Every year, marketers analyze performance data from the holiday shopping period to understand how consumers are buying and where marketing strategies are working. While topline growth always draws attention, the most valuable insights often come from how purchases happen rather than how much was spent — defying last year’s pessimistic forecasts.
Despite ongoing concerns around inflation, tariffs and broader economic uncertainty, consumer demand remained resilient. Retail sales from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday increased 4.1% year over year, while online sales grew 10.4% compared to the previous year, according to Mastercard data.
These results reinforce a familiar pattern: external pressure has not meaningfully slowed consumer spending. What’s changed is how consumers move from interest to purchase. Holiday data confirms purchases are shifting to the top of the funnel, with discovery, consideration and conversion compressing into a single moment. That shift reshapes how brands should think about spend, effort and efficiency heading into 2026.
Purchasing is moving earlier in the funnel
In previous years, most holiday revenue was driven by bottom-funnel activity. Brands relied heavily on retargeting, email follow-ups and repeated exposure to convert shoppers who had been researching products for weeks.
This year, a larger share of purchases occurred with fewer touchpoints. Across thousands of our ecommerce clients, conversions increasingly occurred at or near first exposure, without buyers needing to conduct the type of research that prolongs decision-making.
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Facebook and Instagram saw strong growth in client investment relative to other channels, largely because discovery and conversion occur in the same environment. Improved targeting reaches high-intent buyers earlier, and familiar checkout options reduce friction, enabling immediate purchases.
Meanwhile, ecommerce platforms have reinforced this behavior. Standardized checkout experiences have reduced the hesitation that once slowed early-stage conversions. Consumers no longer need to build trust over time before completing a purchase when the buying experience feels familiar and low-friction.
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Your Q1 2026 action plan
Historically, marketers have been hesitant to move up the funnel because of inefficiencies. Capturing high-funnel buyers required significantly more advertising spend, which reduced return on ad spend.
Today, advanced targeting and near-universal checkout experiences have created an environment where the upper funnel is profitable territory. Here’s how marketers can begin adapting in early 2026.
Step 1: Ensure mobile-readiness
You already understand the importance of mobile-first strategies. It’s essential to track the percentage of purchases made on mobile devices. This metric is a critical indicator of ecommerce success and will inform many decisions about how you sell online.
Step 2: Don’t neglect table-stakes technology
Review website fundamentals. Ensure your ecommerce platform includes the features customers expect. BNPL options such as Klarna or Affirm, digital wallet integrations such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, and review aggregators such as Shopper Approved are no longer optional. They are baseline requirements for operating an ecommerce business.
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Step 3: Start moving up the funnel
Once your website is optimized, begin expanding up the funnel. Upper-funnel advertising on platforms such as Meta is highly visual, making high-quality brand imagery essential across marketing content.
For teams without dedicated designers, tools such as Google’s Imagen can help create on-brand creative efficiently. Marketers can then use Meta’s advanced targeting capabilities to test broader audiences that have not yet interacted with the brand.
Step 4: Invest in email marketing
Don’t abandon proven channels. Email continues to deliver strong performance. Our clients saw 30% to 40% year-over-year revenue gains from email during last year’s holiday season. Brands that neglect this channel risk losing sales to competitors that prioritize it.
Step 5: Monitor AI, but don’t abandon the basics
AI continues to generate attention, but its impact on ecommerce traffic remains limited. During the 2025 holiday season, AI-driven traffic accounted for just 0.28% of clients’ website traffic and contributed minimal revenue.
The most significant opportunities remain in established, proven channels. That will evolve over time, but strong SEO foundations, effective paid media and optimized user experiences continue to drive growth. Marketers should experiment with emerging AI features, such as Shopify’s ChatGPT integration, while observing competitive adoption without abandoning highly effective strategies.
The opportunity ahead
The continued collapse of the traditional sales funnel represents a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. It also creates one of the clearest growth opportunities marketers have seen in years. When discovery and conversion happen simultaneously, brands that show up early, clearly and friction-free are positioned to win.
Holiday data confirms that buyers are making decisions in moments, not weeks. As marketers plan for 2026, the priority should be building experiences that create immediate trust and make action easy, emphasizing mobile performance, checkout simplicity and strong creative.
The path to purchase has not disappeared. It has shortened. Brands that adapt early will be best positioned to capture demand and drive sustainable growth.
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