Cardlytics, Inc., a native ad platform built within banks’ digital channels, released its annual holiday spend trends. With more than 120 million monthly active bank customers on its platform, the company has a view into $2.8 trillion in annual spend or every 2 in 5 card swipes. This allows retailers a clear view into exactly when, where, and how much consumers are spending, information that is particularly compelling as we enter the busiest shopping season of the year.

Based on actual purchase data, the findings show that last year, nearly 40% of total holiday spend occurred in the four weeks leading into Black Friday, signaling that the start of the 2019 shopping season is upon us. Other key findings from the annual report show:

Holiday spend is on the rise: Holiday spend increased 2% from 2017 to 2018. Convenient benefits, such as free shipping, seemingly infinite choices, and buy-online-pickup-in-store options resulted in a larger number of transactions and higher spend overall, but they also led to a 0.7% decrease in individual basket size.

Omni shoppers spend more: Customers who shop with a retailer both in-store and online spend twice as much during the holidays as those who favor one channel. However, these valuable omni customers only comprise 10.3% of the current retail customer base, presenting a huge opportunity for brands to capture additional spend.

In-store shopping still dominates, but continues to lose share: From 2017 to 2018, brick-and-mortar’s (B&M’s) share of spend declined 1.6% to 78.6%. B&M’s are losing their share of spend to online-only merchants, whose share increased 1.3% to 12.9%. However, they’re making up for some of this lost spend by investing in their own online properties, which increased slightly to 8.4% in 2018 from 8.2% in 2017.

Fewer spikes in spend: The changing retail landscape has led to a flattening and stretching of the holiday shopping season. Consumers are spending more consistently throughout the months of October through December instead of saving their shopping for the week of Thanksgiving or the week leading into Christmas.

Loyals drive the bulk of spend: On average, repeat customers drive 70% of holiday sales and spend 43% more than new customers acquired during the holiday season.

“As shopping preferences continue to change, it’s important for retailers to understand the trends,” said Cardlytics’ Chief Marketing Officer, Dani Cushion. “Marketers typically have a clear view into how their customers are shopping with them, but it’s difficult to see how they are shopping with their competitors. By analyzing actual purchase data, we give retailers a full view of holiday spend, then help them capture incremental sales and drive loyalty through our native ad platform.”