Holiday 2025 proved something important: demand wasn’t the problem. Execution was.
One of the goals of the Retail Rewired Roundup is to ground perspective in real customer behavior, not hindsight or assumption.
That is why we partnered with Caddle to run a rapid-response holiday shopping survey during December 2025. Instead of waiting for post-season reports, this approach gave us real-time insight into how shoppers were actually experiencing the holidays as they unfolded.
The survey asked five clear questions. Individually, each one is useful. Together, they explain why retail did not collapse this holiday season, but also why it failed to truly stand out.
Question 1: How Would You Rate Your Overall Holiday Shopping Experience?
Shoppers were asked to rate their overall holiday shopping experience.
11.2% said it was excellent
33.2% said it was good
30.6% described it as average
5.5% said it was frustrating
1.7% said it was very frustrating
17.7% said they had not shopped for the holidays yet
Retail did not collapse this holiday season. But it also did not, as Steve Dennis would say, become remarkable.
Nearly 75% of shoppers rated the experience as excellent, good, or average. That tells us the system held together under pressure.
But only 11.2% described the experience as truly excellent.
Customers are coping, not celebrating. Retail met expectations, but rarely exceeded them. And in today’s market, meeting expectations is no longer enough.
Question 2: How Did You Shop Across Online and In-Store?
Shoppers were asked how they split their shopping between online and in-store.
49.3% shopped using a mix of online and in-store
21.7% shopped mostly online
12.8% shopped mostly in-store
8.7% shopped in-store only
7.6% shopped online only
Nearly half of shoppers blended physical and digital shopping experiences (often referred to as Harmonized Shopping), while fewer than one in ten stayed entirely in a single channel.
Customers are not choosing channels. They are choosing what works in the moment, based on availability, timing, and convenience. This is no longer emerging behavior. It is how people shop.
Question 3: About How Much Did You Spend on Holiday Gifts?
Shoppers were asked how much they spent, or planned to spend, on holiday gifts.
28.7% spent under $250
32.6% spent $250–$499
18.4% spent $500–$749
8.3% spent $750–$999
12.0% spent $1,000 or more
Over 63% of shoppers spent between $250 and $749, and 1 in 5 spent more than $750. Demand was clearly present.
Here is the harder question for retailers:
Did customers choose you more often, or did they simply spend more everywhere?
This is where leaders need to look past topline revenue and ask tougher questions:
Did average basket size grow, or did results rely on deeper discounting?
Did transaction counts increase, or did fewer shoppers spend more?
Did foot traffic and site visits convert better, or leak at the point of commitment?
Stable consumer spending can hide underperformance. Retailers can appear healthy while quietly losing share of wallet and relevance.
Question 4: What Caused the Most Frustration While Holiday Shopping?
Shoppers were asked what frustrated them most.
23.3% out-of-stock items
16.0% delivery delays
13.7% long checkout lines or self-checkout issues
6.7% returns and exchanges
5.8% confusing websites or apps
34.6% nothing frustrated them
This is the retail equivalent of throwing a great party.
Marketing sends the invites. Promotions build excitement. Customers show up ready to buy.
Then they open the fridge and there is no food or drinks.
Out-of-stocks, delivery delays, and checkout friction all hit at the exact moment customers are ready to commit. That is why they do the most damage.
What retailers should look at immediately:
Out-of-stocks: Was demand mis-forecasted, or did inventory end up in the wrong places? This is often a flow problem, not a supply problem.
Delivery delays: Was this internal capacity, external partners, or unrealistic promises? Customers do not care which one broke.
Checkout friction: Were peak hours staffed properly, or did self-checkout simply shift work onto customers?
Customers will tolerate complexity after purchase. They will not tolerate friction at the moment of commitment.
The math matters: If 23.3% of shoppers hit out-of-stocks and even 30% of those moments resulted in lost or reduced purchases, roughly 7% of holiday demand was at risk. On $100M in holiday sales, that is $7M left on the table.
That is not a marketing problem. It is an execution problem.
Question 5: How Did Holiday Deals and Promotions Feel Overall?
Shoppers were asked how holiday deals felt this year.
14.5% felt there were truly great savings
36.8% said there were a few good deals but mostly noise
29.4% said it was hard to tell what was a real deal
12.1% felt deals were mostly misleading
7.2% did not really shop deals
Only 1 in 7 shoppers felt promotions were truly great. Nearly 80% felt deals were noisy, confusing, or misleading.
This is not a discount-depth problem. It is a clarity and trust problem.
Promotions still matter, but their role has changed. They are no longer the primary growth lever. They are a credibility test.
Discounting cannot fix broken execution. It only amplifies it.
What These Five Questions Tell Us Together
Retail did not fail this holiday season. It simply failed to stand out.
Customers showed up. They blended channels. They spent money. But very few felt delighted.
When execution cannot support the demand marketing creates, retail delivers experiences that are functional, forgettable, and easy to replace.
The retailers that win next will not be the loudest. They will be the most reliable.
What Retail Leaders Should Do Next
As planning for 2026 begins:
Design for blended customer journeys, not channels
Make inventory confidence and fulfillment reliability core experience metrics
Measure share of wallet and market share as closely as revenue
The value of rapid-response insight is clarity. Customers are telling us exactly where retail is holding together and exactly where it is falling short.
The question is whether leaders are willing to act on it.
If this perspective resonates, subscribe to the Retail Rewired Roundup. This partnership with Caddle is how we will continue bringing real customer signals into the retail conversation.