Most video game players treasure the end of the year, both to splurge on their favorite hobby and to spend more time in-game.

Retailers and brands face a unique challenge this year as Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) approaches: Understanding how AI has changed the game for both consumers and sellers.

In this podcast episode, we discuss if ‘Summerween’ is here to stay, which retail shopping holiday is most likely to expand, and how all of this affects shopping behavior. Listen to the discussion with Senior Director of Podcasts and guest host, Marcus Johnson, Principal Analyst, Sky Canaves, and Vice President of Content Suzy Davidkhanian.

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.

This year, Amazon extended its July Prime Day event from two to four days, giving consumers more time to shop, brands more opportunities to advertise, and Amazon more time to generate sales.

“Today’s shoppers are like savvy jugglers,” Ben Galvin, senior director of omnichannel retail sales and ecommerce at Monster Energy, said during a recent Path to Purchase Institute webinar. “They’re balancing budgets, bouncing between in-store and online. Convenience continues to be king, but value is what they’re really looking for.” But value means different things to different people.

The holiday box office competes with the couch: Audiences are returning to theaters, but Netflix is offering blockbuster content.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what the arrival of SearchGPT means for the search universe, the best ways to market through emotion, what the November holiday shopping season storyline will be, what happens now we have reached “peak media”, the most suitable post-pandemic work arrangement, and more. Tune in to the discussion with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Vice Presidents of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna, and Senior Analyst Blake Droesch.

LEGO’s website is by far the most visited toy retail website among US consumers, with 5.89 million unique visitors in August 2024, according to data from Comscore Inc.

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.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss standout data points from this year’s back-to-school season, creators' role in this shopping period, and what back-to-school is trying to tell us about this year's upcoming holidays. Listen to the conversation with our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sarah Marzano and Zak Stambor.

Key stat: Nearly half (49%) of US adults will begin back-to-school shopping by early July, according to a March 2024 survey by LTK.

On the first podcast episode of the new year, we discuss what buy now, pay later's (BNPL’s) prospects will look like in 2024. • In our “Story by Numbers” segment, we focus on the outlook for BNPL by looking at growth by generation. • In “Headlines,” we examine data from Adobe Analytics that states BNPL purchases were up 43% on Cyber Monday compared with the previous year, and how the rise of BNPL use over the holidays has increased consumers' debt burden. • In “For Argument’s Sake,” we debate whether BNPL promotes good or bad behavior. Listen to the podcast with host Rob Rubin and our analysts Grace Broadbent and David Morris.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss consumer spending over the holidays, how transaction data can help brands build deeper relationships with their customers, and what's next for consumer purchase data. "In Other News," we talk about Google starting to phase out cookies in a few weeks and what to make of the economy's mixed signals. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Jonathan Silver, founder and CEO of Affinity Solutions.

81% of US adult digital shoppers review return policies before making a first-time purchase, and 55% will abandon their cart if return policies aren’t convenient, per a Happy Returns report commissioned by PayPal.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss why the internet might be getting worse, what a new device designed for generative AI (genAI) might look like, whether we're sure about self-checkout, why a new online safety bill matters, what consumers expect from brands on social issues, where the ultra-rich spend their holidays, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood and analysts Bill Fisher and Carina Perkins.

At least 10% of US ecommerce orders were returned each week from last November through mid-January, according to Salesforce. The return rate was as high as 16% in some weeks, a significant increase over the previous holiday season.

Deal-seeking by consumers, heavy discounting from retailers, and a longer holiday shopping season drove an uptick in returns during the 2022 holiday season. Retailers will need to plan their promotional calendars carefully to manage returns in 2023.