Top Holiday Retail Trends for 2025: What Marketers Need to Know — and Do
As the holiday season approaches, retailers and marketers face a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by shifting consumer expectations, economic uncertainty, and digital transformation. Recent Gartner data reveals several key trends that will define the 2025 holiday retail environment. To succeed, retail CMOs and their teams must adapt their strategies to meet new consumer demands and market realities.
1. Price Sensitivity and Discount Expectations
Holiday shoppers will be more price-conscious than ever. According to a recent Gartner survey, 75 percent of consumers expect to spend more on gifts this year, primarily due to higher prices rather than increased income or a longer shopping list. Trade uncertainty is intensifying this sentiment, with 69 percent of shoppers anticipating that tariffs and other factors will make holiday shopping more expensive.
Despite rising costs, consumers are skeptical about seeing relief at checkout. Forty percent expect fewer discounts this holiday season, a notable 25 percent increase from last year. This signals a clear gap between price sensitivity and discount expectations, requiring retailers to rethink their promotional strategies.
2. Early Shopping and Marketing Activation
The holiday shopping timeline continues to shift earlier each year. Sixty-four percent of consumers plan to start shopping in November or earlier, driven by brands launching holiday promotions as early as summer. Over half of surveyed shoppers noticed holiday advertising in summer or early fall, and a quarter made holiday purchases during seasonal summer sales last year.
For marketers, this means that waiting until the traditional holiday season to launch campaigns is no longer enough. Early activation is now essential to capture consumer attention and wallet share.
3. The Rise of Multibrand Retail and Digital Shopping Channels
Online shopping remains dominant, but the channels consumers prefer are changing. Multibrand retailer websites and apps are now the go-to destinations for holiday shoppers seeking reliability and value. In 2025, only 40 percent of consumers plan to shop on brand-specific sites, down from 61 percent in 2023. Gen Z and millennials are especially wary of in-store experiences, citing concerns about pricing and inventory.
Retailer desktop websites remain the most popular online channel (57 percent), while retailer app usage has surged to 43 percent, overtaking mobile web browsing. This shift highlights the growing importance of mobile apps and robust desktop experiences in holiday shopping.
What Marketers Should Do
To thrive in this environment, B2C CMOs and their teams must take proactive steps:
- Lead with transparent pricing and value messaging. Emphasize value and competitive pricing throughout the season. While deep discounts may be expected toward the peak of the season, avoid over-reliance on mass customer discounts, which impact profitability. Instead, use personalized discounts and focus on clear, honest pricing and sustained value messaging to build trust and address consumer concerns.
- Activate earlier and faster. Begin promotional campaigns in early fall to align with consumer shopping habits. Shorten planning cycles and adjust campaign assets in real time to stay ahead of market shifts. Agile marketing, informed by up-to-date data and consumer sentiment, will be key to success.
- Prioritize digital retail platforms. With consumers favoring multibrand retailer websites and apps, invest in optimizing these channels for holiday campaigns. Retail media network advertising and competitive seasonal sales on these platforms will drive stronger performance. While mobile optimization remains important for search, focus holiday-specific efforts on desktop and app capabilities. Social commerce shouldn't be prioritized over owned-property optimization for holiday shoppers.
The 2025 holiday retail season will be defined by heightened price sensitivity, earlier shopping timelines, and a shift toward multibrand digital channels. Retailers that respond with transparent pricing, early and agile campaigns, and a focus on digital retail platforms will be best positioned to capture consumer attention and drive holiday sales. Staying close to consumer sentiment and leveraging data-driven insights will ensure brands remain relevant and competitive in a challenging market.
Brad Jashinsky is a director analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice. Kassi Socha is a senior director analyst; Dan Gutter is a principal, quantitative analytics and data science; Emily Weiss is a senior principal researcher; and Adriel Tey is a director, all within the Gartner Marketing Practice.
Brad Jashinsky is a director analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice, specializing in the retail and hospitality industries, supporting marketing leaders and they're in the Retail and Travel & Hospitality industries. Brad also covers loyalty programs and loyalty vendors across industries.
Brad has spent his career at the intersection of marketing and technology with over 15 years of experience in digital marketing. He has driven successful business results by creating and executing industry-leading digital marketing strategies for companies in the consumer electronics, enterprise technology, entertainment, travel and hospitality industries.
He has led the development of apps, advertising strategies, social media campaigns, and website optimizations that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars. As a Gartner analyst, Brad helps marketing leaders achieve their strategic objectives and improve their digital businesses by providing actionable, objective insight into digital marketing, personalization, loyalty programs, and commerce strategies.
Kassandra Socha is a senior director analyst for Gartner for Marketing Leaders based in Orange County, California. She is the KI leader for the Marketing Channels and Content key initiative.
She is responsible for delivering insights on strategic website redesigns, a topic spanning across all sectors. She also works with vendors and marketers to understand trends, pitfalls and best practices in mobile marketing, as the co-author of Gartner's annual Mobile Marketing Guide.
Mrs. Socha's practitioner experience stems from the retail industry. Prior to Gartner she spent 10 years in fashion and beauty, supporting digital commerce, marketing, and social for beloved brands such as Nordstrom and Drybar. She works closely with retail marketing leaders to uncover trends, specifically in eCommerce, digital marketing, emerging tech, organizational and consumer research.
Mrs. Socha's greatest work is her three children who, along with her husband, keep her laughing, dancing, and caffeine addicted. Her most beloved title is Mom.
Dan Gutter is principal, quantitative analytics and data science at Gartner.
Emily Weiss is a principal researcher supporting the Consumers and Culture KI, as well as the Brand and Value Proposition KI. Ms. Weiss works collaboratively with advisors and other researchers to identify and track consumer trends, produce syndicated content and translate the implications of those trends for marketers.
Adriel Tey is a data analyst on the Quantitative Analytics & Data Science team. His research area covers advertising and marketing technologies, and is focused on building insights and recommendations that help companies achieve marketing objectives.
