The 2025 holiday season isn’t about massive growth. It’s about meaningful strategy.

While overall retail sales are expected to rise modestly — between 3.7 and 4.2 percent year-over-year (NRF) — this year’s winners won’t be defined by who spends more, but by who connects better. Consumers are more selective, their attention more fragmented, and their journey stretched across every screen they touch.

According to Deloitte, ecommerce sales are projected to grow 7 to 9 percent, even as in-store growth slows. Adobe expects mobile to account for 56.1 percent of all online holiday revenue, while eMarketer predicts mobile will drive over 90 percent of the net increase in ecommerce sales this season. In short: this holiday isn’t just digital, it’s cross-screen.

Let’s break down the “why” behind that shift, and more importantly, how to leverage it.

Three Reasons This Holiday Season Is Cross-Screen

1. Mobile is now the main stage

Today, the phone is where discovery, comparison, and purchase all happen, often within minutes.

Mobile commerce in the U.S. is expected to reach $710 billion in 2025, making up roughly 44 percent of total ecommerce sales (SQ Magazine). Mobile will account for more than half of online holiday revenue (Adobe), and globally, it’s driving nearly all ecommerce growth.

In the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, mobile wallets and app-based checkouts dominate, leading over 52 percent of global mobile gaming and commerce revenue (Plarium). In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), the gap between mobile and desktop still leaves room for mobile-first brands to gain share.

The takeaway is simple: the audience is mobile, the moment is mobile, and the marketer’s job is to turn that momentum into measurable action.

2. CTV has entered its performance era

Beyond just a top-of-funnel awareness tool, CTV is part of a connected ecosystem that extends into mobile, gaming, and web.

A viewer sees a CTV ad during a streaming session, then grabs their phone to look up a product, download a game, or place an order. That dual-screen behavior has turned CTV into a performance engine. When paired with mobile retargeting, it can lift conversions and brand recall dramatically, especially during high-intent shopping moments like Black Friday and Cyber Week.

And because CTV’s targeting and measurement tools have matured, it’s now possible to connect the dots between impression and action, using cross-device attribution and holdout testing to understand real lift.

The living room screen and the phone screen are no longer separate. They’re sequential.

3. Every vertical sees a holiday lift

Retail may dominate the headlines, but other categories experience just as much seasonal opportunity.

Gaming

The global mobile gaming market is projected to reach $166.6 billion in 2025, up from $146.3 billion in 2024 (SQ Magazine). Players are more active during holidays, thanks to extra downtime and device upgrades. Retargeting lapsed players with limited-time events or in-game rewards can reignite engagement fast.

Food Delivery and QSR

The holiday rush means gatherings, late nights, and travel. Retarget users who opened your app but didn’t complete an order with geo-based offers or time-sensitive deals. Push notifications during peak dinner hours can make all the difference.

Streaming and Entertainment

Holidays equal more hours spent watching, discovering, and subscribing. Apps in this category can use the seasonal surge to re-engage trial users or promote premium upgrades through CTV and mobile.

The lesson across all three? Your audience is active across multiple screens — and your retargeting strategy should be, too.

Three Ways to Leverage Cross-Screen Behavior

1. Treat retargeting as a growth multiplier

Retargeting isn’t just a safety net for lost conversions. It’s a performance multiplier that amplifies the value of your existing users.

The key is to start early and plan intentionally. Ask yourself:

  • What role will retargeting play in Q4? Reactivation, upsell, or retention?

  • Which segments have the highest potential? Users who viewed, added to cart, or completed a first purchase?

  • How can you integrate mobile and CTV retargeting into one flow?

For example, a user who browsed your app but didn’t buy, might see a CTV ad during a streaming session later that evening. The next morning, a mobile ad follows up with a personalized offer. That’s cross-screen synergy in action.

Retargeting isn’t just about saving a conversion. It’s about reinforcing intent.

2. Build creative that moves with your user

Audiences move across devices, but they expect consistency. The most effective campaigns tell one continuous story, from big screen to small.

Here’s what that looks like:

  • Match your messaging: Use CTV to inspire and mobile to close.

  • Adapt the creative: The emotional arc on CTV can shift into urgency or personalization on mobile.

  • Time it right: Run CTV ads in the evening when people are streaming, and follow up on mobile the next day during peak browsing hours.

If a player sees a CTV teaser for a holiday gaming event, retarget them on mobile with a deep link to “Join Now.” If a shopper views your CTV ad for a limited-time sale, a mobile ad can remind them of the product they almost bought.

When the creative narrative flows between screens, engagement feels natural not forced.

3. Measure what matters: incrementality and lift

In a high-volume season, not every click or view tells the full story. The true measure of success is whether your campaign drove incremental behavior — e.g. conversions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

To capture that:

  • Use holdout groups to isolate your campaign’s actual impact.

  • Compare regions, segments, and devices to see where performance lifts are strongest.

  • Monitor time-of-day activity: Many users browse late at night or early morning during the holidays.

  • Track cross-device flow: Did the journey start on CTV and end on mobile? That’s real performance insight.

Precision will beat volume every time. When you know which messages, moments, and devices move the needle, you can reallocate spend faster — and scale what’s working.

The Takeaway

This holiday season will belong to brands that think beyond channels and focus on connection.

  • Mobile is where conversions happen.

  • CTV is where stories stick.

  • Retargeting is what bridges the two.

Growth this year won’t come from the biggest budgets or the flashiest creatives. It will come from those who move intelligently across every screen, every region, and every behavior pattern.

Your audience is ready. Your data is live. Your moment is now.

Work with YouAppi on your cross-screen Q4 strategy and build campaigns that convert on mobile, CTV, and beyond.
 👉 Contact our team to start your holiday plan today.