Christmas shoppers focus on quality rather than deals
While discounts drive purchases in the early days of the holiday shopping season, consumers are turning to more thoughtful, quality gifts as overall spending growth slows in the back half of the season.
According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. consumers have spent $187.3 billion online so far between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12; This figure increased by 6.1% compared to the same period last year. Total holiday season e-commerce spending is still expected to exceed $253 billion; This will be 5.3% above last year and the growth rate is expected to slow towards the end of December as deliveries contract around Christmas.
ShipBob’s chief marketing officer, Casey Armstrong, told CNBC that e-commerce sales typically “slow down sharply” from Dec. 16 to Dec. 18, and then “drop off precipitously” in the following days until Christmas Eve becomes the slowest shopping day of the season. Shopping will pick up again on Dec. 27, the strongest day late in the season for ShipBob’s customers, Armstrong said. The company is a third-party logistics company that ships to small, medium and socially focused brands.
A customer carries a package in Union Square in San Francisco on December 11, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In the remaining half of the season, customers who want to order online are attracted by quality rather than discounts.
Captify analyzes more than 1 billion search events per day from 3 million websites and shows huge search increases from the beginning of the season through December for clothing and activewear brands like Alo Yoga, Warby Parker, Aritzia, Bombas and Quince. Searches for Alo Yoga increased 256% between December 7 and December 15, compared to the period between November 28 and December 6. Searches for quince increased by 124% for the same time periods.
“These gains point to an increase in thoughtful, quality-focused gifting as shoppers seek products from highly reputable brands,” said Oscar Chow, Head of U.S. Insights at Captify.
RetailNext, which tracks in-store shopping, also saw evidence this season that consumers value quality, even if it means buying fewer items.
“Consumers are willing to pay more to make these decisions right,” said Joe Shasteen, global director of advanced analytics at RetailNext. The company expects this dynamic to peak in the days leading up to Christmas.
There is also evidence to suggest a shift towards gifting experiences and subscriptions as the season ends. Chow said they are offering shoppers a “gift valid until the deadline.”
Examples include increased interest in Roblox Robux, Cameo Kids, Kindle Unlimited, Strava Subscription, Peloton All-Access, MasterClass subscriptions, and Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max subscription bundles later in the season.
As holiday shopping dwindles, discounts are still available, but they’re much lower than the height of Cyber Week. Adobe Analytics said the biggest promotions will be on toys, which peak in December at 15% off list price, followed by furniture, bedding and televisions at 10% off.
Of course, there are discount-motivated consumers throughout the season, making toys a strong category. Data from Adobe and Captify shows that consumers are still looking for Mattel’s Barbie Dreamhouse, Disney’s Stitch toys and Play-Doh sets, among others. Armstrong said the Toniebox 2 music player and Miss Rachel Tonie figurines were “one of the key elements that added interest.”
Shops save Christmas
A woman holds shopping bags as people walk through Herald Square in New York City on December 11, 2025.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
For those looking to give a physical gift, stores are critical in the run-up to Christmas.
The last Saturday before Christmas has been dubbed “Super Saturday” by the retail industry and is often one of the best in-store shopping days of the year. However, with Christmas falling on a Thursday this year, sales volume on Super Saturday this year will likely be lower from December 22 to December 24, according to RetailNext.
“We expect some of the highest conversion rates of the season to occur in the final days before Christmas, potentially rivaling or even surpassing Black Friday,” RetailNext’s Shasteen said.
Warmer temperatures and dry conditions affecting much of the country this weekend will also help increase store traffic this weekend, according to Evan Gold, vice president of global partnerships and alliances at Planalytics.
Shoppers who don’t want to browse stores but also don’t want to leave delivery times to chance are increasingly using buy online, pick up in store options during the final stretch of the holiday shopping season. Adobe Analytics predicts BOPIS will peak on December 22 and December 23, with 32% to 37% of e-commerce orders utilizing the service; This represents an increase in typical usage compared to the rest of the year.
Kohl’s told CNBC that pickup orders more than doubled in the week before Christmas, and a quarter of customers who ordered online bought something else while there.
About 30% of customers who order online at Bath and Body Works add something before checking out.
It also saves costs for retailers to fulfill online orders from stores. Target said having orders picked up or carried up saves the retailer 90% over brown box delivery from fulfillment centers. So far this season, three-quarters of digital orders have been picked up in stores.
Walmart told CNBC last year that its weekly planned purchasing volume was up 14% in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, compared with average volume over the previous 12 weeks. More than 80% of Walmart customers say they shopped at the store in the three days before Christmas, according to customer insights and strategy holiday pulse tracking conducted this month.
Last December, Walmart Express Delivery volumes reached 2.5 times the monthly average for orders coming from store inventory with extra fees. The retailer said that on Christmas Eve alone, 77% of digital orders were fulfilled via the express option.
While Dick’s Sporting Goods declined to share details, the retailer said it was seeing a “significant increase in BOPIS” as Christmas approached, as well as a “engagement rate” to enable shoppers to “get their last-minute gifts in a single trip to the store.”
