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NBCU will have to pay extra to keep the Macy鈥檚 parade: The retailer wants $60 million for a new Thanksgiving Day broadcast contract.

NFL Thanksgiving ad rates rise 16%: Historic demand makes football the centerpiece of holiday advertising, with record viewership expected.

Half (49%) of people in the US are traveling between Thanksgiving and mid-January, according to Deloitte. With so many people getting on planes, trains, and automobiles, advertisers have increased opportunities to reach consumers across travel media networks, especially those who are younger and higher-income.

Steep discounts drove shoppers to spend on Cyber Monday: The Monday after Thanksgiving is poised to be the biggest online shopping day in US history.

Steep discounts drove shoppers to splurge on Black Friday: Consumers scooped up bargains across several categories, helping online sales jump 14.6% YoY the day after Thanksgiving.

Amazon, Best Buy, and Google will launch sales on November 21: The shorter-than-usual period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is driving retailers and brands to start their holiday pushes early.

Grocery prices remain front of mind for many consumers: That presents an opportunity for value-oriented merchants such as Aldi, Target, and Walmart to steal share by offering low prices for Thanksgiving staples.

鈥淭he holiday season really starts October 1,鈥� Megan Gaffey, senior director of publisher partnerships at Rakuten Advertising, said on our Tech-Talk webinar Performance Marketing Playbook for Q4 Holiday Success. 鈥淎nd you see a lot of advertisers launch Black Friday promotions the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to get ahead of the noise.鈥�

A truncated holiday spending period with fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the election will throw a curveball to retail sales this season, our analyst Sky Canaves said on an episode of the 鈥淏ehind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail鈥� podcast. In-store retail will see healthy growth, consumers will continue holding back on splurges, and mobile will uplift overall ecommerce. Here are three trends we鈥檙e predicting for the upcoming holiday season.

27% of UK and US adults plan to start buying holiday gifts as early as October, according to an April 2024 survey from Salsify.

While Black Friday was a major contributor to the November increase, mall visits in the period leading up to Thanksgiving were also up on a YoY basis鈥攍ikely the result of a lengthened promotional season from retailers looking to get a head start on holiday shopping.

A later Thanksgiving leaves fewer shopping days before Christmas. The fourth Thursday of November falls on the latest possible date in 2024, November 28, meaning a shorter window for shopping鈥攁nd marketing鈥攂etween Cyber Monday and Christmas. Optimized planning for inventory and fulfillment will be critical.

Walmart and NBCU teamed up again for shoppable ads during Thanksgiving Day NFL games. It also rolled out several Walmart Connect updates earlier this year: It offered offsite media to non-endemic brands and made its display ads available to 鈥渂rands of all sizes鈥� through the programmatic Walmart Ads marketplace.

It also promoted Thanksgiving meal bundles that cost less than $5 per person. Our take: Kroger, which is awaiting a decision on its planned merger with Albertsons, is putting itself in a strong position to succeed regardless of the outcome.

Movie theaters saw "Wicked" and "Moana 2" lead a record-breaking $420 million Thanksgiving weekend. As mentioned above, traffic to malls grew noticeably as the holiday shopping season began. "In most cases when you see a challenge, it's a cry for a need to change and evolve, as opposed to a segment, in its entirety, is doomed," Chernofsky said.

The TSA screened over 3 million passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, breaking a record set less than five months ago on July 7. Half of US consumers (49%) plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, per Deloitte鈥檚 2024 travel survey.

Providers like Adyen have been investing heavily in the technology to capitalize on these benefits and fight back against rampant fraud. 4.2% of all attempted US ecommerce transactions were suspected to have been fraud between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, per TransUnion.

A record 183.4 million people plan to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, per the National Retail Federation鈥檚 Cyber Five annual survey. That鈥檚 up nearly 11% from 165.3 million in pre-pandemic 2019. We expect Cyber Five retail ecommerce sales to grow 5.6% YoY this year.

The news: Digital fraud fell but was still rampant during the Cyber 5 holiday weekend鈥�4.2% of all attempted US ecommerce transactions were suspected to have been fraud between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, per TransUnion. This was a decline from last year鈥檚 5.8% despite increased ecommerce activity this year.

However, unemployment rose to 4.2%, likely reflecting increased volatility after the Thanksgiving holiday rather than an ongoing trend, per Reuters. By cutting rates, the Fed wants to support employment. According to Bankrate, inflation is at 2.7%, while the Fed鈥檚 goal is to keep it around 2%. What this means for banks:. Savings rates:.