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Holiday 2025 is shaping up to be one of the most competitive seasons yet. Budgets are higher, ad costs are climbing, and the margin for error is razor thin. That’s why measurement isn’t just an afterthought this year, it’s the single biggest factor in deciding which brands scale profitably and which ones get left behind.   The Problem: More Data, Less Clarity Marketers today are drowning in dashboards, attribution reports, and disconnected metrics. The challenge isn’t a lack of data—it’s

Amazon has trained shoppers to start early, and that shift is reshaping the entire holiday calendar. Nearly half of U.S. consumers now begin holiday shopping in October, and events like Prime Big Deal Days have established an “early-bird” window long before Black Friday. In 2024, Amazon’s Q4 sales hit $115.6B (+10% YoY), with a significant share driven by October promotions. That early surge created momentum leading into Cyber Week, and 2025 will be no different. Here’s what brands should focus

The economy is sending mixed signals heading into BFCM 2025. U.S. consumers remain financially stable, but confidence has slipped and inflation expectations are ticking up. The result? Shoppers are unwilling, not unable, to spend. Compared to past years, efficiency gains are slowing, costs are rising, and acquisition is getting harder. At the same time, average order values are climbing, showing that when customers do buy, they’re willing to spend more per purchase. Here’s what that means for your holiday strategy:

Artificial intelligence isn’t just reshaping marketing, it’s reshaping how people shop. This holiday season, tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are becoming gift advisors, helping shoppers discover products long before they hit Amazon or Google. For ecommerce brands, that shift is massive. Last year, we saw the early signs: longer search queries, AI “overviews” reaching billions of users, and shoppers asking open-ended questions that went beyond traditional keyword search. This year, those behaviors are accelerating. So what does this mean

Black Friday–Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2025 won’t look like years past. The data is clear: while shoppers are still spending, it’s getting harder,  and more expensive to win their attention. In 2024, retailers faced a mixed bag of results. Conversions grew, but at half the pace of 2023. Acquisition costs jumped into double digits, and ROAS barely budged. Efficiency gains are slowing, and the easy wins are behind us. Yet, there’s good news: average order values rose nearly 8%, showing that

Most marketing agencies can only influence about 20% of a brand’s sales outcomes (Gartner). The other 80% lives in the blind spots, competitive shifts, operational inefficiencies, user experience issues, and customer sentiment that traditional digital marketing alone cannot solve. At National Positions, we see this as the next frontier. That’s why we are launching our new AI Agency Team. Why We’re Doing This The complexity of today’s marketing environment has outpaced what human teams, no matter how skilled, can manage