Somewhere, someone has a shopping cart open, a discount code copied, and a nagging suspicion that next week’s deal will be better - trying to decide whether to click the Buy button, or wait a few days. This is the moment in the buyer journey that marketers will be hoping to influence on Black Friday 2026, and we’ve got the insights to help plan your strategy.
Ahead of November 27, Meltwater analyzed more than 750,000 posts and approximately 55 million engagements to explore the conversation building around the sales. The findings include a lead for TikTok Shop, a strong showing for fashion, and a 3D-printer partnership that gave one small creator a very big moment. Here’s a taste of what’s getting attention, what’s making shoppers hesitate, and what brands can learn before the checkout rush.
Contents
TikTok Shop gets people talking
Fashion takes the lead over electronics
Small creators deliver some big surprises
The biggest shopper question: Should I wait?
Your category has its own Black Friday hangout
Give shoppers a reason to choose you
Get the full Black Friday picture
Frequently asked questions
TikTok Shop gets people talking
Amazon may be a familiar first stop for deal hunting, but TikTok Shop has the lead in this early conversation.
TikTok Shop appears in 2.7% of analyzed posts, ahead of Amazon at 2.3%. Walmart, Shopify, and Best Buy round out the top five retailers by mentions.
TikTok Shop, Shopify, SHEIN, and Ulta Beauty also take a larger share of the conversation than at the same point in 2025. Walmart, Best Buy, and Costco take a smaller share.
These are conversation rankings, so the sales leaderboard may look different. Still, for marketers competing for attention, they offer a useful early signal: shopping discovery is happening alongside product clips, creator recommendations, and discount codes.
A good product demonstration gives people something to watch, discuss, and share while they decide whether to buy. Your Black Friday creative should give the offer that kind of context.
Fashion takes the lead over electronics
If your mental picture of Black Friday still involves a television being wrestled into a shopping cart, the early data has a wardrobe update for you.
Fashion and shoes appear in 6.7% of posts, ahead of electronics at 5.5% and holiday gifts and gift guides at 4.8%. Fashion, gifting, and fragrance all gain conversation share compared with the same point last year, while electronics and jewelry lose share.
That doesn’t tell us how much shoppers will spend in each category. It does show where more of the early attention is going.
For brands, the useful question is what shoppers need to see next. An outfit idea, a gift recommendation, or a product comparison can give them a reason to save your content before they’re ready to spend. A discount graphic has a harder job doing that on its own.
Small creators deliver some big surprises
One of the report’s standout performances comes from a TikTok creator with approximately 15,000 followers and a Black Friday 3D-printer partnership.
The post generated about 109,100 interactions, compared with the creator’s usual engagement of around 2,400 per post. That’s 46 times their usual engagement.
Other breakout examples include a Black Friday haul and get-ready-with-me chat at 36 times its creator’s usual engagement, and an activewear sale with a creator code at 19 times usual engagement.
These are individual successes, rather than results every partnership can expect. They do give marketers a good reason to look beyond follower totals when choosing collaborators. Category fit, a useful demonstration, and an easy-to-understand offer deserve a place in the brief.
And enthusiasm isn’t the only way to get attention. A skeptical post about Black Friday and Prime Day generated around 1 million views and 11 times its creator’s usual engagement. The audience is quite happy to discuss whether the whole thing is worth it.
The biggest shopper question: Should I wait?
Black Friday creates a peculiar challenge for early promotions: the more you remind people that a big sale is coming, the more they may wonder why they should buy today.
“Should I wait?” is the highest-ranked concern in the report’s analysis of shopper worries. Questions about whether offers are worth it come next, followed by scams, delivery and refunds, and crowds and chaos.
For a shopper whose phone is struggling, an early deal presents a small negotiation: replace it now, or put up with the lag for another few weeks and hope for a better price?
Brands can make that decision easier with clear offer dates, transparent pricing, and straightforward delivery and returns information. Where available, a price-match promise or early-access benefit can help answer the timing question.
Before sending another “don’t miss out” email, check whether your campaign explains what someone gains by buying now. Shoppers already have plenty of reminders that Black Friday exists.
Your category has its own Black Friday hangout
The conversation also looks very different depending on where you listen.
