Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) may dominate holiday shopping headlines, but an analysis of more than 44 billion emails and 83 million text messages sent globally through Intuit Mailchimp from Halloween through New Year’s Eve 2025 shows that consumer purchasing continues well beyond those major promotional events. The findings, developed with Datalily, are detailed in Mailchimp’s Breaking Through Peak Season Noise report and offer businesses a broader view of when and how holiday shoppers buy.
One of the most striking findings is that quieter marketing days can still be strong shopping days. During the 2025 peak season, weekend order rates were twice weekday rates, even as brands sent roughly 60% fewer messages on weekends. On the Sunday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, brands sent 59% fewer emails and 82% fewer text messages than they did on Black Friday. Yet shopping activity remained high, suggesting that consumer demand does not always align with the heaviest promotional pushes.
The research also highlights channel differences. Email remained the larger revenue driver overall, but text messaging generated stronger engagement during high shopping periods. During BFCM weekend, SMS averaged a 15.7% click rate per message delivered, compared with 1.4% for email. At peak points during the season, SMS generated up to six times higher order rates than email and three times higher revenue per message. These results indicate that consumers respond differently to marketing channels during the holidays.
First-time customers played a significant role. During BFCM weekend, shoppers making their first purchase from a brand accounted for 59% of email-attributed orders and nearly 70% of SMS-attributed orders. They also spent more per order: average order values for first-time buyers were 21% higher through email and 39% higher through SMS compared with repeat buyers. For businesses, this suggests that holiday promotions can be a powerful tool for acquiring new customers, not just driving sales from existing ones.
Some of those new customers returned after the holidays. Among shoppers who made their first purchase during peak season, 16.6% purchased again during the first quarter of 2026, with a median of 26 days between purchases. This points to the importance of the weeks following the holiday rush as a critical window for continued engagement with newly acquired customers.
Taken together, the findings show that holiday shopping activity can remain strong beyond the biggest promotional days, that different communication channels yield different results, and that first-time holiday shoppers can become repeat buyers in the new year. Understanding these patterns can help businesses refine their marketing strategies throughout the holiday season and into the first quarter. The full report, including interactive charts, is available online. The research was originally distributed via (NewsUSA).
