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?

November retail sales surge past expectations: Shoppers shifted their spending up a gear amid a flurry of deals and concerns over tariff-related price hikes.

Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop are winning this holiday season: Sales growth for all three outpaced larger players like Amazon and Target in November.

Mall traffic jumped in November as shoppers’ search for deals brought them back to stores: Efforts to turn shopping centers into lifestyle destinations are also resonating, but long-term challenges remain.

TikTok offers users Shop credits in last-ditch attempt to boost sales, downloads before US ban: The platform is dangling hundreds of dollars in incentives to increase engagement.

Consumers spent a record-breaking $314.9 billion online globally during this year’s Cyber Five, according to Salesforce. But there’s lots more to learn beyond top-line sales numbers—from Target's Taylor Swift-fueled Black Friday surge to Gen Z's big spending habits. Here are five key stats on Cyber Five performance you may have missed and what they mean for the rest of the holiday season.

TikTok Shop drove $100 million in Black Friday sales: Efforts to introduce social commerce to users are working, but the ban looms large.

Nike troubles complicate Foot Locker’s turnaround plan: The retailer lowered its full-year guidance as it struggles to win over cautious shoppers outside of peak shopping periods.

Amazon, Target, and malls were among this year’s Cyber Five winners: Roughly 197 million people shopped this year’s sales, leading to a surge in online and in-store spending.

Steep discounts drove shoppers to splurge on Black Friday: Consumers scooped up bargains across several categories, helping online sales jump 14.6% YoY the day after Thanksgiving.

Cyber Monday will generate $13.93 billion in US ecommerce sales this year, the highest of any Cyber Five day, according to a July 2024 EMARKETER forecast.

Temu and Shein’s ad bidding war drove spending away from search: CPCs spiked after the two retailers claimed in-demand search ad space.

Although the Cyber Five will hit record ecommerce sales in the US this year at $41.43 billion, the retail event’s share of total retail ecommerce holiday season sales will continue to shrink, per our July 2024 forecast.

For Walmart, Black Friday officially starts on November 11: The retailer will offer savings throughout the month, with exclusive deals and early sales access for online shoppers and Walmart+ members.

TikTok Shop leans on top brands, live shopping to boost holiday sales: The platform will feature exclusive products from brands like Benefit Cosmetics and celebrity-led livestreams alongside Cyber Five discounts.

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.

In January, the Retail Daily newsletter editors made four retail predictions for 2023. Some we got right (like the proliferation of Amazon Prime Day-type events) while some we missed the mark on a bit (it was not the year of AR).

As AI advances, a new era of creativity has unfolded for beauty brands. By infusing AI into their online strategies, beauty brands have an opportunity to drive a stronger return on ad spend and reach consumers in ways never before possible.