Company NewsRetailResearch and Data

Block processes 14 million transactions as Australians shop local this Black Friday

Dec 02, 2025

Sydney turns to neighbourhood shopping as Melbourne’s CBD emerges as its top hotspot

Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) today released its Black Friday and Cyber Monday results, showing a clear shift toward local spending in Sydney as shoppers backed businesses in their neighbourhoods. The data highlights that Sydney’s strongest spending came from local suburbs, while activity in the CBD remained more subdued. Melbourne contrasted this trend, with the CBD recording the highest spend across the city. Nationally, Block’s ecosystem, which includes Square and Afterpay, processed more than 14 million transactions and supported 8 million unique shoppers over the four-day shopping period leading into Christmas.

“Shoppers across the country backed their local economies in a big way this Black Friday weekend,” said Colin Birney, Head of Business Development at Square. “Sydney’s neighbourhoods outperformed the CBD, Melbourne’s city centre came alive and Brisbane led the way on total spend. What we are seeing is a mix of smart bargain hunting and genuine loyalty to local traders. Australians want good value, but they also want to support the businesses that make their communities thrive. When neighbourhood shops pair sharp discounts with great service, customers turn up.”

Record-breaking weekend highlights:

  • Total transaction volume reached more than 14 million, a 13% increase year-on-year across Block’s ecosystem;
  • Almost 8 million unique consumers engaged with Square and Afterpay.

Sydney shopped locally this Cyber Weekend:

  • Total BFCM weekend volume: $38 million
  • Average transaction size: $40.34
  • Top spending suburbs were local:
    • Tempe (2044)
    • Erskineville (2043)
    • Broadway (2007)
    • Annandale (2038)
    • Chippendale (2008)
    • Newtown/Enmore (2042)

Melbourne’s CBD proved a shopping hotspot

  • Total BFCM weekend volume: $31 million
  • Average transaction size: $36.75
  • Top spending suburbs were:
    • Melbourne CBD
    • Parkville (3010)
    • East Melbourne (3002)
    • Carlton (3053)
    • St Kilda Road (3004)
    • South Yarra (3141)

Brisbanites outspent Melbourne and Sydney

  • Total BFCM weekend volume: $44 million
  • Average transaction size: $49.48
  • Shoppers in New Farm were offered some of the highest average discounts to shoppers in Brisbane (24%)

Shoppers on the Goldie splurged with highest average transaction size

  • Total BFCM weekend volume: $29 million
  • Average transaction size: $60.25
  • Shoppers in Coomera were particularly generous this shopping period, with an average spend of $77.

Additional neighbourhood insights available for South Australia and Western Australia. All data above is accurate as of December 2 at 11:58AM AEDT.

Next-Gen Shopping Patterns:

“This Black Friday weekend demonstrated how Australians are reshaping retail through strategic spending choices,” said Katrina Konstas, Country Manager, Afterpay ANZ. “We witnessed a remarkable shift towards self-care and experiential purchases, with health and wellbeing leading unprecedented growth at 109% YoY. Gen Z and Millennials drove this transformation, representing over two-thirds of all transactions as they used Afterpay to invest in their wellbeing while carefully managing their finances. This isn’t just about payment flexibility - it’s about empowering consumers to prioritise what matters most, creating a powerful ripple effect that’s driving genuine momentum for local Australian businesses.”

  • Gen Z and Millennials accounted for 71% of all Afterpay transactions
  • Buy Now, Pay Later usage through Afterpay jumped 18%

Category Leaders:

  • Self-care dominated Afterpay transactions with the fastest-growing local sectors this Black Friday weekend being :
    • Health and wellbeing: 108.93% growth
    • Food and beverages: 58.85% growth
    • Travel and experiences: 38.01% growth
  • Afterpay users were shopping for summer with the top trending products in local retail being:
    • Shirts and tops
    • Shorts
    • Dresses

For the complete Block BFCM 2025 data, including detailed neighbourhood-specific insights, visit https://block.xyz/bfcm/2025. Please note, all figures in the dashboard are in USD.

About Block, Inc.

Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, Spiral, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square helps sellers run and grow their businesses with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or Bitcoin. Spiral builds and funds free, open-source Bitcoin projects. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open developer platform to make it easier to access Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies without having to go through an institution.

About Square

Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions. Square offers purpose-built software to run complex restaurant, retail, and professional services operations, versatile e-commerce tools, embedded financial services and buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, staff management, and much more – all of which work together to save sellers time and effort. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. Square, Cash App, Spiral, and TIDAL are a part of Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ)). For more information, visit www.squareup.com.

__About Afterpay __

Afterpay is transforming the way we pay by allowing customers to buy products immediately and pay over time - enabling simple, transparent and responsible spending. We are on a mission to power an economy in which everyone wins.

Afterpay is offered by thousands of the world’s favorite retailers and used by millions of active global customers. Afterpay is currently available in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, where it is known as Clearpay.. Afterpay is a wholly owned subsidiary of Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ).

Media Contact:
press@block.xyz