Memorial Day weekend means one thing: summer is here. Grills are lit, families are gathering, and people are spending like they mean business. In fact, 52% of consumers plan to celebrate with others and 94% of them are planning to buy something to make it special.
The question isn't whether people are shopping. It's whether they're shopping your brand.
What makes this guide useful is that it doesn’t frame identity as just another martech buzzword or a narrow conversation about match rates. Instead, it explores a bigger shift: from asking how many visitors you can identify to asking what your marketing system can actually do once it recognizes them. In that framing, identity becomes the eyes, and AI decisioning becomes the brain -- helping brands not only recognize more people, but respond more intelligently across email, SMS, onsite experiences, and paid media.
Early access isn't just a perk, it's a strategy. Giving your subscriber list first dibs before the sale goes public rewards loyalty and creates buzz before the campaign even officially begins.
The winning formula is simple: soft open, mid-sale reminders, urgency ramp, last-day push, extension. It's a cadence designed to catch every type of shopper, from the planners who need time to the last-minute buyers who just need a nudge.
Here's an easy win: extend the sale. Memorial Day weekend is full of people talking about what they bought, where they got it, and how good the deal was. Those conversations drive traffic and if your sale is already over, you've left that revenue on the table.
Your subject line is your first impression, make it count. Inside the email, keep copy light, lean into the summer vibe and make the offer impossible to miss. Shoppers already have their wallets out, the last thing you want to do is lose them to a paragraph.
Memorial Day shoppers aren't comparison shopping, they're in summer mode. Make it simple: everything's on sale, no fine print.
Spring is out, summer is in and shoppers are feeling it. Memorial Day is the moment consumers shake off the cold and open their wallets and the smartest brands know exactly how to meet them there.
The brands that win it aren't just offering deals, they're speaking to the season.
Use these plays to make the most of the weekend.