Your holiday season product sampling strategy 2025

The 2025 holiday season is upon us! Well, not for everyone, but for brands and marketers, preparations are well underway for this year’s holiday season. With good reason: last year, the North America market saw a robust retail performance, despite economic uncertainties, with product sampling proving, once again, to be an exceptionally effective strategy.

Year-on-year, sampling has emerged as a critical tool for cutting through the holiday season noise. As we all know, it builds trust - crucial in a cost conscious society - and directly influences the gift-giving decisions of millions of Americans. This year will be no different.

2024’s North America holiday season saw unprecedented success

Looking at last year’s stats, the average US consumer spent $1,603 on holiday-related purchases - up 7.9% from 2023. This included an average spend of $677 on gifts, up 3.4% from the previous year. In national terms, what this looked like for North America’s 2024 holiday season was: 

• $994.1 billion in retail sales; a modest 4% increase over the previous year
• An 8.6% rise in online sales, equating to $296.7 billion in total

At the time, Gen Z and millennials were projected to increase their holiday spending significantly (21% and 15% respectively), often driven by ‘doom spending’ or a general desire to enjoy the holidays - and who can blame them? It is the most wonderful time of the year, after all!

For brands, this strong spending environment provided ample opportunity for them to take advantage of product sampling campaigns - they were very confident that trying a product could lead to a purchase.

This highlights that in 2025, a marketing strategy without the inclusion of a robust product sampling campaign, will see brands miss out on a slice of the abundant holiday season pie. Let’s find out more…

What does holiday spending look like in 2025?

The National Retail Federation projects that overall retail sales in 2025 will grow a percentage point this year from $5.42 trillion to $5.48 trillion. While inflation is easing, economic worries do still persist for a significant portion of consumers - this sets a crucial precedent for brands this holiday season:

Brands need to demonstrate value and build trust more than ever.

Both consumers who are increasing their spending, and those who are decreasing their spending, have cited concerns about inflation and the economy for holiday season spending this year. As such, brands should be considering sampling as a critical component in their marketing plans, to demonstrate values and reduce purchase risk for consumers.

By leveraging sampling to show tangible product benefits, brands can also justify price points - this is particularly true for items that may be perceived as a luxury or non-essential gifts.

Product sampling is becoming an increasingly sophisticated and integrated part of marketing strategies for brands looking to grow their brand revenue, market share and customer base in 2025 (and beyond). 

This year, a seamless omni-channel integration is a non-negotiable for a successful holiday season product sampling campaign. The distinction between online and in-store shopping continues to fade. In fact, 40% of consumers will discover a product via one channel, and purchase it through another. 

Online shopping has hit 82% (up from 48% last year), and mobile commerce continues to boom.. Social media platforms will be key channels for both discovery and purchasing for consumers this holiday season. In fact, 21% of consumers are using channels like TikTok and Instagram for direct purchases, and 55% allocate up to half of their holiday budgets to social commerce.

However, what is important to remember this holiday season is that consumers in 2025 expect far more than a product sample; they want an engaging and authentic experience. Samples need to be part of a larger brand narrative that appeals to consumer emotions and values, and lifestyles too. 60% of consumers are choosing healthier options this holiday season, and a significant boost in wellness products - particularly food, beverages and self-care items, are set to be extremely impactful.

Get your holiday season sampling strategy started today!

Bazaarvoice has predicted that September and October will be when most people begin their holiday season shopping in 2025., implying a much earlier start than last year. While some shoppers will still expect deep discounts on major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers will also be on the lookout for opportunities to experience products before they commit to a purchase. Therefore, brands need to front-load their sampling campaigns, ensuring product trials are available before the traditional holiday rush to capture early shoppers and influence their holiday season purchases.

Want to shine this holiday season? Get in touch with the SoPost team to get your festive product sampling campaign off to a great start!