Holiday 2025: Record Online Traffic Meets A New Era Of Budget‐Driven Shoppers

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Global retailers faced a dramatically reshaped holiday shopping season in 2025, defined by surging digital demand and sharply shifting consumer behavior as economic pressures pushed shoppers toward budget‐friendly choices. New data from Dynatrace and Qlik reveals a season of extremes: unprecedented online traffic on one side, and financially constrained consumers rewriting the rules of holiday buying on the other.

Cyber Week - spanning Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday - shattered expectations this year, with global online sales hitting record highs. According to Dynatrace, retailers on its platform experienced an 80 per cent jump in web traffic across the five‐day period compared to a typical weekend baseline. Black Friday alone saw traffic double versus a normal Friday, while Cyber Monday delivered a 70 per cent surge over a typical Monday. The massive demand translated into more than 100 petabytes of data processed - the equivalent of 5,000 years of nonstop HD movie watching - tripling last year's data volume.

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This spike underscores the evolution of holiday shopping from a single‐day event to a sustained digital season.“Traffic is hitting faster and harder than ever,” said Dynatrace Chief Customer Officer Steve McMahon, who emphasized that even minor system issues now risk significant revenue losses. Dynatrace maintained stability across global retailers' systems despite multiple exabytes of query load, a performance Telus's Principal Site Reliability Director Dana Harrison described as“phenomenal” for helping track real‐time impacts on carts and conversions.

But behind the booming traffic lies a more cautious consumer.

Qlik's annual holiday shopping survey shows 83 per cent of shoppers are adjusting their plans due to economic pressures, with inflation named by 39 per cent as the primary driver. Many are responding by buying fewer gifts (40 per cent) and starting their holiday purchases earlier (35 per cent) to stretch budgets over additional pay periods.

Gen Z, in particular, is redefining holiday spending norms. Nearly one‐third (32 per cent) report buying lower‐cost alternatives to premium brands - choosing, for example, budget leggings over high‐end athleisure or trendy but inexpensive toy alternatives. Their approach is not merely thrifty - it's strategic. This generation is determined to stay on‐trend while staying on budget, signaling a longer‐term shift retailers must heed.

Secondhand gifting has also become mainstream across most generations. 31 per cent of Gen Z, 23 per cent of Millennials, and 21 per cent of Gen X plan to buy thrifted gifts. Only Boomers remain hesitant, with just 13 per cent embracing pre‐owned presents.

Returns continue to present hidden opportunities for retailers. One in five shoppers spend more when returning an item than the original product's value, with Gen Z again leading the trend - 30 per cent typically“trade up” during returns. Moreover, more than half of Gen Z (54 per cent) admit to buying items online expecting to return them.

Qlik CEO Mike Capone argues that retailers must treat the full customer journey - even returns - as part of the revenue engine. Companies leveraging strong data strategies and agentic AI, he says, will be best positioned to set optimal price points, manage margins, and convert returns into profitable interactions.

As retailers brace for post‐holiday and January sales, the 2025 season illustrates a decisive shift: while digital demand continues breaking records, consumer behavior is rapidly fragmenting. Retailers that can marry system resilience with data‐driven insights will be the ones to thrive in this new era of cautious, value‐obsessed holiday shoppers.

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