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The news: Tariffs and economic uncertainty are threatening Abercrombie & Fitch鈥檚 resurgence, despite a strong holiday performance. Abercrombie expects net sales growth of just 3% to 5% in fiscal 2025, a considerable slowdown from the 16% YoY increase it notched in 2024. That鈥檚 well short of estimates for a 6.8% rise.

What drove growth: Holiday spend gave Shop Pay a boost: GMV over the Cyber 5 Weekend shot up 58% YoY. Shopify also made Shop App more of a shopping destination, rocketing Shop App volume up 84% YoY. It pushed innovations like personalized shopping feeds and cart syncing, which lets customers who abandoned carts with Shop Pay complete their purchases through the Shop App.

The takeaway: AmeriCU鈥檚 strategy is a reminder that financial institutions shouldn鈥檛 just mark events like public holidays鈥攖hey should celebrate their own milestones as well. Anniversaries and major achievements offer a chance to reinforce stability, build trust, and reward customer loyalty.

Leverage seasonal campaigns for increased impact: Seasonal trends鈥攕uch as holidays, tax time, and big events like the Super Bowl鈥攕ignificantly impact campaign performance. Running time-sensitive campaigns creates urgency and captures consumer attention. Key takeaway: Maximizing profitability through optimized CPA requires proactive planning and a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences.

. $229 billion of global holiday ecommerce sales were influenced by AI-powered recommendations, targeted offers, and customer service support, according to Salesforce. At the same time, 71% of US online shoppers surveyed by Bain said they were unaware of using genAI when shopping online, despite many having made a recent purchase with retailers offering such tools.

The large hotel companies cited solid leisure holiday travel, growth in business and group meetings, and healthy international activity. Wyndham Hotels, whose brands include LaQuinta and Days Inn, noted weekday revPAR benefited as workers on nearby infrastructure construction projects stayed in its properties.

The company expects sequential declines in Q1 due to seasonality after a 10% YoY increase in 鈥渁dvertising and other revenues鈥� during the holiday quarter.

Our take: Given its strong holiday numbers, Alipay鈥檚 growth efforts are clearly paying off. Its main rival, WeChat Pay, has made similar moves, like letting users link their foreign credit cards to the wallet.

Its 2024 holiday success positions AppLovin as a competitor to Google and Meta in performance marketing. The upcoming self-service tools will enable more advertisers to join the platform, potentially boosting ecommerce revenues. AI-driven ad personalization will further enhance the platform鈥檚 appeal to ecommerce brands.

The news: Canada鈥檚 retail sales rose 2.5% month-over-month (MoM) in December, per Statistics Canada, boosted by a sales tax holiday that began partway through the month. That handily beat expectations for a 1.6% gain, per a Reuters poll, and is the biggest jump in monthly sales since May 2022. Q4 sales rose 2.4% YoY, marking the second straight quarter of growth.

Uneven results: Both Macy鈥檚 and Kohl鈥檚 had difficult holiday quarters, while Nordstrom evaded the downturn thanks to its more upscale clientele. Softer holiday sales led Macy鈥檚 to adjust its Q4 forecast; the retailer now expects net sales to be in line with or slightly below the low end of its prior guidance for $7.8 billion to $8 billion.

The bad news: Unfortunately for Target, the green shoots in discretionary spending during the holiday quarter are likely to wither quickly as tariffs鈥攁nd related price hikes鈥攃hill consumer spending. It forecast full-year sales growth of just 1% in 2025鈥攃onsiderably less than the 2.6% analysts expected.

On Running is bullish after growing sales 91.4% YoY during the holiday quarter: But Nike鈥檚 strong Q3 performance underscored its position as the dominant sneaker brand on the market.

The number of job openings in December was down 22% YoY as holiday hiring was more sluggish than usual, per the US Labor Department. Looking ahead: More cuts are likely on the horizon given that retailers have already announced more than 2,000 store closures this year.

Use cases like paying rent and holiday gifting also accelerated growth in Q4. And 95% of the more than 2,220 financial institutions (FIs) on the Zelle network are community banks and credit unions, helping the service grow in more rural areas that might otherwise have been served by digital competitors. The competition: Zelle鈥檚 volume is growing faster than that of its main rivals.

Key stat: Consumers are redefining Valentine's Day as more than just a holiday for romantic partners, and brands can embrace this shift to create more diverse marketing campaigns. 60% of young adults 18-24 are at least somewhat likely to buy themselves a Valentine鈥檚 Day present this year, up from 58% last year, according to a CivicScience study.

And as in 2023, beauty was high on Gen Alpha鈥檚 holiday list: 41% of households with children intended to buy beauty products during the holiday season, 11 percentage points higher than the general population. What retailers and brands need to know: Like their Gen Z forebears, Gen Alpha has discerning tastes, honed by an incessant flow of beauty content on TikTok and YouTube.