Why a $6.48B Thanksgiving Is a Gift for Converters

Thanksgiving’s record online sales are pulling consumer packaged goods demand forward, and with it, demand for printed labels and packaging.  In the article “Consumers Spend Record $6.4B Online on Thanksgiving,” Joe Keenan, editor-in-chief of Total Retail, a sister publication of Packaging Impressions, reports “consumers spent a record $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving, up 5.3% year-over-year (YoY).” The data, sourced from Adobe Analytics, shows shoppers surpassing Adobe’s forecast and treating the holiday itself as a core e-commerce event.

Keenan also reports, “Mobile plays a central role in the growth of Thanksgiving shopping, with 61.6% of online sales coming through a mobile device.” This share represents $3.9 billion in online spend via phones and tablets in a single day, which is a 9.4% year-over-year increase and is aligned with consumers’ comfort shopping from the couch, car, or kitchen.

Artificial intelligence is also emerging as a powerful driver of holiday spending. Adobe found that traffic to U.S. retail sites from AI services jumped 725% compared with last year’s Thanksgiving, and visitors arriving from AI were 54% more likely to convert. Keenan highlights one of the main factors behind this performance, citing Adobe Digital Insights Lead Analyst Vivek Pandya’s observation that much of this traffic was being driven by a high magnitude of discounts. Taken together, deep promotions and AI tools that surface relevant options quickly are helping build larger digital shopping carts on a day that used to be quieter for retailers.

Consumer packaged goods brands should take note of this shopping pattern as it indicates that shoppers are increasingly willing to let algorithms navigate choices. Brands can take advantage of this shift with updated holiday calendars, inventory strategies, and omnichannel experiences that treat Thanksgiving as one of the key ecommerce milestones alongside Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  For label and packaging manufacturers, the pattern translates into increased demand, the need to account for operational pressure to turnaround printed packaging for the holiday, and the optimization of printed packaging for online sales, such as spectacular corrugated shippers, distinctive flexible mailers, labels for primary and tertiary packaging, and unbox-worthy printed dunnage.

Converters must guide the brands they serve to substrate choices that withstand parcel networks, including tired and potentially overworked delivery drivers. Ink and coating decisions shouldn’t be guided by a race to the bottom with per-package or per-label pricing. Instead, ink and coating combinations must be chosen for their ability to hold up in transit, and structural decisions need to keep the packaging graphics and brand cues in view even after a rough ride.

While package printers do not typically design the labels and packages they print, they can serve as essential partners in executing brand and design agency concepts. Production teams can flag potential scuffing, cracking, or registration issues early, recommend alternative stocks or finishes that better match real-world shipping conditions, and suggest slight structural refinements that preserve the integrity of the approved design while improving performance through direct-to-consumer distribution channels.

Adobe’s numbers reinforce the observation that meaningful holiday demand is landing earlier in the week and earlier in the holiday season. This continuously evolving timeline will favor custom-printed label and package manufacturers with agile workflows, including ganged jobs, fast changeovers, and automated conventional or digital printing presses. These capabilities allow label and package printers to handle a higher mix of short runs, micro-segmented SKUs, and last-minute promotional versions of packaged goods without destroying the converters’ margins.

Label and package printing companies can prepare by starting conversations now about batching strategies, standardized color sets, or consistent die libraries that can be built to support brands’ needs for 2026 Thanksgiving shopping demand. This forethought can help a label or packaging converter stand out from the competition as the most capable printed label and packaging supplier for supporting any quick-turn projects launched to capture the momentum of Thanksgiving shopping.

Many brand and retail teams will no doubt read Adobe’s holiday recap with a focus on discounts and digital marketing performance. Converters can add value by steering these conversations to using packaging innovation to retain their customers’ profit margins. Questions about item counts, delivering experience through different package sizes, carton and label mix, shipping damage rates, and the role of packaging in preventing returns or, in some cases, aiding the return process to earn customer loyalty for future purchases. Approaching retail data this way positions your label or package printing business as a strategic production partner. You are still the expert executing complex print and converting work, and you are also the partner who can connect record online demand to practical decisions about packaging formats, print methods, materials, and finishing.

Bonus Learning Opportunity
If AI-assisted shopping and always-on mobile buying have you thinking about color accuracy, image creation, and how your pressroom fits into an increasingly digital path to purchase, here’s a timely resource to explore: PRINTING United Alliance’s iLEARNING+ AI and Color Management course details practical ways print professionals, including those in label and package manufacturing businesses, can use AI and color management. You can check out the course at ilearningplus.org/courses/ai-and-color-management