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Holiday Shopping Trends 2025

New report from PissedConsumer says Black Friday is less important than ever

The holiday shopping season is here. Black Friday is only three weeks away and is followed by Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday.

That final day is an opportunity for consumers to give back a little to their preferred cause or charity. And, lest we forget, it is also World Loyalty Giving Day.

World Loyalty Giving Day is an event designed to mobilize brands and customers to become more purpose-driven through points donation and thought leadership. The day unifies the customer loyalty industry and shows the world how loyalty programs help brands become more purpose-driven and deliver good for members and their favorite causes.

But first things first. You want to know about how consumers feel in advance of this shopping and giving season, don’t you? We found the resource you need.

An online survey just released by PissedConsumer queried over 1,058 consumers and provides extensive data on holiday shopping trends, including reasons and plans, spending amounts compared to the previous year, top retailers, products, preferred events, and consumers’ sentiments during the holiday season this year. You can find the results of the survey here.

Here’s a snapshot of the survey results:

  • 57.7% of consumers plan to shop this holiday season.
  • 64.9% say inflation is impacting their holiday shopping.
  • 63% are concerned that tariffs might impact prices during the holiday season.
  • 30% planning to spend $500-$999 (vs. 31.2% in 2024), while 25% planning to spend $1,000+ (vs. 30.3% in 2024).
  • 74.8% choose Amazon as their go-to retailer during the holidays.
  • Only 3.3% ask AI tools about holiday deals.

The report also shared the top three categories of gifts

  • Clothing and footwear (70.4%)
  • Gift certificates (42.1%)
  • Grocery products (27.8%)

Goodbye Black Friday

Have we seen the last of hectic Black Friday sales fraught with impossible parking and fights breaking out over the hottest toys? The numbers seem to say “yes.”

With retailers extending Black Friday sales from a day to weeks in recent years, consumer expectations and holiday shopping plans are changing. Rather than race from store to store seeking the season’s best deals on Black Friday, these extended sales and online holiday shopping help consumers find savings without the stress.

The report shared that in 2025, 65.6% of consumers say Black Friday is no longer relevant. Another 20.2% of shoppers said Black Friday is still relevant, but less important to them than in years past.

It does seem that due to the way retailers have extended the promotional cycle associated with the holidays, the impact of Black Friday is becoming diminished in the minds of consumers.

E-Commerce Surprises

You may have expected that online shopping would dominate the minds of consumers in 2025, but the report found that only 8.8% of consumers say they’ll buy from retailers on social media.

And retailers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram should take note: social commerce buyers might not be who they expect. 

The holiday shopping report revealed that seniors (aged 65+) are the age group most likely to buy via social media in 2025, with 37.04% planning to shop through these platforms. Not far behind were 55–64-year-olds, with 33.33% expecting to engage in social shopping this holiday season.

AI Must Wait – it won’t change how consumers shop for the holidays… Yet

Since the launch of Google’s AI Shopping Assistant, The Wise Marketer has been highlighting the potential impact of AI shopping tools on consumer purchase behavior – and customer loyalty.

The PissedConsumer survey indicates that the event horizon for AI on holiday shopping is still a future vision. Don’t expect it to have a major impact on how consumers shop this holiday season. Only 10.8% of respondents said they plan to use AI tools to assist with their holiday shopping.

Certainly, retailers might use AI for better targeting and product recommendations, though many consumers aren’t yet on board with AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude being integrated into their shopping process. Over 20% of surveyed consumers either didn’t know what AI tools were yet, or they didn’t know they could help with holiday shopping.

Wrapping up Holiday Shopping Trends

The report landed on a succinct set of takeaways for retail marketers:

  • Many consumers will have tighter budgets this holiday shopping season as they anticipate price increases due to inflation and tariffs. That means deal-hunting and other savings strategies are more important than ever.
  • With 17.8% of potential buyers still unsure if they’ll shop this holiday season, retailers have opportunities to convince them with the right sales, products, and promotional outreach. 
  • There could be a resurgence of brick-and-mortar shopping as many consumers aren’t yet embracing holiday shopping assistance from AI tools and social shopping options.

The holiday shopping season is underway and we hope Holiday Shopping Trends 2025 from the PissedConsumer gives you the added knowledge and insight you need to find tune your holiday strategy and make 2025 a big success.