On today's podcast episode, we discuss the Thanksgiving shopping season—what surprised us most, what it revealed about the fragility of the US consumer, and how much AI moved the needle for shoppers, and retailers. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Senior Analyst Zak Stambor, and Analyst Rachel Wolff.

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.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of retail moves we're most thankful for. This month—because it's Thanksgiving Eve—host Suzy Davidkhanian, Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Emmy Liederman (aka The Committee) have put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching, based on strategies, launches, and collaborations we’re genuinely thankful for — the moves that made us smile, surprised us, or gave us hope for where retail is heading. In this episode, Committee members Suzy Davidkhanian and Emmy Liederman will defend their list against Senior Analyst Zak Stambor and Analyst Rachel Wolff, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

The news: NFL ads are more effective than anything on linear—but ads during streaming-exclusive games outperformed in the 2024-25 season. Streaming ads were 66% more effective than the cable and broadcast average during the most recent NFL season, per data from EDO. Our take: With streaming platforms capturing engaged audiences for tentpole sports like the NFL, advertisers can leverage CTV not just for reach, but for its superior ability to drive measurable action through precision targeting and interactive formats that linear doesn’t offer.

Consumer spending will be restrained during the 2025 holiday season as shoppers remain cautious amid ongoing economic uncertainty. That means retail and ecommerce will see the slowest growth since we started tracking the metrics.

Retail ended 2024 on a high note as mobile shopping drove ecommerce sales and stores staged a comeback. Will the 2025 holiday season be as fruitful?

On today's podcast episode, we discuss how folks viewed big ticket items over the Thanksgiving holiday shopping period, how in-store foot traffic shook out, and the impact of buy now, pay later (BNPL). Listen to the conversation with our Senior Analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts Senior Analyst Zak Stambor and Analyst Rachel Wolff.

Amazon’s shoppable video ads faced first big test: Marketers watched their performance over the holiday weekend to mull bigger commitments.

NBCU will have to pay extra to keep the Macy’s parade: The retailer wants $60 million for a new Thanksgiving Day broadcast contract.

This year, US holiday sales will reach a record $1.353 trillion, per our July 2024 forecast. That holiday season is starting earlier and earlier, which means marketers need to be prepared now for shopping to pick up in September and October. The election and consumer concerns about the economy will complicate where advertisers reach consumers and what messaging they use. Here are five stats marketers should see as they prep their holiday campaigns.

Amid shifting consumer priorities, competitive promotional activity, and an unusual calendar, brands and retailers must fine-tune their holiday 2024 marketing strategies to maximize sales during this critical period.

Like last year, we expect deal-hunting consumers and mobile-forward brands to drive the 2024 holiday season, according to our US Holiday 2023 Recap and 2024 Preview report.

Ecommerce growth accelerated during the 2023 holiday season as US consumers shifted more of their shopping to mobile devices.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss how the Thanksgiving numbers look, why folks are online shopping more this season, and where the ecommerce ceiling is. Then for "Red-Hot Retail," our analysts give us four spicy predictions about the remaining few weeks of holiday shopping. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman and analyst Zak Stambor.

Ecommerce sales will return to double-digit growth this holiday season amid a backdrop of healthy consumer spending.

The 2022 holiday season’s solid retail sales gains were mostly attributable to inflation, but they nevertheless paint a cautiously optimistic picture for the 2023 holiday season.

It’s official. The Cyber Five (the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday) have not lost their touch. Let’s dig into the data as retailers take a deep breath and ready themselves for what’s shaping up to be a pretty busy holiday season.

Good deals drove consumers to spend big on Cyber Monday: US retail ecommerce sales may hit a record $11.3 billion—5.8% more than last year, per Adobe Analytics data.

A surprisingly strong start to the Cyber Five: Steep discounts drove record sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, as US consumers flocked to stores as well as ecommerce sites and apps over the holiday weekend.

In 2002, Comscore noticed a spike in online sales the Monday after Thanksgiving, a phenomenon we now know as Cyber Monday. Our analyst Andrew Lipsman and Dan Hess, formerly of Comscore and now at The NPD Group, share four facts about the retail holiday.