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As consumers prepare for the highest spending period of the year, they are increasingly saving their purchases for holidays and promotional events, and pulling back on indulgences like dining out and luxury items, according to our analyst Rachel Wolff. Listen to the full episode. This was originally featured in the Retail Daily newsletter.

Apparel, consumer electronics eye holiday rebound while home improvement still needs work. Back-to-school sales will return to a more normal, prepandemic growth rate this year. Most adults won鈥檛 buy a product if it鈥檚 dynamically priced. More Chart of the Day:. 8/7 - Generation AI. 8/4 - Programmatic video keeps growing. 8/3 - SVOD success. 8/2 - Meta over YouTube? 8/1 - Keeping it dynamic.

Shopify鈥檚 Q4 sales accelerate 31%: The company expects Q1 sales to grow in the mid-20% range as it ramps up efforts to attract major brands like Goop and Reebok to its ecosystem.

Airing on Black Friday was considered a boon, with families presumably still together after the Thanksgiving holiday. But the proximity to the much-more widely viewed Thanksgiving game may have caused viewer burnout, leading to lower viewership. The match was also Amazon鈥檚 first attempt at creating a major event out of a Black Friday game, so relatively low adoption isn鈥檛 terribly surprising.

鈥淲e have never seen shipments in the holiday quarter come in lower,鈥� said Nabila Popal, research director at IDC. A global problem: The plummeting demand for new devices worldwide will have a ripple effect across various regions. Smartphones are one of Korea鈥檚 largest exports due to the dominance of Samsung as an Android OEM.

Toys R Us has stuck with the spot so far and said it is exploring advertising opportunities and could release a holiday-themed version. Quality is subjective鈥攂ut the ad is undeniably unsettling. The child鈥檚 appearance changes significantly between shots, and there is an uncanny, glossy veneer that is often characteristic of AI-generated media.

For example, that will mean performance tracking for this year鈥檚 holiday campaign may not be as comparable to years鈥� prior. As a result, advertisers are relying more on the consumer data they have available.

This was the first quarter in at least 20 years that the credit card balance didn鈥檛 go down after holiday spending. The consequences: Thirty-one percent of the US population faced a form of credit insecurity in the past twelve months, per a study from PYMNTS and Sezzle.

Despite the prevalence of social media, 69% of respondents prefer receiving holiday deal information via email, emphasizing its continued significance in customer engagement. Almost half of the survey participants were receptive to discounts communicated through SMS, indicating the effectiveness of combining email and SMS for time-sensitive promotions.

They also used it for sending general alerts to customers, such as branch openings and holiday hours (15%). Banks also used social media to showcase their thought leadership and brand (14%).

The trend: Off-price operators reported healthy growth for the holiday quarter, as shoppers visited more often in search of deals. Burlington Stores鈥� Q4 sales rose 13.9% year over year (YoY) to $3.12 billion, beating FactSet鈥檚 $3.07 billion forecast. On a 13-week basis, comparable sales rose 2% YoY.

Returns are a challenge, especially following the busy holiday purchasing season. It鈥檚 not a problem that鈥檚 going away鈥攖otal retail return value in the US will grow 2.0% this year to reach $931.85 billion, per our November 2023 forecast, and will continue growing at a faster rate through the end of our forecast period in 2027.

Retailers can use multiflavor or multipack products to introduce consumers to new flavors, or leverage holidays and major events to promote seasonal products, per IRI. Brands can also use social media to promote new flavors or products, share recipe ideas, or suggest entertainment occasions (while, of course, adhering to each platform鈥檚 policies on advertising alcohol).

Over the holidays, buy now, pay later (BNPL) use picked up as consumers looked for alternative ways to fund their shopping. This year, BNPL will continue gaining users and growing payment value by 25.5% to reach $94.87 billion. By 2026, nearly 40% of internet users will have used a BNPL solution.

We look at how adjusted pricing, launching in new categories and markets, and growing its debit card made this possible

Major events throughout the year (back to school, the holidays, graduation) provide an opportunity for promotions and sales events. Over three-quarters (77%) of Gen Z adults say they make an effort to try new brands, the highest share of any generation, per February 2023 data from Morning Consult. Who else should try it?

Andrew Blake and I are each going to predict or invent a new Prime Day type retail event from Amazon and describe what that retail holiday might look like. Maybe it's a blowout sale on home and garden for Earth Day or a sale on running shoes ahead of a Thanksgiving Turkey trot. Our event predictions will probably be a little bit less niche than that though.

Home Depot and Vizio are teaming up for a holiday-themed shoppable content series where viewers interested in featured products will be able to scan QR codes that bring them to listings on the retailer鈥檚 site.

础濒诲颈鈥檚 holiday merch, released last March and September, sold out in days. Our analysts were divided on 础濒诲颈鈥檚 ability to put a dent in Walmart鈥檚 grocery business, with analyst Suzy Davidkhanian saying Aldi doesn鈥檛 have the footprint or variety to compete with Walmart. 鈥淚t's like a one-trip-wonder kind of activity versus Aldi, which only has groceries,鈥� she said. 3. Wayfair.

Resale has a role in holiday spend as well, especially with price inflation eating into discretionary spending. More than half (51%) of US adults planned to purchase resold clothing as holiday gifts in 2022, according to Deloitte. Sustainability can make resale a feature, rather than a caveat, for gift givers.

鈥淲e saw more muted behavior in terms of customers who are going onto Amazon to shop for back to school, holiday, or gift-giving.鈥�. Although retail back-to-school season sales will reach $81.16 billion this year, growth is slowing (7.2% YoY growth in 2023 vs. 3.2% growth YoY in 2024), according to our February 2024 forecast. What it means: Economic concerns continue to take a toll on spending.

There are fewer opportunities to win new online alcohol buyers, making holidays and big events like the Super Bowl crucial in this category. Marketing alcohol delivery for gift giving is another valuable means of driving adoption in this category. Sources. Bizrate Insights. Gallup. Power Reviews. Yotpo.

Case study: In advance of Lunar New Year, Panda Express is once again pledging $100,000 and matching donations to educational nonprofit DonorsChoose to provide resources to teach the history and tradition of the holiday. Photo: Panda Express. 4. Build in-person experiences.

Macy鈥檚 pointed to deeper-than-expected lulls during non-peak holiday weeks as one reason it projects its fiscal Q4 net sales to be at the lower end of its $8.16 billion to $8.40 billion range; analysts had modeled $8.31 billion in sales, per Yahoo Finance.

The same is true for running campaigns around other holidays that represent a minority group.鈥�. Listen to the full episode. This was originally featured in the Retail Daily newsletter. For more retail insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.