Capturing the attention of holiday shoppers has become harder the noisier the world gets. Part of the issue is that most brands already think they know their holiday customers and that there’s nothing new to learn about them.
The reality isn’t so cut and dry. Holiday shoppers aren’t just one enormous audience. Instead, they’re made up of distinct segments with different motivations, values, and preferences who are paying attention to different channels. The one thing they do have in common? They’re all shopping during the same eight-week window. That’s it. So, when you treat this group as one, undifferentiated audience, you end up with messaging that doesn’t work at the right scale, wasted media spend on the wrong channels, and less revenue than a more targeted approach.
In this blog, we’ll take a deeper dive into three of those segments: Buy Now, Pay Later Shoppers, Sale Shoppers, and Online Shoppers. Each comes with a distinct profile and requires a different marketing approach. Ready to learn how to reach them?
Holiday Audience 1: Buy Now, Pay Later Shoppers
Buy Now, Pay Later options have become ubiquitous fixtures at checkout on websites, and Resonate data shows just under 9M consumers say this is how they’ll be paying for their holiday purchases. They fall into this category because they are not bargain hunters; they are willing to pay full price with interest, so they represent a potentially high-value audience.
Audience Snapshot:
Holiday Marketing Tips:
Buy Now, Pay Later Shoppers’ top personal values include being in charge and acquiring wealth and influence, which gives you the signal to lead with ambition rather than affordability. Build campaigns around premium gift positioning like “this year, get the gift you actually want” rather than budget-friendly messaging. Frame the Buy Now, Pay Later option as a way to be flexible with finances and afford the bigger purchase.
Also, look to the 6% who are big spenders: They’re 3x more likely than average to spend over $2,500 on gifts. Personalize offers to this specific audience and focus on the higher-ticket items in your catalog. Place Buy Now, Pay Later messaging directly on those product pages for these consumers instead of only at checkout, to let them know that they can take a non-traditional route to luxury.
Finally, since 41% still plan to shop in-store and 37% will use a secondhand marketplace like Amazon, don’t build this campaign as an online-direct-only play. Pair in-store signage or promotions with Buy Now, Pay Later messaging, and make sure your product is discoverable and competitively positioned on secondhand/resale platforms, not just your own site.
Holiday Audience #2: Sale Shoppers
With just over 51M consumers, this audience is huge. They’re also the focus of a ton of communication, not just from you, but from your competitors as well. Everyone is trying to get these shoppers in the door by advertising traditional sale days like Black Friday and by making up sale periods of their own, like “special Friday-Before-Christmas flash sale.” This audience presents a challenge: After all, they’re in-market to buy, but only if the offer has certain characteristics (i.e. a discount), and they’re swamped in emails.
Audience Snapshot:
Holiday Marketing Tips:
Cutting through the noise to reach these coveted Sale Shoppers gets a lot easier with the right data. You can set yourself apart from the rest and engage these shoppers’ attention by leading with their primary purchase driver, brand credibility, and their secondary purchase driver, price. So while everyone else is playing the game of “biggest discount wins,” you don’t have to. You’ll be pairing a promotional offer with a clear brand story or trust signal.
You’ll also be able to answer the question, “Where should I place my ad so shoppers will see it?” Since 73% plan to shop in-store and 69% will use a secondhand marketplace like Amazon, ensure in-store signage reinforces the same offers running online. Confirm your product listings and pricing are competitive and visible on secondhand/resale platforms. Media campaigns should be strategically placed on Paramount+ and Disney+, since that’s where the Sale Shoppers are watching.
This data reveals another crucial piece of information: With 75% planning to spend between $250 and $999, this audience’s sweet spot is mid-tier gifting. This gives you additional context your competitors don’t have and reinforces that price is only a constraint to this group, not a reason they buy. They are clearly comfortable with some spending, but they approach it thoughtfully. Bundle offers and gift sets that fall into that price range; that’s where they’ve already decided to spend.
And since 22% specifically want an easy return policy, feature yours prominently in holiday campaign creative and on product pages. You never know: Return flexibility could be the factor that makes them decide to shop with you as opposed to somebody else.
Holiday Audience #3: Online Shoppers
These aren’t just any online shoppers: This audience will specifically shop on a brand’s website for gifts this holiday season. This is a crucial group. Not only are they coming straight to you rather than going to a secondhand retailer, but with this audience, you’ll lose less margin to marketplace fees and discount codes. With these Online Shoppers, you have the chance to build a direct relationship that’s valuable for retargeting, email capture, and building a first-party relationship that extends past this one purchase.
Over 72M consumers will shop on a brand’s website for gifts this holiday season. Here’s what makes them tick.
Audience Snapshot:
Holiday Marketing Tips:
Start with your product messaging and build it around what the Online Shoppers value: practicality, sustainability, and genuine enjoyment. This audience is looking for all three at once, so ensure your campaigns focus on multiple values rather than just one.
Also note that this audience skews towards experiential hobbies, like spending a day at a museum and traveling to far-flung locations. This is the perfect opportunity to connect products to experiences rather than focusing on pure material value. Campaigns centered around “a reason to get out and do something” will engage the Online Shoppers more than standard product callout.
Better still, this data gives us information about exactly what they’re doing when they get out of the house, so you can connect products to specific activities. Messaging like, “Great for your next international trip” lands more effectively than an emphasis on high-quality materials, for example.
Finally, with more than 15M people in this audience simply proceeding with normal holiday spending sans cutback behavior, don’t assume this entire audience needs a discount to convert. Build at least one full-price, values-driven creative track alongside the coupon-and-sale-day messaging so you’re not leaving margin on the table with shoppers who aren’t waiting for a deal to buy.
Stop Marketing to “Holiday Shoppers.” Start Marketing to Specific Segments.
Of course, this kind of nuanced consumer understanding is just a starting point. The real business driver comes from applying this understanding to real people and delivering them the specific messages that make it easier for them to choose you over a competitor.
Adding this layer of insight to your existing customer data lets you build precise audiences, like Buy Now, Pay Later Shoppers or Sale Shoppers, and activate them across the streaming services, TV networks, and other channels where they spend their time. That way, each segment gets the truly personalized experience that drives action.
These three audiences alone represent tens of millions of consumers, and each one responds to a fundamentally different message, channel, and offer. And what we’ve presented here is only a fraction of the full picture. For a deeper look at how consumer behavior is shaping up across the entire holiday season, read the Resonate 2026 Holiday Predictions Report.
And if you’re ready to find out exactly which of these audiences, or others unique to your own customer base, make up your holiday shopper mix, schedule a consultation with a Resonate data expert to make sure your holiday marketing is reaching the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
