Inside BFCM 2025: The messaging trends that shaped the biggest holiday season yet

There’s no denying Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to reign as the biggest shopping moment of the year. This November, the sales period drove $123.17 billion in online revenue, with $11.7 billion generated on Black Friday alone. That’s a 7.2% lift over last year for the full month, and an 8.3% increase on the big day itself!

But it wasn’t just the sales totals that stood out. This season also marked a clear shift in how customers and brands interacted, with AI-powered conversational messaging playing a bigger role than ever.

At Sinch, we get a close-up view of all that activity. With more than 900 billion communications moving through our platform each year, we are uniquely positioned to see how brands scale their outreach during the most important shopping weeks of the season.

So, how did customer communication take shape during 2025’s peak period? Here’s what we saw – from the early promotions to the delivery updates and everything in between.

The holiday shopping rush isn’t sticking to a single weekend anymore. Consumers expect promotions earlier – 37% said they want them a month before BFCM – and retailers are responding, turning Black Friday from a two-day event into a full November engagement.

Across channels like email, volumes for the month increased by 32% year over year, with the biggest growth happening the week before Cyber Week, as early deal drops and pre-holiday campaigns kicked off. During the week of Black Friday, the total interactions across all channels climbed to 27 billion, driven by longer promotional windows and rising expectations for real-time updates and support.

And that activity wasn’t limited to one or two channels. Email, messaging, and voice all saw intense activity as brands stretched their outreach across several weeks instead of relying on a single weekend.

The result? A 2025 holiday season that’s less about one big moment and more about sustained, multi-channel momentum all month long.

Conversational messaging took a major step forward this year. RCS delivered the strongest year-over-year gains across the Sinch platform, highlighting just how quickly retailers, logistics providers, and digital services are shifting toward richer, more interactive experiences.

The channel saw its biggest Black Friday performance yet in 2025, climbing 144% YoY as more brands leaned into rich media, verified sender identities, and AI-powered conversation flows.

“This year’s Black Friday shows that rich AI-powered, conversational experiences are no longer optional, they are the new standard. RCS is gaining real traction as brands look for ways to stand out in crowded markets, while SMS email, and voice continue to provide the trust and reliability that peak-season commerce demands. The strong increases we’re seeing are driven by earlier promotions, longer campaigns, and the growing expectation for real-time delivery updates, order tracking, and customer support.”

Daniel Morris Chief Product Officer at Sinch

This surge reflects a broader industry shift: As expectations for immediacy and personalization rise, companies are increasingly adopting AI-powered conversational channels to create fast, frictionless interactions consumers can trust – a trend we expect will continue to also shape how brands communicate in 2026.

Even as conversational messaging surges, the core pillars of customer communication – SMS, email, and voice – continue to carry the heaviest load during the holiday rush. Together, these channels give brands the speed, consistency, and global reach they need when customer engagement peaks.

This year, SMS and email once again anchored peak-season outreach and customer updates, delivering the scale and reliability retailers need during high-volume periods. SMS held its central role across high-volume transactional touchpoints, totaling 3.1 billion messages delivered during the week of Black Friday.

Email remained a top choice for promotions and ongoing customer engagement. Sinch’s email platform delivered 20.4 billions emails during the week of Black Friday, with volumes rising 30% YoY during Black Friday alone. Increased traffic in the inbox didn’t result in decreased engagement, though. Average open rates held strong at 13% during Black Friday (excluding bots), proving targeted email communications drive results even during the BFCM frenzy.

Voice also continued to prove essential during high-stake moments. For more complex or sensitive interactions, customers still want a real conversation and turn to the phone for support. During Black Friday alone, Sinch supported 3.2 billion minutes in voice traffic, underscoring the channel’s importance for service escalation and timely customer care when it matters most.

BFCM 2025 made one thing clear: Rich, AI-powered conversational experiences are quickly becoming the new standard for how customers want to engage. And while conversational messaging grow, foundational channels like email, SMS, and voice continue to anchor the moments where trust, reach, and reliability matter most, proving the need for a balanced, omnichannel approach.

As we look ahead, longer promotional cycles and rising expectations for real-time updates will require infrastructure that can flex, scale, and deliver every time. If you’re starting to plan for 2026, our latest Sinch Predictions report highlights the trends shaping the next chapter of customer communications – from AI and conversational messaging to the evolving role of core channels.

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Sinch Predictions: What’s in the cards for customer communications in 2026?

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And if you’re gearing up for next year’s peak season, we’re here to help. Explore our product portfolio to see how Sinch can support your omnichannel strategy, or connect with our team for guidance on building a messaging approach that keeps customers informed, engaged, safe, and happy throughout the holiday rush.

Author: Beatriz Redondo Tejedor Bea is the Director of Content Marketing at Sinch. Formerly a language teacher, she has over a decade of experience building global and multilingual communications and content marketing strategies.