During last year’s retail peak period, which for Intuit Mailchimp runs from Halloween to New Year, personalisation and AI-powered campaigns proved to be true differentiators.
A new report Breaking Through Peak Season Noise looked to highlight how intelligent marketing, or using data with AI and automation, can help businesses make more informed peak decisions.
Mailchimp customers added more than 500 million contacts to their audiences during the “golden quarter”. Email contact additions increased heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, while SMS opt-ins rose sharply immediately before Black Friday.
First-time buyers represented 63 per cent of email orders and nearly 62 per cent of SMS orders during BFCM in the UK.
Some of those first-time buyers returned after the holiday season. Among customers who made their first purchase during peak season, 16.6 per cent globally purchased again in the first quarter of 2026. Those who returned took a median of 26 days to make their next purchase.
Globally, campaigns using abandoned cart content blocks also saw 36 per cent higher open rates and 28 per cent higher click rates. The study stressed this shows the potential of using customer data and automation to reach shoppers with more relevant messages.
The data also highlighted a growing acceptance of generative AI messaging. Emails in the UK using the feature saw a 9 per cent higher order rate and 5 per cent higher conversion rate than those sent without it.
During the 2025 peak season, 450 million emails which used Gen AI were sent globally.
Weekends remained the key shopping days during the run up to the holidays in 2025. Weekend order rates were 2x higher than weekday rates, even though brands sent roughly 60 per cent fewer messages on weekends.
Around BFCM, shoulder days also drove stronger engagement, while the Sunday between BFCM saw 59 per cent fewer emails and 82 per cent fewer text messages than Black Friday.
Gymwrap, the fitness brand founded by And Just Like That… actor Nicole Ari Parker, saw the impact firsthand, after bringing its email and SMS marketing together in Mailchimp ahead of peak season.
Its first full SMS campaign through Mailchimp generated 142x ROI.
“Having our email and SMS data in one place gives us a much clearer view of our customers. We can see how they prefer to engage with us and use that information to reach them in the right place,” says Hume Merritt, chief marketing officer at Gymwrap.
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