Cyber Week is beginning earlier each year - which is impacting merchants' fraud readiness.
That's according to a new report from fraud prevention and risk management platform Accertify, which tracked more than 576 million Cyber Week transactions across a five-year period from 2021 to 2025.
The report found that retailers have stretched promotions earlier into the week and further into the weekend to win share before the traditional peak days arrive. Wednesday and Tuesday volume has grown 66% and 61% respectively since 2021, nearly double the 37-39% growth seen on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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Overall, the pre-Thanksgiving share of total Cyber Week volume has climbed steadily, from 21.8% in 2021 to 24.2% in 2025. Thanksgiving Day sales volume has also grown 22% over the same period.
"As teams move faster to capture demand, marketing calendars can shift quickly, with promotions launching earlier, changing more often, or reaching broader audiences than fraud teams expected," noted Accertify. "If fraud readiness is still anchored to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it may be out of step with the promotion ...