Fashion and shoes feature in 20.9% of the analyzed Pinterest posts, while holiday gifts and gift guides appear in 14.8%. On YouTube, electronics feature in 15.1% of posts. Gaming appears in 8.8% of Reddit posts, and beauty and skincare in 8.7% of TikTok posts.
Each percentage describes that platform’s analyzed Black Friday conversation. Topics can overlap, so the figures aren’t slices of one shared pie.
For campaign planning, the pattern suggests some useful starting points: outfit and gift inspiration on Pinterest, product explanations on YouTube, beauty demonstrations on TikTok, and answers to specific gaming questions on Reddit.
The full report maps category conversations across platforms, helping teams decide where their next piece of content will be most useful.
PLATFORM TOPICS
Different platforms, different shopping conversations
Pinterest leans toward fashion and gifting; YouTube toward electronics; Reddit toward gaming.
| Topic | X | TikTok | YouTube | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion and shoes | 3.5% | 10.7% | 1.8% | 9.7% | 5.4% | 9.3% | 20.9% |
| Electronics | 4.4% | 2.6% | 11.5% | 3.0% | 4.0% | 15.1% | 1.9% |
| Holiday gifts and gift guides | 2.1% | 7.2% | 2.0% | 7.0% | 6.0% | 7.3% | 14.8% |
| Beauty and skincare | 1.2% | 8.7% | 1.3% | 6.1% | 2.8% | 7.0% | 4.9% |
| Home and kitchen | 1.2% | 4.9% | 2.1% | 4.8% | 7.7% | 9.1% | 6.7% |
| Gaming | 2.5% | 0.4% | 8.8% | 0.7% | 1.1% | 5.5% | 0.3% |
| Toys | 1.2% | 2.0% | 0.8% | 1.5% | 1.8% | 3.6% | 1.7% |
| Fragrance | 0.9% | 2.6% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 1.2% | 0.5% |
Meltwater · US-appearing, English-language posts · Oct 7–Nov 7, 2026 · Report page 6
Give shoppers a reason to choose you
With so many offers competing for attention, a clear message earns its place.
The report’s brand examples show several ways to approach that job. Bambu Lab creators paired a 3D-printer sale with codes, links, and deadlines. SHEIN partners added personal codes to Black Friday promotions. AYBL’s creator activity built toward a sale launch.
CapCut offers another lesson in repetition: 97% of posts in its identified Black Friday series named the same offer. That series accounted for 13.1% of all analyzed posts and was heavily driven by reposts on X.
That concentration is also a reminder to inspect what sits behind a big conversation total. One widely reposted promotion can influence the overall picture.
For your own campaign, keep the offer easy to repeat, give creators something concrete to demonstrate, and use shopper questions to improve your messaging as the weekend approaches.
Get the full Black Friday picture
There’s still time to put the early signals to work before Black Friday on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.
Meltwater’s full report goes deeper into retailer and brand rankings, category trends, creator performance, shopper concerns, and the posts behind the numbers. It also includes a week-by-week action plan for the final run-up.
Use it to pressure-test your campaign, sharpen your creator brief, or find a better answer to the question keeping shoppers’ carts open.
Download The build-up to Black Friday 2026 report.
Frequently asked questions
When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2026?
Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026. Cyber Monday follows on November 30.
What are shoppers talking about before Black Friday 2026?
Fashion and shoes lead the categories in Meltwater’s analysis, followed by electronics and holiday gifts and gift guides. TikTok Shop leads retailer mentions, ahead of Amazon.
What is shoppers’ biggest Black Friday concern?
“Should I wait?” ranks first among the concern themes identified in the report. Shoppers are weighing when to buy, whether offers provide value, and whether they can trust the deal.
What can brands learn from the creator findings?
Several creators substantially exceeded their usual engagement with product demonstrations, hauls, and sale posts featuring codes or links. These examples support evaluating a creator’s category fit and past performance alongside follower count. Engagement doesn’t establish sales impact.
What data is the report based on?
The report draws on Meltwater social listening and Klear creator data for October 7 to November 7, 2026, focused on US-appearing, English-language content mentioning Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It analyzes more than 750,000 posts and approximately 55 million engagements, with additional news and podcast analysis. Conversation shares describe mentions, rather than spending or market share.
