The yearend holiday shopping season may mean half of consumers tapping BNPL for purchases. Half of holiday shoppers plan to use buy now, pay later services to cover their expenses this holiday season, according to a holiday survey of 1,000 U.S. adults from digital payments provider PayPal Holdings. The respondents cited budget control and affordability as the top reasons for using the payment tool.

Those groups are harnessing artificial intelligence for gift ideas and to compare prices this season, a new survey states. While nearly a quarter (23%) of consumers overall are likely to use chatbots and AI tools to shop this holiday season, millennials and Gen Z shoppers are leading the way in using the technology, according to an Epsilon Pulse report. Forty-four percent of millennials and 42% of Gen Z respondents said they are likely to use chatbots and AI tools for holiday purchase inspiration.

From shifting loyalty to year-round gifting, learn what’s driving global purchase behavior in 2025—and how top brands are building smarter, more profitable campaigns in response. Packed with trends and actionable tactics, this report helps brands capture more revenue through smarter segmentation, loyalty, and omnichannel orchestration.

ThredUp, one of the largest online resale platforms for apparel, shoes, and accessories, today released its 2025 Holiday Report. The study, conducted by GlobalData and surveying 2,000 consumers, reveals that despite economic uncertainty, holiday spending remains resilient, with a major shift to circular shopping: consumers plan to dedicate nearly 40% of their total holiday budgets to secondhand gifts, up from the 30% they typically spend on resale in their everyday shopping.

Secondhand shopping will help drive sales this holiday season as shoppers plan a sharp increase in the percentage of their budgets allocated to resale. Consumers plan to allocate nearly 40% of their total holiday budgets to secondhand gifts, up from the 30% they typically spend on resale in their everyday shopping, according to online resale platform ThredUp’s “2025 Holiday Report.”  And 66% of all respondents are open to giving secondhand gifts, a figure that jumps to 80% for millennial respondents.

Secondhand September began like most social movements do: with a marketing-friendly pledge to take better care of the planet. But now, it’s a mirror reflecting our contradictory behaviors and our innate desire to be seen as smarter and more stylish than everyone else. 

Launched by UK charity organization Oxfam in 2019, Secondhand September challenged consumers to commit to shopping only second-hand goods for 30 days. Fifty thousand people signed the first call to action, demonstrating to merchants that they wanted to reclaim control over how, where, and why they shopped. And if merchants wanted to resonate with what industry pundits called “the new values-driven consumer,” resale would be a critical entry point.

Real stories from marketers and merchandisers who’ve been through the BFCM fire and came back with lessons, laughs, and better strategies you can steal. These confessions and hard-won lessons are exactly what you’ll find in the Burn Book, straight from the marketers and merchandisers who survived the chaos.

Consumers are bombarded with marketing messages during the holiday season, especially through email, a veritable constellation of offers. Inboxes typically start to get flooded during the BFCM weekend, but with the holiday season extended and some shoppers crossing off their lists as early as October, consumers will become overwhelmed by brand messages earlier than ever. 

Future Commerce’s latest New Modes Report found that 55% of consumers will even unsubscribe from brands they like if they are too heavy-handed, so brands need to be thoughtful and intentional with their approach.