Consumers are opening their wallets this holiday season—but they’re not opening their inboxes to just anything.

According to the Optimove Insights 2025 Consumer Holiday Shopping Report, nearly half (48%) of consumers plan to boost their holiday shopping budgets this year, offering a promising outlook for retailers. But there’s a catch: 84% of shoppers are worried about tariffs, 80% are concerned about inflation, and 82% admit to unsubscribing from marketing emails while shopping online.

In short, people are spending—but they’re also skeptical, overloaded, and demanding more from brands than ever before.

Shoppers Are Spending More—Just Not Waiting for November to Do It

The research, based on a July 2025 survey of 345 U.S. consumers aged 21 and up (with household incomes of $75K+), outlines a major shift in behavior and timing:

• 64% will begin holiday shopping before Halloween

• 88% prefer early offers from brands

• 66% are still discount-driven, but 81% prioritize overall price-value

The 2025 season will start earlier and require more from marketers—not just in volume, but in speed and strategy.

And brands that bombard inboxes with irrelevant campaigns? They’ll pay the price. Nearly half of consumers report fatigue from holiday marketing before November even starts.

Positionless Marketing: Why Traditional Campaign Models Won’t Cut It Anymore

To meet this changing landscape, Optimove is pushing a marketing framework it calls Positionless Marketing—a model that strips away cross-departmental dependencies and empowers marketers to act on real-time customer signals themselves.

“Traditional, assembly-line marketing is too slow for today’s consumer,” said Rony Vexelman, VP of Marketing at Optimove. “If you’re waiting on analysts or creative teams, you’re already late.”

Marketers embracing Positionless Marketing can:

• Instantly access customer data

• Personalize messages based on behavior or preference

• Launch multichannel campaigns in minutes instead of days

Some Optimove clients are cutting campaign launch time from five days to five minutes—a competitive edge when shopping behaviors are shifting by the hour.

The New Mandate: Empathy + Speed + Precision

The report doesn’t just flag problems—it offers strategies. To connect with a more value-conscious and digitally fatigued audience, Optimove recommends a three-pronged approach:

1. Lead With Empathy and Value
   Price remains the top driver, but tone and timing matter. Transparent, financially sensitive messaging resonates more than flashy discounts.

2. Personalize With Purpose
   With 63% of shoppers ignoring most emails, personalization needs to go beyond name tags. Marketers must use behavioral and preference data to drive actual relevance.

3. Act in Real Time
   Trends change quickly, and delays cost money. Real-time responsiveness—enabled by Positionless Marketing—keeps campaigns aligned with consumer sentiment, product shifts, and competitive pricing.

A Holiday Marketing Wake-Up Call

If there’s one takeaway from the 2025 Optimove report, it’s this: the winners this season won’t just offer better deals—they’ll offer better timing, better targeting, and better understanding.

As Vexelman put it, “The brands that succeed this year will be the ones that stop waiting and not only respond to, but anticipate customers’ needs.”

With consumer budgets rising and patience shrinking, the challenge isn’t whether shoppers will spend—it’s whether marketers can keep up.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.