From Turkey 5 to Turkey 12: How the Holiday Shopping Season Has Changed, and What It Means for Brands
I find it interesting how much the holiday shopping experience has changed over the years. As a consumer, I remember thinking about holiday shopping as something that happened around Thanksgiving and Black Friday. You would make your list, look for a few good deals, and try to get your holiday shopping done before December crept up. Now, it feels like the holiday shopping season starts earlier every year. I'm looking at deals in October, comparing prices across retailers, and seeing promotions well before Thanksgiving. At the same time, working in the Amazon industry has given me a completely different perspective on this shift. What I experience as a shopper is part of a much bigger strategy happening behind the scenes, where brands are planning inventory, advertising, promotions, and budgets months in advance. The evolution of Turkey 5 into Turkey 12 is a good example of just how much the marketplace has changed. And I think it tells us something important about where ecommerce is headed.
How Did We Get From Turkey 5 to Turkey 12?
For a long time, the Thanksgiving shopping period was largely defined by five days: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the weekend that followed, and Cyber Monday. Known as Turkey 5, this was one of the most concentrated and important shopping windows of the year.
But consumer expectations and ecommerce behavior began to change. Retailers started introducing promotions earlier, extending deals beyond traditional shopping days, and competing for consumers' attention well before Thanksgiving weekend.
The period evolved. Turkey 5 expanded into Turkey 11 and eventually Turkey 12, reflecting a longer promotional window surrounding Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
This wasn't simply a matter of adding more days to a sales calendar. It reflected a fundamental shift in how people shop and how retailers approach the holiday season.
Instead of relying on a handful of high-volume days, brands now have a longer period to attract shoppers, introduce promotions, build visibility, and convert demand.
And that change has implications for everyone involved.
What Does T12 Actually Mean for the Shopper?
From a consumer perspective, a longer shopping window sounds like a good thing. More time to find deals, more opportunities to compare products, and less pressure to make every purchase over one weekend.
But there's another side to it.
Holiday shopping has become increasingly intertwined with everyday shopping. Yes, people are looking for gifts for family and friends, but they're also using these promotional periods to purchase things they've been considering for months, upgrade products they already own, and stock up on household essentials.
The distinction between holiday shopping and regular shopping has become less clear.
Consider how people approach the season today:
Gift shopping: Consumers are researching and purchasing products for family, friends, and holiday celebrations.
Personal purchases: Major promotional events create an incentive to finally purchase products people have been considering, whether that's electronics, beauty products, apparel, or home goods.
Everyday essentials: Shoppers are increasingly using major sales events to save on products they regularly purchase, from personal care to household supplies.
Deal hunting: Rather than waiting for one specific day, consumers are monitoring prices and comparing promotions across retailers to find the best value.
This is an important distinction for brands. Not every shopper arriving during T12 has the same motivation, and not every purchase is necessarily a holiday gift.
The brands that understand those different shopping behaviors have a better opportunity to connect with consumers through the right products, offers, and messaging.
What the Numbers Tell Us About This Year's Holiday Season
The growth of ecommerce continues to reinforce the importance of this period.
Adobe's 2026 holiday forecast projects that U.S. online spending will reach $275.1 billion between November 1 and December 31, representing 6.7% year-over-year growth.
Some other numbers worth paying attention to:
$47.5 billion: Projected online spending during Cyber Week.
$15.1 billion: Projected Cyber Monday online spending.
$12.9 billion: Projected Black Friday online spending.
63%: Expected share of Thanksgiving online spending taking place on mobile devices.
One particularly interesting detail is that Black Friday online spending is projected to grow faster than Cyber Monday this year. This suggests that earlier promotions are continuing to influence when consumers choose to make purchases.
Adobe also expects October online spending to reach $95.8 billion, up 8% year over year, demonstrating how much shopping activity now takes place before the traditional holiday window even begins.
The takeaway is that consumer demand is spread across more days, more channels, and more product categories than ever before.
What This Shift Means for Brands Selling on Amazon
From the brand side, an extended shopping window creates opportunity, but it also introduces more complexity.
When promotions were concentrated around a few key days, brands could build much of their strategy around those moments. Today, they need to think about how to maintain visibility and performance over a much longer period.
There are several areas that deserve particular attention.
1. Inventory Planning Has Become More Important
An extended promotional period means brands need to plan for sustained demand rather than a single spike.
Inventory forecasting should account for early promotions, T12, Cyber Week, and continued December demand. Running out of stock during a high-traffic period can impact more than immediate sales. It can also interrupt advertising performance and create opportunities for competitors to capture market share.
2. Advertising Requires More Strategic Budget Allocation
More promotional days mean more competition for advertising placements.
Brands need to think carefully about how they allocate budgets throughout the season rather than concentrating all their spend around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Monitoring CPC, ACOS, TACOS, conversion rates, and campaign performance is particularly important as competition intensifies.
The objective isn't simply to spend more. It's to understand when and where advertising investment is generating the greatest return.
3. Promotions Need to Be Planned Around Consumer Behavior
Not every product needs the same promotional strategy, and not every shopper is looking for the same thing.
Brands should consider which products are most relevant for gifting, which are likely to benefit from early promotions, and which products may see stronger demand closer to Christmas.
Discounting should also be evaluated against margins and overall profitability. More sales don't automatically mean better business performance.
4. Content and Conversion Matter More When Competition Increases
When consumers are comparing several products at once, the quality of a product listing can make a significant difference.
Images, titles, A+ Content, reviews, Brand Stores, and pricing all contribute to the purchasing decision.
Increased traffic is valuable, but brands also need to make sure their product pages are positioned to convert that traffic.
5. Brands Need to Be Able to React in Real Time
One of the biggest advantages of having access to detailed marketplace data is being able to identify changes as they happen.
During T12, performance can shift quickly. A competitor may introduce a deeper discount, CPCs may increase, or a product may begin selling faster than anticipated.
Brands need consistent visibility into what's happening across advertising, sales, inventory, and profitability so they can make informed decisions throughout the event.
T12 Is Bigger Than Twelve Days
What’s most interesting about the evolution of Turkey 5 into Turkey 12 is that it represents something much bigger than an extended promotional calendar.
The way consumers shop has changed. The way brands compete has changed. And the expectations surrounding the holiday season have changed with it.
For shoppers, there are more opportunities to find deals, purchase gifts, and make everyday purchases at better prices. For brands, there are more opportunities to reach customers, but also more pressure to stay competitive throughout an increasingly long shopping season.
And while T12 is an important milestone, it shouldn't be viewed as the finish line. December brings its own set of purchasing behaviors, and the weeks following the holidays can offer additional opportunities to understand customer demand and build momentum into the new year.
At Straight Up Growth, we look at these marketplace shifts as an opportunity to help brands think beyond individual sales events. Strong performance doesn't come from simply showing up with a discount when everyone else does. It comes from understanding the consumer, having the right strategy in place, and connecting the different parts of the business to make the most of every opportunity.
The holiday shopping season may have grown from five days to twelve, but the bigger shift is that it has become a much longer, more connected part of the ecommerce calendar. The brands that recognize that are better positioned to make the most of it.
