Retail’s triple crown of Walmart, Amazon and Target saw major shifts in who shopped this year’s Black Friday sales—and not all the changes were identical.
New PYMNTS Intelligence data shows that as millions of Americans became more cost-constrained this summer and fall, they overwhelmingly favored Amazon. Widespread pocketbook tightness helped skyrocket the share of Black Friday shoppers hitting the retail behemoth from 50.8% last year to 55.6%.
The surge at Seattle-based Amazon came from consumers feeling the pressure of inflation and higher living costs, especially for utilities and housing. Almost six in 10 consumers who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to pay their monthly bills, or 56.2%, shopped the online giant, over one-quarter more than last year’s 44.1%. Amazon also saw a big spike in popularity with shoppers with annual household income under $50,000, from 40.6% to 50.3%.
Budgeting and discipline were this year’s principles for the 151 million shoppers who showed up for Black Friday, 7% fewer than last year, according to PYMNTS Intelligence.
The Trump administration’s “reciprocal” tariffs on imported goods from toys to clothes to computers equate to an annual average of $1,700 per U.S. household, the Yale Budget Lab estimates. Relief last month on imported coffee, meat and other food items save households just $35, the Peterson Institute for International Economics says. Black Friday shoppers spent an average of $295 this year, about $9 more than in 2024, but they bought fewer items, PYMNTS data shows. About 37% of consumers bought fewer items compared with 2024, up from 30% the prior year. The annual sales event saw 80.3 million consumers shop in store and 85.7 million shop online, National Retail Federation data shows.
For younger consumers early in their work careers and older ones living on a budget, Amazon was the go-to. Generation Z shoppers returned en masse, from 46.1% of all Black Friday shoppers last year to 55.6% this time. Similarly, bridge millennials, whose loyalty had softened last year, spiked their Amazon purchases from 52.8% to 60.5% this year. The period between 2024 and 2025 was, in essence, Amazon restoring its status as the default for younger and budget-sensitive consumers.
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Two in three adult Americans now survive paycheck to paycheck. A record-high 42% live that way not because they choose to (due to discretionary spending, working less or deliberately not seeking additional or higher-paying employment), but because they have no other financial choice. Amazon’s recapture of struggling shoppers this season established the retail giant as the clear online destination for financially strained consumers.
The Walmart Surprise
Rival Walmart backslid this Black Friday.
Despite the retailer’s value proposition of “Every Day Low Prices,” just over one in two (51.55%) of all shoppers showed up in store and online, a dip on last year’s 53.3%. Even some financially struggling consumers stayed away from America’s largest retailer.
Traditionally dominant among lower-income consumers, Walmart maintained its position among shoppers with annual household income of less than $50,000, at 60.4%. this year (59.7% last season). At the same time, it lost share with consumers living paycheck to paycheck (both struggling and not struggling to pay monthly bills), a segment that covers not just lower-income people. Some 58.9% of shoppers in households that live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to pay their bills shopped the big-box chain, down from 60.5% last year. Walmart’s share of shoppers who comfortably live that financial lifestyle slipped from 56.8% to 54.1%. That suggests Walmart lost ground with its traditional base to rival Amazon.
Strikingly, the number of shoppers not struggling financially and shopping Walmart rose this year, from 41.1% to 43.9%. This may suggest that they shopped for groceries, Walmart’s traditional stronghold across more than 4,600 big-box stores across the United States.
Missing the Target
Target, the smaller guy compared to the two giants in terms of annual sales, isn’t synonymous with the lowest prices. As such, its decline was most pronounced among the financially vulnerable, signaling a strategic retreat toward a more affluent customer base.
The share of Black Friday shoppers having “difficulty paying bills” who shopped at the retailer dropped drastically from 25.0% in 2024 to 17.9% this year, suggesting these shoppers followed the trend toward Amazon.
In keeping with its image as a more upscale version of Walmart, albeit with a leaner, curated selection of goods, Target made modest gains among the financially secure. The share of higher-income shoppers (in households with annual income of $100,000 to more than $150,000)—a key Target demographic—ticked up slightly to just over one in four, suggesting careful holiday-shopping budgeting by all income levels. Similarly, its penetration among shoppers who do not live paycheck to paycheck rose from 16.7% to 19.0%.
Target also continued to lose shoppers in one of its core demographics, Generation Z. That cohort’s loyalty dipped from 32.4% to 30.0%, perhaps a sign of pocketbook constrains for younger people early in their professional careers.
The changes for retail’s triple juggernaut mark some of the biggest shifts in consumer spending habits since the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged digital commerce. Target shed the most price-sensitive consumers. But it solidified its hold on segments with greater financial comfort, establishing a clear separation from the primary battle for the budget shopper between Amazon and Walmart. This year’s event was marked not by who won the whole pie, but by which consumer segments each retailer successfully captured or lost during a period of intense economic pressure.
