Brands will want to monitor U.S. markets to quickly adapt to customers’ behaviors. Microsoft Advertising’s AI-powered solutions can help you stay ahead by surfacing meaningful insights in real time, so you can meet shoppers where they are with messages that resonate. Brands may choose to lean into discount-focused messaging in the U.S. or reprioritize other markets as conditions continue to evolve.
3. Travel intent diverges by market
Another shift that’s underway is whether the holidays signal travel or cozy plans at home. For the first time since 2021, fewer Americans plan to hit the road at just 34% of our survey respondents.5 By contrast, more consumers in the U.K. and Australia plan to travel this year compared to last.6
In markets with increased travel, there’s an opportunity to get consumers excited about gifts that are easy to transport. Where travel is down, buyers are likely to be interested in flowers, gift baskets, gift cards, and other ways to celebrate from afar. For marketers, this increases the flexibility to tailor spending. Intelligent audience tools and generative AI solutions make it possible to localize creative and optimize spend by market with ease.
4. Price sensitivity drives search and discovery
The way we think of deals is changing, too, moving from a sales-closing tactic to a key factor in discovery. In our research, 77% of U.S. shoppers say they’re paying more attention to prices, and 74% are actively investing time to find deals.7 It’s easy to see why: McKinsey notes that rising costs of goods top consumer concern across 18 markets, with many deal hunting, trading down to cheaper items or generics, and delaying purchases to stretch their dollars.
Microsoft Advertising research shows similar trends that can help advertisers meet cost-conscious consumers where they are. Forty-one percent of buyers begin researching days ahead of a sales event, and search is where they go first for price comparisons and product info.8
Microsoft Advertising helps drive discovery and conversion with Shopping campaigns, Responsive Search ads, Dynamic Search ads along with Audience targeting.
5. Gifting behaviors reflect cultural and generational shifts
Even the “who” of gifting is evolving and reshaping the season’s social dynamics.
