While discounts drove purchasing in the early days of the holiday shopping season, consumers are shifting into more thoughtful, quality gifts in the back half of the season as total spending growth slows.U.S. consumers had spent $187.3 billion so far online between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12, up 6.1% from the same stretch last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Total holiday season e-commerce spend is still expected to cross $253 billion, which would be 5.3% above last year, with the growth rate slowing later into December as delivery in time for Christmas gets tighter. E-commerce sales typically “slow sharply” from about Dec. 16 to Dec. 18, and then “decline rapidly” in the ensuing days, until Christmas Eve is the slowest shopping day of the season, Casey Armstrong, chief marketing officer for ShipBob, told CNBC. Armstrong said shopping picks up again on Dec. 27, which is typically the strongest day for ShipBob’s customers late in the season. The company is a third-party logistics firm that ships for small, medium and social-oriented brands. A shopper carries packages in Union Square in San Francisco, Dec. 11, 2025.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesFor shoppers who are willing to order online in the back half of the season, quality, rather than discounts, is driving interest. Captify analyzes more than 1 billion search events per day from 3 million websites, and it shows outsize search growth in apparel and athleisure brands including Alo Yoga, Warby Parker, Aritzia, Bombas and Quince into December compared to earlier in the season. Searches for Alo Yoga rose 256% for the period between Dec. 7 and Dec. 15 compared to the stretch from Nov. 28 to Dec. 6. Quince searches are up 124% for those same time frames. “These gains point to a rise in thoughtful, quality-driven gifting as shoppers seek products from highly regarded brands” said Oscar Chow, Captify head of insights for the U.S.RetailNext, which tracks in-store shopping, has also seen evidence of consumers valuing quality this season, even if that means buying fewer items. “Consumers are willing …
