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The 2025 holiday shopping season is just around the corner, and shoppers are starting to consider their gift-giving plans. At the same time, brands need to build out their strategies for consumer engagement for the final months of 2025 and into 2026.
Brands can capitalize on holiday shopping trends by prioritizing the customer experience through the use of AI tools, mobile interface optimization, and responsiveness to customers' preferences.
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Spending Environment
Economic uncertainty has slowed consumer spending, but not as dramatically as some analysts feared. Scaled-back discretionary spending in the first half of the year has given shoppers some breathing room, allowing them to plan for holiday purchases despite the cooling economy.
An analysis from Deloitte showed that consumers have been exercising caution in their spending throughout 2025, with spending down a percentage point compared to 2024. The same report suggested that shoppers do intend to increase their spending in the final quarter of the year, opening up more opportunities for retailers to attract customers.
Where Customers Shop
Mobile devices have rapidly become the most common platform for online shopping, accounting for 66.5% of total e-commerce sales. More than half of customers use voice searches when looking for items to buy. According to another 2025 survey, more than 60% of consumers incorporate AI into their shopping process, and almost half of shoppers trust AI more than their friends when making apparel purchases.
Online retailers can capitalize on the increased use of AI to draw in shoppers during the critical fourth quarter of 2025. Adopting AI tools like interactive advisory chatbots and virtual try-ons can increase customer engagement, convert searches into sales during the holiday shopping season, and carry that engagement into 2026.
Current State of Holiday Shopping
As the final quarter of 2025 approaches, many consumers are starting to map out their plans for holiday spending. Concerns about rising prices are leading to a measured approach to holiday shopping, with nearly 70% of consumers expecting to spend the same amount as or less than they did in 2024, according to Deloitte. A minority of shoppers expect to spend more this year.
Even with consumer caution on the rise, the majority of survey respondents expect to spend the same or more on apparel and beauty products in the closing months of the year, making those categories the likely leaders among holiday shopping trends.
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Per Deloitte, one-third of customers plan to do all or most of their holiday shopping online, with the majority of shoppers anticipating buying from a mix of virtual and brick-and-mortar retailers.
For online retailers, delivering an ideal customer experience is critical to ensuring that they complete as many sales as possible. Shoppers will abandon an online shopping cart if they're met with unexpected fees at checkout. Being forced to create an account also alienates some shoppers, who would prefer the option to check out as a guest and avoid sharing too much personal information.
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The ideal shopping experience needs to be attractive, frictionless, and personalized. Consumers increasingly respond to product images in search results or generative AI query responses. They want to access virtual try-ons or product recommendations that will assure them that the product they're considering will meet their needs. Finally, consumers don’t want surprises at checkout. Added fees, requests for personal data, and long shipping estimates can scuttle a sale and prevent a customer from returning to that brand in the future.
With many consumers shopping on virtual platforms and exercising caution about how they spend their money, advanced tools like AI can drive confidence in online items, increasing the likelihood that browsing will convert to buying. Informative chatbots and virtual try-on tools can assure online consumers that the items they’re buying will meet their expectations.
Technology and AI Transforming Shopping
Consumers have started using AI as a virtual assistant throughout the shopping process. Increasingly, shoppers will use generative AI tools to initiate a search, rather than using traditional search engines. The results from tools like ChatGPT are often more aligned with the initial query, allowing shoppers to quickly pinpoint retailers that have the types of items they want.
Once they move into the e-commerce environment, consumers rely on AI and augmented reality tools to replace the traditional practice of trying on clothes in person or matching color swatches. Virtual try-ons, or “see in your room” features, take the guesswork out of buying clothing, accessories, makeup, and household items. Being able to visualize the product before purchasing it improves customers' confidence, increasing conversions by up to 94% and reducing returns by as much as 40% for size-sensitive items like apparel.
Major beauty and fashion brands have been adding AI functionality to their in-store experiences as well as their online storefronts. Virtual try-on technology allows customers to experiment with makeup shades, helping them select a product that they know will be flattering. One month after deploying virtual try-on technology, for example, global beauty brand MAC saw a 200% increase in customer engagement.
Skincare brand ReVive added a skincare analysis tool that recommends solutions and lets users simulate how different products can improve their skin over time. The process gives customers a strong sense of the efficacy of the product, giving them a visual model for how the product works, not just a verbal description.
Brands can also use AI tools for better inventory control. According to research on predictive AI, retailers that utilize AI forecasting can improve their sell-through rate by up to 20% and reduce their inventory holding costs by up to 30%.
Top AI and Tech Trends in Beauty and Fashion for 2025
Understanding the top trends for AI and tech in beauty and fashion can help brands reach consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season.
1. Hyper-Personalization
General recommendations can leave customers unsure of whether a product will be right for them. Rather than making decisions based on marketing copy, consumers are looking at AI tools for personalized advice. AI-driven chatbots and photo-analysis tools can synthesize consumer data to generate appropriate recommendations.
2. Virtual and Augmented Reality Experiences
The native camera embedded within mobile devices makes them an ideal tool for virtual and augmented reality. In-app integration with the camera means users can seamlessly capture images of themselves or their space and then virtually superimpose clothing, makeup, accessories, or home goods onto the image.
3. Smart Shopping Assistants
Agentic AI is a cutting-edge tool that autonomously learns about consumers' preferences and adjusts their shopping experience accordingly. Virtual shopping assistants can use a customer's patterns and responses to deliver tailored recommendations, search results, promotions, and communications. In turn, customers get offers and suggestions that truly reflect their personal preferences.
4. Sustainability and Ethical Choices
Younger shoppers are particularly conscious of the greater impact of their purchasing choices. Recent research revealed that many Gen Zers and Millennials make purchase decisions based on their personal, social, and environmental values. More than 62% of Gen Z shoppers prefer sustainable brands, for instance, and 73% are willing to pay more for products that are sustainably produced. Brands can use AI tools to launch marketing campaigns that spotlight their sustainability practices and target the audiences that would be most receptive to that type of messaging.
5. Omnichannel Integration
The drive toward personalization means brands need to use multiple marketing channels to meet consumers where they are. This can include working with social media influencers to promote products on targeted platforms. Taking that a step further, retailers can utilize generative AI to deliver hyper-targeted messages and custom product descriptions via emails, text alerts, or social media feeds.
Perfect Corp. offers a comprehensive suite of AI tools for brands looking to maximize online shopping trends this holiday season. Beauty and fashion retailers can leverage Perfect Corp.'s AI- and AR-powered solutions for personalized customer service, virtual try-ons, skin analyses, and other functionalities.
Perfect Corp.'s tools seamlessly integrate with existing platforms and mobile apps for retailers, med spas, beauty and fashion brands, and more.
Contact Perfect Corp. today for a free demo or to learn more about how the company's solutions can position brands as market leaders for 2025's holiday shopping trends.
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