Peak Social Media 🧠

Hope your Wednesday’s going well! This week we’re testing a new cadence and a shorter format like today’s, with quick, useful e-commerce insights from the web and social media. Does this work for you, or should we keep it inside the longer deep-dive issues, including the one coming tomorrow’s? Hit Reply and tell us what you think!

LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder

The Maze: Global social media use hit its ceiling in 2022 as younger users—once the platforms’ growth engine—began cutting back. The attention economy is maturing, forcing brands and platforms to evolve beyond engagement metrics.

Why it matters: The internet’s core currency—attention—is no longer expanding. This forces brands to compete on authenticity, not just ad budgets, and demands a new playbook for growth.

The Maze: Fashion dominates global eCommerce, topping sales in most major markets, with Electronics close behind. The hierarchy of categories reveals how national tastes and industry structure shape digital demand.

Why it matters: Category leadership drives platform identity and marketing logic. Understanding where fashion, tech, or leisure lead helps global sellers localize strategy—and spot where the next demand shift begins.

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EMARKETER forecasts Amazon’s October Big Deal Days to deliver $8.84 B in GMV in 2025, up 8.8 % YoY but slower than 2024’s 32 % surge. Sales ballooned from $5.45 B in 2022 to $8.13 B in 2024. The event now outsizes Amazon’s full-year growth forecast (5.5 %) and holiday sales projection (4.8 %). Totals exclude AWS, ads, and financial services.

NielsenIQ’s 2024 sales rankings show Amazon’s own holidays now top retail’s old titans: Prime Day 1 and 2 outpace Black Friday or Cyber Monday. October’s Big Deal Days and Small Business Saturday follow, while 2024 average daily sales look tiny in comparison.

EMARKETER projects global retail e-commerce to reach $6.42 T in 2025 (20.5 % of retail) but with growth slowing to 6.8 %. After jumping 9.6 % in 2023 to $5.58 T and 7.7 % in 2024 to $6.01 T, the market is maturing as China softens. By 2028 sales should hit $7.89 T (22.5 % share), shifting focus from hypergrowth to AI-driven efficiency.

Eurostat reports euro-area retail trade volume rose 0.1 % in Aug 2025 versus July, while EU sales stayed flat. Year-on-year, the index gained 1.0 % in the euro area and 1.1 % in the EU. Food, drinks, and tobacco rose 0.3 %, non-food sales slipped 0.1 %. Lithuania (+1.7 %) led monthly gains; Romania (-4.0 %) and Poland (-0.8 %) declined.

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Pacsun’s youth survey finds celebrity culture beats peers in shaping how teens dress: 50 % say they set their own style, 45 % credit celebrities or public figures, 33 % cite influencers or religion. Romantic partners (32 %), friends (31 %), and local communities (29 %) lag behind, showing influencer marketing’s enduring power.

Haus analysis shows paid search boosts conversions mainly in competitive markets: high-competition queries generated lift 82 % of the time with a 0.37 incrementality factor, versus 35 % and 0.09 in low competition. When rivals bid on your brand, branded ads capture new customers; otherwise, they cannibalize organic traffic.

U.S. e-commerce penetration has matched its pandemic apex: Q2 2025 online sales equal 16.3 % of retail, the same as Q2 2020. Growth slowed to 6.5 % in 2022 while store sales jumped 16.9 % in 2021. Total retail expanded from $5.25 T in 2018 to $7.38 T in 2024, proving digital growth came from expansion, not cannibalization.

Sources: 🔒 Available for MarketMaze+

SHARE THE MAZE

Your network thinks you’re as smart as the content you share. Share smarter stuff and help us grow. Win–win. Here’s what you get when friends join the Maze:

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and link to the hub to check your progress.

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY

Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today's maze to help us improve!

See you next time in the maze!
MarketMaze team