Industry Newsrecommendation systemsecommerceexperiential retailbuy now pay later
Holiday Retail Maintains Strength Despite Consumer Caution
8.1
Holiday retail spending in 2025 proved resilient: U.S. holiday sales rose 4.2% year over year and e-commerce grew 7.8%, with nearly 203 million shoppers engaging from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. AI-powered recommendation agents influenced about $14.2 billion in global online sales (including $3 billion in the U.S.), while order volumes declined 1% and items per transaction dropped 2% as average selling prices rose 7%.
Key Points
- 1Record engagement: nearly 203 million U.S. shoppers transacted Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, highest in nine years.
- 2AI agents influenced $14.2 billion globally, accelerating high-intent conversions and digital purchase decisions.
- 3Retailers optimize tenant mix combining value, experiential concepts, and digital brands to capture selective shoppers.
Scoring Rationale
Industry-wide data with quantified AI impact supports high relevance, limited by single-firm analysis and moderate methodological detail.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
Practice with real Retail & eCommerce data
90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets
Used by DS/ML engineers at top companies
250 free problems · No credit card
See all Retail & eCommerce problems
