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DECEMBER 15, 2025 |
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What percentage of US-based ecommerce sellers have made significant changes because of tariffs? |
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A) 44% B) 54% C) 64% D) 74% |
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TOP STORY |
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"Consumers are conditioned to spend even when they're feeling pressured. Nearly a third of consumers were prepared and ready to take on debt this season to make their holiday purchases,” said our analyst Zak Stambor on a recent episode of “ Behind the Numbers.” |
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The Thanksgiving shopping weekend delivered record-breaking numbers with nearly 203 million shoppers, according to the National Retail Federation, and Cyber Monday alone generated over $14 billion in online sales, per Adobe. Yet beneath these impressive figures lie contradictions and nuances that paint a more complex picture of consumer behavior during the 2025 holiday season. |
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IN THE NEWS |
Shopify rolls out ‘agentic storefront’ tool, new advertising tools. The additions include an “agentic storefront” tool that lets consumers discover and purchase a brand’s products directly inside AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Read online |
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Other headlines: |
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Higher-income shoppers prop up Q3 retail numbers. Higher-income shoppers continued to spend—often freely—while lower- and middle-income households pulled back, reshaping the retail landscape heading into the holiday season. Read online
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Lululemon seeks leadership change as challenges mount. Whoever replaces CEO Calvin McDonald, who steps down January 31, 2026, will face the task of restoring the brand’s authority in a category it once dominated—particularly in North America, where sales have been stagnant or negative for seven straight quarters. Read online
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Uncertainty boosts Costco’s value appeal. Costco is gaining market share across nearly all categories it operates in, as shoppers respond to its combination of value, quality, and newness, CFO Gary Millerchip said on the retailer’s most recent earnings call. Read online | | | |
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ANALYSIS |
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Duolingo entered a crowded media network space last month with the announcement of its ad program, building on what already made the platform a phenomenon: Gamification, design discipline, and a deeply engaged audience. |
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“It's an interactive, gamified platform that creates a hyper, engaged audience, and that's paired with an attentive user base and really strong brand love,” said Andrew Guendjoian, Duolingo’s head of ad sales. "When you put those things together, it does an excellent job of creating attention, which is something that I think is really challenging marketers in such a crowded and overly abundant internet." |
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