Black Friday 2025 by the Numbers with Sean McCormick, Moneris Data Services

The Voice of Retail welcomes back Sean McCormick, Vice President, Business Development, Moneris Data Services, for a fast-moving, data-rich breakdown of the most closely watched retail moment of the year: Black Friday 2025. As the executive helping steer Moneris’s industry-leading data capabilities, McCormick offers a uniquely authoritative look at what Canadians actually did when the doors opened and the deals dropped.

McCormick begins by explaining how Moneris has evolved into one of Canada’s most trusted retail intelligence platforms. Processing debit and credit payments across all major card brands, from tap to insert, Moneris touches roughly one-third of all transaction volume in the country. This broad reach allows the team to spot real consumer behaviour in real time, without relying on sentiment models or estimates. Even more crucial, McCormick reveals that Moneris applies a same-store methodology to exclude merchant growth and terminal expansion—ensuring Black Friday results reflect genuine consumer activity, not changes in Moneris’s business footprint.

Heading into the season, Moneris surveyed Canadians about their holiday spending intentions. Only a small percentage planned to spend more this year, while a much larger share expected to spend less. Those expectations align with continued inflationary pressure, particularly around essentials like groceries, that increasingly crowd out discretionary spending opportunities.

So—did this sentiment show up in the numbers?

McCormick confirms that Black Friday still packs a punch, driving more than a 20% spike over the previous Friday as Canadians showed up ready to shop. However, total Black Friday spending declined compared to last year, revealing a measurable shift in consumer behaviour. Rather than abandoning the day, shoppers appear to be more careful, deliberate, and value-driven—engaging when it matters, but spending less overall.

The conversation also explores how the timing of Christmas on the calendar influences the competition between Black Friday and the last shopping weekend of December, and why certain retail categories remain far more dependent on the event than others. For independent retailers, national brands, and retail strategists alike, these insights offer tangible implications for everything from promotional timing to inventory planning.

This episode is essential listening for retail leaders seeking clarity in a changing marketplace. McCormick not only brings the numbers—he explains what they mean, why they matter, and how retailers can use them to navigate the weeks and quarters ahead.

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Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.