Shopify Stores Break Sales Record for Black Friday 2023

Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more

Shopify's interactive Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend page showing real-time sales
We used Shopify’s interactive Black Friday Cyber Monday page to track sales made by Shopify stores worldwide.
  • Shopify merchants set a new record with $9.3 billion in sales made over Black Friday weekend
  • Over 55,000 Shopify stores had their best sales day ever

The Thanksgiving turkey didn’t slow down anyone’s shopping habits this year – Shopify, one of our top-rated website builders, reported a record-breaking Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend for Shopify stores.

We all know that Black Friday is the hottest time of year to grab deals and shop with our favorite businesses, and it’s great to see that so many Shopify merchants successfully prepared their stores for the busy season.

Ahead of the weekend, Shopify announced its interactive Black Friday Cyber Monday page so users could watch Shopify sales around the world in real time. Unsurprisingly, this was a lot of data to consume, so Shopify kindly shared the top highlights for the weekend:

  • $9.3 billion in sales were made by Shopify merchants over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, an increase of 24% since 2022
  • Shopify stores served 61 million customers around the world
  • Top-selling product categories over the BFCM weekend: apparel and accessories, health and beauty, and home and garden
  • The average checkout price was $108.12

The top-selling countries were the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany. Los Angeles, New York, and London achieved the most sales per city.

On Black Friday alone, Shopify merchants achieved some phenomenal results:

  • $4.1 billion in sales on Black Friday, an increase of 22% since 2022
  • Peak sales on Black Friday hit $4.2 million per minute
  • $1 billion in sales were made by midnight before Black Friday
  • Top-selling product categories on Black Friday: clothing, personal care, and jewelry
  • The average checkout price was $110.71

The data from Shopify is based on gross merchandise volume – the total dollar value of orders – by Shopify stores around the world throughout the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.

Going Green for Black Friday

Black wasn’t the only color last Friday – Shopify teamed up with the Shopify Sustainability Fund partners to ensure green shipping over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. Shopify calculated the estimated carbon emissions for each order’s shipping footprint and promised the removal of the equivalent CO2 emissions, meaning every shipped order over the weekend was carbon neutral.

Following the weekend, Shopify announced that the company will be funding the removal of 56,000+ tonnes of carbon to match the weekend’s shipping emissions.

And, this isn’t just a one-off fad from Shopify! Shopify merchants can download Shopify Planet for free to ship carbon neutral all year long.

Smashing Sales

Over 55,000 Shopify stores had their best sales day ever over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. And that’s not all – over 17,500 business owners landed their first sale with Shopify!

Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s President, had this to say of the success:

“Watching entrepreneurs make their first sale and seeing established brands reach new highs on Black Friday-Cyber Monday was incredible. Our merchants spend all year building relationships with their customers and earning brand trust. This weekend was a testament to how they consistently deliver experiences and products that global consumers are looking for.”

Shopify is the best in the business when it comes to supporting ecommerce stores, and shares for the company closed up almost 5% following the weekend.

So if you’re thinking about selling online, we recommend you check out our dedicated Shopify review and our round-up of the top ecommerce website builders on the market right now to see if Shopify is a good fit for your business.

More Information

Written by:
emma ryan author bio
I’m a Senior Writer at Website Builder Expert, which means I’m part of a great team that produces and updates content for the website. I specialize in writing highly-researched and accessible guides, comparisons, and reviews that provide readers with everything they need to know about getting started and growing online. I’ve also written about small businesses for Startups.co.uk, video optimization for Industry Today, and HTML for Digital Information World. While working for Website Builder Expert, I’ve gained expertise in website builders, ecommerce platforms, and hosting providers through hands-on testing and research analysis. I’ve also attended expos to further my industry knowledge – all of this helps me pitch fresh article ideas for the website. Additionally, I manage our website’s comments which allows me to have a good understanding of what you, our readers, care about.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *