Online spending surged. Cyber Monday hit new highs. Analysts cheered the resilience of U.S. consumers. The narrative was triumphant and familiar.
But behind the celebratory charts and revenue numbers, something fundamentally different was happening.
According to our U.S. Tariffs Report: Holiday Spending Under Tariff Pressure, conducted December 2–4 with 371 U.S. shoppers evenly split across ages and genders, consumers did not feel like this was a strong year for them. In fact, their emotional reality tells almost the opposite story of the macro headlines.
This BFCM may go down as a record-setter for retailers. But for consumers? It was a season of strain, strategy, and skepticism. And that tension — between how consumers performed and how they felt — is the single most important signal ecommerce marketers must pay attention to heading into 2026.