The firm predicts that sales between November and January could reach $1.62 trillion, with e-commerce sales projected to grow up to 9%. Holiday sales in the U.S. are expected to increase between 2.9% and 3.4% this coming season, according to a Deloitte forecast. Deloitte projects holiday sales from November through January will total between $1.61 trillion and $1.62 trillion, up from $1.57 trillion last season, as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau.  E-commerce holiday sales growth will continue at a clip of between 7% and 9%, similar to the previous year. Total e-commerce sales are projected to reach between $305 billion and $310.7 billion, up from $285 billion in the 2024 season.

Retailers should prepare for record traffic on “Super Saturday” as consumers rush to complete their holiday shopping. An estimated 158.9 million consumers plan to shop on December 20, the last Saturday before Christmas, according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The figure is up from 157.2 million shoppers last year and surpasses the previous record of 158.5 million in 2022. (Black Friday and Super Saturday are generally regarded as the two busiest shopping days of the holiday season.) Super Saturday shoppers are expected to embrace multiple channels this year, with nearly half, or 71.6 million (45%), planning to shop both in-store and online, up from 69.5 million (44%) in 2024. For those who plan to shop a single channel, 29% will do so exclusively in-store, while 26% will shop online only.

The U.S. ad market expanded for its 13th consecutive month in April, rising 9.1% over the same month in 2023, according to the latest installment of data from Guideline's U.S. Ad Market Tracker. April also in the first month in quite some time to post an increase on top of a prior year increase, albeit a modest one: April 2023 was up 0.7% over April 2022. That said, the data indicates the U.S. ad market is well past its recessionary period and fully into an expansionary mode, with recent months rising at high single-digit increases or approach of surpassing double-digit ones.