keywords related to Cinco de Mayo and the page 1 results seen for Brand Share of Search on Safeway.com.

Safeway Share of Search – Food and Beverage Keywords on Cinco de Mayo 2022

Access to these types of real-time digital marketplace insights can enable retailers and brands to make strategic decisions and help drive profitable growth in an intensifying competitive environment. Be sure to reach out to our Retail Analytics experts for access to more details regarding the above analysis, and let us know what other holiday insights you’d be interested in seeing this year. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

May 4, 2022
eCommerce Performance Analytics for CPG Private Label
The combination of economic uncertainty, inflation, and perceived affordability has increased consumer’s willingness to buy and try more private label products, challenging National brands to differentiate their eCommerce strategies, especially those related to price positioning, in other ways.

Our previously released report, Inflation Accelerates Private Label Share and Penetration, confirmed 8 out of 10 brands with the highest SKU count carried across all grocery retailer websites to be private label, signaling the strength of their digital Share of Voice. Given the growing shift in consumer preference toward private label brands, we are providing access to the latest trends seen from September 2021 through March 2022. Below you will find a summary of what the data revealed about the growing presence of private label brands on the Digital Shelf.

Private Label Account and Category Penetration

We analyzed private label penetration at an account level to understand which private label brands have the greatest presence on retailer digital shelves, and to see which retailers may be leaving product assortment opportunities on the table.

Private Label Penetration Across Retail Grocer Websites

As a retailer, it is important to understand how your private label penetration stacks up against the industry average at a category level, especially given the performance tracked for retailers included within our analysis and the vast number of SKUs they offer online (over 20,000).

Private Label Penetration by Category Across Retail Grocer Websites

The Private Label and National Brand Price Gap Widens

Private label brands tried out of necessity mid-pandemic increased in popularity as grocery prices continued to rise, providing an opportunity for retailers to increase brand affinity and loyalty for their online shoppers. Retailers alike were able to keep affordability at the forefront of their strategies and maintain a price gap of 23% or more, despite inflationary pressures to increase prices.

Private Label / National Brand Price Gap by Retailer

Looking at the results at a category level, we can see that Meat is the only category found within our analysis where private label brands are priced higher than National brands at an average of 8% greater. The Alcohol & Beverages category tends to always see the greatest price gap between private label and National brands given the price variances by unit (ranging from under $10 to over $100), in this case averaging a 148% price gap.

Private Label & National Brand Price Gap by Category

Private Label Total Basket Value Comparison Across Retailers

While SKU-level pricing is extremely important to product strategy, for a retailer, it is equally as important to be as mindful of the total basket value even more so now as consumers further their private label loyalty across various categories. A few SKU-level missteps in pricing decisions can exacerbate cart abandonment and negatively impact shopper loyalty in a world where prices can be compared instantly in the palm of your hand.

Based on our analysis, Walmart and H-E-B private label products offered the lowest priced total basket of goods at $42.90 and $45.06 respectively, whereas AmazonFresh and Safeway offered the highest total at $73.19 and $69.52 respectively.

Private Label Item Level Price Comparison by Retailer

Inflation-driven Price Changes are on the Rise with Room to Grow

Based on the 20,000+ SKUs analyzed, we saw a continual price increase every month since September 2021 when comparing future monthly prices to those we tracked in September. The greatest price increase happened in March 2022 at 12.5% on average, however, there are still 48% of SKUs that have yet to see a price increase even as inflationary pressures rise.

When viewing the split between National and private label brand price increases in March 2022 versus September 2021, we saw National brands increased prices on average by 13% where private label brand prices only increased an average of 7%.

Private Label & National Brand Price Change (%)

Price decreases are still occurring across all categories, despite inflation, but to varying degrees ranging from 5% for Deli items to 17% for Dairy & Eggs. Within the Dairy & Eggs and Pantry categories, private label brands reduced prices for an additional 10% of total SKUs compared to National brands.

The greatest category of opportunity for price increases within private label were found within Beauty & Personal Care with 67% of private label products yet to see a price change since September 2021.

Price Change (%) by Category and Brand Type

Private Label Price Change Correlation to Product Availability

The category with the greatest magnitude of price increase seen within private label brands occurred within Baby at 16.3% followed by Home at 14.3% on average. Private label products within Home and Baby categories were also showing the lowest availability rates, 75.9% and 79.5% respectively, indicating a high demand for these items even as prices increased.

The private label categories with the smallest price increase on average were Dairy & Eggs at 2.4% and Other Foods and Pantry at 3.4% and 3.6%, respectively.

Private Label Price Change Magnitude & Availability

While in many accounts both private label and National brands struggled with stock availability in March 2022, National brand availability is much lower (around 10% on average) than private label availability.

H-E-B had the lowest overall product availability at 76% across both private label and National brands on average. Only Walmart had lower availability for Private Label at 75% compared to 93% for National brands, but they also had the greatest price gap between private label and National brands.

Private Label & National Brand Product Stock Availability

The Future of eCommerce Growth for Private Label

Our greatest learning from this analysis is that it’s time for retailers to start thinking and planning more like the National brands they carry when it comes to positioning their private label brands for success. Successful retailers are taking this time to reset their private-label strategies and transfer short-term switching behavior into long-term customer loyalty.

Retailers playing catch up have the opportunity to address some of the gaps highlighted throughout this analysis, for example, relative to pricing and assortment changes. Below are some of the highlighted opportunities:
- Though inflation is driving price hikes, more than 50% of products analyzed have yet to see a price increase indicating an opportunity to protect margin
- Narrowing the price gap between a store’s brand and National brands should not be the only focus as competitive private label brands are becoming a greater threat at a category and basket level
- Modifying and expanding assortments as demand increases for private label can improve customer retention and loyalty, especially for cross-shopping consumers
According to The Food Industry Association (FMI), only 20% of food retailers currently promote private brands on their homepages, and only 48% include detailed product descriptions indicating even more opportunities left on the table for retailers to optimize private label digital performance.

Many leading retailers are leveraging real-time digital marketplace insights and eCommerce analytics solutions like ours to further their online brand presence and optimize sales performance. This report highlights only a small sample of the types of near real-time insights we provide our clients to effectively build competing strategies, make smarter pricing and merchandising decisions, and accomplish eCommerce growth goals. Be sure to reach out to our Retail Analytics experts for access to more details regarding the above analysis.

For access to a previously recorded webinar presented in partnership with the Private Label Manufacturers Association and conducted by DataWeave’s President and COO, Krish Thyagarajan, click here.
April 12, 2022