To help retailers and brands prepare for the 2025 holiday shopping season, we recently published Forrester’s annual guide to the 2025 holiday season with our research partner Bizrate Insights. This year’s guide distills lessons from 2024 and adds advice from Forrester’s 2025 research to help you win customer loyalty, drive revenue, and avoid potential pitfalls.

Following are some key takeaways:

The holiday shopping season is truly “a marathon” for consumers
In 2024, nearly one-quarter of US online adults began their holiday shopping in October or earlier. That’s likely already happened again this year, in part spurred by the recent Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event (see how other retailers responded as well). As usual, finishing that shopping was harder: last year, four out of five continued shopping through December, per Forrester’s December 2024 Consumer Pulse Survey.

Budgets are tight, but spending persists
Compared to holiday spending in 2024, we found this summer that just over one-third of US online adults plan to spend about the same and about one in five plan to spend more. Still, 30% said they have less money to spend this year. Half of US online adults plan to watch for online deals, and almost two out of five will look for in-store promotions.

Mobile is still the MVP
Smartphones are central to discovery, research, and purchase – including during the busy holiday shopping season. For example, in 2024, three-quarters of US online adults used mobile devices to shop over Thanksgiving weekend and also on Cyber Monday, Bizrate Insights found.

For 2025, here are five areas to sharpen your holiday edge:

  • Marketing. Prep early, promote wisely, and personalize. Bizrate Insights found that offers that US consumers valued most in 2024 were discounts and free shipping Loyalty programs matter: more than two-thirds of US online adults say they save money through them and that they spend more with brands where they’re members, per Forrester’s Consumer Benchmark Survey, 2025. Social commerce is also key: nearly half of adults under 35 have bought directly from a social media ad. And as my colleague Kelsey Chickering noted last year, influencers are now gift guides.
  • Value-Add Content. Streamline UX, prioritize accessibility, and modernize commerce search and product discovery. Forrester’s Retail Topic Insights Survey (2025) shows that almost three-quarters of US online adults value ratings and reviews, especially those from verified buyers. And the vast majority want to see the final total price, including all fees, before they hit “submit” on a purchase.
  • Fulfillment and Delivery. Set clear expectations for delivery and communicate often with updates (you don’t want to incur unnecessary and costly “where is my order” calls). Additionally, almost three-quarters want to see delivery or pickup dates as early as the product detail page (some retailers make delivery dates and options a sorting filter on the product listing page). And your customers value timely post-purchase notifications and delivery updates – which will also alleviate calls to your contact center during an already busy season.
  • Customer Care. Equip agents with real-time info and tools, and update that regularly during the season as you learn more about hot products and frequently asked questions (which may be very different during the holiday season than at other times of the year). US online adults are most likely to use voice calls (over half), as well as chat and email (about one-third) as their preferred service channels. Think through your plan for social customer care as well.
  • Security. Phishing, bots, and AI-generated scams are on the rise. Forrester recommends enforcing Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) and Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) protocols and educating customers on how to identify legitimate communications. Two out of five US online adults say they’re actually not frustrated by bot challenges, and over half feel safer with them.

In a year of volatility, disciplined decision making coupled with creativity will be key to managing a busy shopping period. To learn more, see the full report, A Retailer’s Guide To The 2025 Holiday Season, and please schedule a guidance session with Forrester’s analysts. And bookmark our holiday season blog post series for more insights and detailed advice.