Both the 2024 year-end retail holiday season, and the 2025 marketing planning season will soon arrive, and OAAA offers key resources to assist members. The 2025 Retail Marketing & Promotions Planning Calendar is now available and highlights important dates and holidays by month for the entire year. It’s a valuable tool to assist your clients in maximizing their strategic marketing plans for next year.
As your clients also gear up for the highly important Q4 holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation (NRF) publishes insightful historical data on key retail selling seasons, including the YE holidays.
NRF research from Fall 2023 reported that over the last decade consumers have started their holiday shopping earlier to spread household budget impact and lower stress produced by holiday shopping. In 2023, 59% of holiday shoppers started browsing and buying by early November.
The NRF report also noted that the top gifts purchasers were planning to buy for the 2023 holidays.
A consumer survey released last month by Vericast, 2024 Holiday Retail TrendWatch, revealed 41% of consumers plan to splurge on gifts for themselves this holiday season, with even higher levels reported among Gen Z (47%) and Millennials (56%). Conversely, almost half (46%) of respondents said they plan to be more budget-conscious and spend less on holiday gifts in 2024.
Experian has just released their 2024 Holiday Spending Trends and Insights report, and key findings include:
- 35% of holiday shopping was done in December, peaking at 9% of total holiday sales the week before Christmas.
- Cyber Week, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, and the week before Christmas, brought the highest weekly sales for the past two holiday seasons, and represented 8% of total holiday sales.
- Holiday sales and special offers started in October.
- December saw higher sales than October and November in 2023.
- Online spending continues to remain around a third of all holiday shopping spending, but it is slowing and leveling out. People are going back in-store and the high amount of online shopping seen during the pandemic is starting to return to pre-pandemic behaviors.
- Amid concerns over inflation, consumers increasingly favor discount stores and mass retailers, particularly younger demographics.
- Younger shoppers (24–44) are avid coupon users, driven by a strong focus on savings, while older consumers (55+) prioritize convenience with one-stop shopping habits.
- 64% of coupon users have children, highlighting family influence on shopping decisions.
Experian’s 2023 holiday season weekly spending trends chart below depicts the critical period between mid-November and mid-December.
Source: Experian, National Retail Federation, OAAA, Vericast
Published: August 14, 2024