Buy-Now Pay-Later Platforms, Heightened Retail Anxiety, and the “Couch to Cart” Phenomenon to Drive Consumer Shopping Patterns This Holiday Season

Simpli.fi, the Advertising Success Platform providing programmatic advertising workflow software to agencies, brands, and media companies, released its 2025 Holiday Shopping Trends and Insights Report. This essential guide for digital advertisers outlines evolving consumer shopping behaviors and the strategic adjustments needed for effective holiday advertising campaigns.

In its comprehensive analysis based on over 140,000 monthly campaigns, the Simpli.fi report highlights a dramatic increase in early holiday shopping activities. The 2025 report notes a 24-fold increase in holiday advertising spending over previous peaks, emphasizing an earlier start to consumer shopping, with roughly 50% of shoppers beginning before November, according to Adobe for Business. Simpli.fi attributes the consumer shift in earlier holiday shopping to three factors: the rise in buy-now pay-later platforms, heightened retail anxiety, and the “couch to cart” phenomenon.

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“Every year, the holiday shopping landscape is different than the year before, and success hinges on the ability of brands to adapt swiftly,” said James Moore, Chief Revenue Officer at Simpli.fi. “Successful marketers need to adjust their strategies accordingly.”

Buy-now pay-later platforms are not only changing the way shoppers plan their purchases but are also increasing shopper purchase completion rates. At the same time, heightened retail anxiety causes growing numbers of shoppers to utilize summer sales, indicative of ongoing economic concerns.

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The dramatic rise of streaming TV advertising has increased the “couch to cart” phenomenon by allowing consumers to take immediate action through QR codes and shoppable ads. Notably, streaming TV driven actions, such as page visits, button interactions, in-person visits and site purchases, grew by 51% from 2023 to 2024, according to Simpli.fi’s Reporting Dashboard.

“Effective advertising campaigns are about being prepared. To run a successful campaign, advertisers must launch their campaigns ahead of the curve, identify target audiences that drive meaningful results, and critically analyze results from previous campaigns,” said Moore.