With Thanksgiving only weeks away, retailers have plenty of reasons to start pushing deals before the turkey reaches the table.

We look at top trends among holiday shoppers in Asia-Pacific, including insights on spending intentions, promotional behavior, channel preferences, and AI usage.

Connected TV (CTV) is no longer just a brand awareness play. Advertisers increasingly expect it to deliver measurable sales, customer acquisition, and other business outcomes, especially during the critical holiday shopping season. "TV can be about brand awareness, but it's increasingly about driving a sale or some sort of other outcome," said our analyst Ross Benes, during a recent EMARKETER event.

Distinct events and merchandise refreshes aim to give shoppers more reasons to return.

Cyber Five sales are set to grow faster than the season overall as consumers focus purchases around promotional periods.

Wayfair and QVC set “Christmas in July” events, but frequent promotions risk shopper fatigue and weaker returns.

Livestream shopping is finally carving out a role in the US, even as adoption trails well behind China. For years, the format was held up as ecommerce's next frontier. Now it's settling in not as a replacement for traditional ecommerce, but as a different kind of shopping experience.

Consumer spending will come under greater pressure during the 2026 holiday season, slowing retail and ecommerce sales growth compared with the rest of the year.

Amazon Prime Day 2026 set record sales, but the headline number hides a value shift: shoppers spent less per household, leaned into everyday essentials, and grew harder to satisfy. Amazon's first members-only same-day grocery Prime Day, and its widening membership lead, reshaped the event. Analysts read the results as a bellwether for the holiday season. This FAQ covers what Prime Day is, how the 2026 event actually performed, what shoppers bought, and how brands and rival retailers should respond.

Singles Day began as a prank at a Chinese university in 1993, when students created an "anti-Valentine's Day" to celebrate being single. Alibaba transformed it into a shopping holiday in 2009, and it has since become the world's largest retail event, complete with Taylor Swift performing at the 2019 Singles Day Gala.

Consumers are approaching holiday shopping with a sharper focus on value, taking more time to compare options and make deliberate choices, often with the help of AI tools. For brands, this shift changes what will drive results at the tail end of the year.

To capture a share of limited holiday gains, retailers and brands must zero in on pockets of opportunity across mobile commerce, social platforms, and consumer adoption of AI for shopping.

“Returns are in, brands are sharing how the holidays really performed on investor calls, and before we know it, we're going to start planning for the next cycle,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian on a recent episode of “Reimagining Retail.” As retailers wrap up their analysis of the 2025 holiday season and begin planning for 2026, here’s how consumer behaviors are evolving across channels and what this means for future holiday strategies.

This FAQ covers how consumers shop on social platforms and what it means for brands.

This FAQ discusses how the holiday marketing season is evolving into a longer, leaner, and more competitive period, driven by economic headwinds, earlier shopping behavior, and the growing importance of retail media. It outlines why marketers must plan earlier, prioritize measurable and omnichannel strategies, and avoid overconcentrating spend around the Cyber Five to capture demand across an extended season.

This year’s Cyber Five brought in record sales, but it’s still unclear how consumer spending will unfold through the rest of the holiday season and into the new year. Shoppers are moving in different directions based on their financial stability, and many are starting their holiday buying weeks earlier. Coming out of the gate with strong value and consistent messaging is paying off early, but brands must keep that energy going as the season stretches and shifts.

Shoppers spent over $75 million on live shopping platform Whatnot during Black Friday, the company told EMARKETER. That’s three times last year’s total, underscoring the medium’s swift ascendance and pointing to rising consumer comfort with the format. Livestream commerce’s ability to blur the lines between shopping and entertainment is helping to drive adoption across generations. We expect US livestream ecommerce sales to rise by nearly 50% this year to $14.64 billion, while the number of buyers will jump by 21.5%. Platforms, retailers, and brands that lean into the entertainment and educational aspects of live shopping will be best equipped to capture—and keep—shoppers’ attention.

Reports of Gen Z’s sluggish holiday spending may be exaggerated. Brands like Edikted, Kendra Scott, and Bath & Body Works—favorites of the cohort—saw heavier foot traffic during Black Friday, per Bloomberg. The cohort will account for a greater share of Cyber Five spending this year—18%—while all other generations will see their share decline, per Deloitte. With the pressures on Gen Z spending set to persist beyond the holiday season, brands and retailers will have to work hard to make their case to the increasingly cash-strapped cohort.

Retailers aren’t waiting for Black Friday to kick off their holiday campaigns. Since October 1, linear TV holiday ad spend reached $475.1 million, up 13.2% YoY, according to iSpot. Weekly spending has also climbed steadily, indicating brands are frontloading their budgets to capture demand across all of Q4.