1. The boom of the Golden Quarter 

The Golden Quarter is the sales period running from October to December covering a huge range of events, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day and, occasionally, Amazon Prime Day.



Black Friday was once the jewel in the crown: the main focus and a quick sprint towards sales success. Now, the whole quarter has become a marathon retail event, meaning brands need to start planning earlier than ever to capitalise on the opportunities it offers.

Recent research suggests that 60% of retailers launched their Black Friday campaigns earlier in 2025 than in 2024. Half were also running their campaigns for longer, meaning marketers need to factor this into media planning and prepare for weeks of escalating demand, shifting consumer intent and increasing promotional noise.

2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

With the Golden Quarter offering more opportunities than ever before, Black Friday isn’t the only opportunity up for grabs.

Research from Adobe found that UK online spending during the 2025 holiday season reached £26.9bn, an increase of 4.1% year on year.

While Black Friday still anchors the period, with £1.16bn spent in the UK on the day in 2025, the extended season offers significant opportunities beyond it. Cyber Weekend, for example, generated £3.8bn in UK sales, while Cyber Monday fell by 3.2% and Tuesday increased by 4.4%.

Different categories and audiences will peak and fall at different times, so marketers need to understand where demand is likely to rear its head in their niche before deciding where to put their budget.

3. Ever-evolving consumer behaviour

It’s no surprise that alongside all these changes, consumer behaviour is changing too. 

Data from recent years shows an interesting trend: fewer people seem interested in Black Friday as a sales opportunity, but those who do take part are spending more per head.

UK consumers are also becoming more selective. While average order value rose by 12% last year, transactions fell by 8% and basket size fell by 3.5%.

PwC’s Black Friday research supports this picture, suggesting that interest in Black Friday fell from 53% to 46% of shoppers. However, those who did get involved were expected to spend £262 per head, up 13%.

This should help brands shape their marketing strategy. Marketers need to seek out a range of targets, from high-intent audiences and valuable existing customers to shoppers who simply need a nudge over the conversion line.

4. AI is changing the shopper journey

As AI assistants and LLMs become increasingly embedded in everyday life, consumers aren’t always starting with Google or Microsoft when they search for shopping inspiration, deals or product comparisons. Increasingly, they’re starting with an AI assistant.

Traffic from AI sources to retail sites rocketed by 329% during the 2025 Golden Quarter, and that trend is likely to continue in 2026.

This is creating a sea change in how brands need to reach consumers. It’s no longer just about winning a search result or buying an ad impression. Brands need to make sure they are being recommended by AI assistants when consumers search for a product or service.

Marketers therefore need to consider how their activities build a digital footprint for the brand, creating the credibility and authority that encourages an AI assistant to surface and recommend its products or services.

5. Be confident in your tech

Blindly throwing budget at Black Friday in the hope of a sales boost is a strategy consigned to the dark ages. 

The Golden Quarter spans three months, requiring marketers to think about everything from discovery and data to attribution and retention.

The period therefore offers a valuable opportunity to stress-test the entirety of a brand’s marketing stack, structuring activity around discovery, research, comparison and recommendation, all the way through to purchase, delivery and retention.

To excel during this period, marketers need to be confident that their technology can surface genuine intent, measure incrementality when everyone else is running promotions, attribute accurately across all channels, including social, and use data to retain the customers they’ve just acquired.

For brands, the Golden Quarter will ask serious questions of their marketing tech stack. When the numbers and opportunities are this big, there’s nowhere for a weakness in the system to hide.

6. Start early to win

With technology continuing to evolve and the Golden Quarter itself changing culturally, consumers are getting savvier about how and when they start thinking about potential purchases. The truth is, they’re starting earlier than ever. AI is influencing discovery earlier, and retailers are launching promotions earlier, too.

Media costs can also rise as competition for high-intent audiences increases. Brands that only start evolving and optimising their marketing activity in November and December risk being left behind.

The competitive edge is increasingly built before the Golden Quarter even begins. Brands that take the time to consider their full adtech ecosystem early are the ones most likely to make the most of this unique period.