Friction can derail a holiday sale at any of four points: discovery, consideration, purchase, and re-engagement.
Holiday 2026 shoppers are starting earlier, splitting purchases across more retailers, and making brand decisions in moments most Q4 media plans aren’t built to catch. Half of holiday shoppers now plan to start purchasing before most campaigns even launch. The average shopper visits five or more grocery banners a month.
Every holiday purchase follows the same path: a shopper discovers a brand, considers it, decides to buy, and either comes back or doesn’t. Friction can show up at any point along that path, and it’s often enough to kill the sale.
None of that is a creative problem. AdAdapted’s new report, From Festive to Frictionless: CPG Advertising Strategies for Holiday 2026, breaks down how real brands removed friction at each one this season.
Friction Point 1: Discovery
Holiday shoppers start with a need or a recipe, not a brand. Brands that win this moment catch shoppers while they’re still searching generic terms. That early presence, before a competitor’s name ever enters the picture, is what turns into a list addition.
Friction Point 2: Consideration
Grocery, delivery, and ecommerce are all part of the same shopping trip now. Retailer loyalty is largely a myth. Brands that win consideration show up everywhere a shopper might be ready to buy. Then they make it one tap to act.
Friction Point 3: Purchase
Traditional offsite retail media can ask a shopper for four to five clicks between an ad and a completed cart. Every extra click is a chance to lose the sale. Brands cutting through get that down to one tap. The difference in cart conversion is large enough to change how you’d plan a retail media budget.
Friction Point 4: Re-Engagement
Holiday shoppers default to habit, buying the same brand without a second thought. The easiest opportunity to miss is re-engaging shoppers who already added the product once. A single retargeted touch, paired with the right keyword intercept, can turn one SKU into a full basket.
The Pattern Across All Four
Every friction point calls for a different fix. The underlying strategy is the same: meet shoppers at the moment of intent, and remove every unnecessary step between that moment and the cart. The brands winning this holiday season aren’t buying the most reach. They have the fewest points where a shopper can drop off.
See how real CPG brands solved each of these four friction points, with the campaign details and results behind each one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes friction in holiday CPG shopping? Friction often shows up at four points: discovery (shoppers can’t find the brand while planning), consideration (the brand isn’t present in the channel a shopper picks), purchase (too many steps between ad and cart), and re-engagement (shoppers default back to habit instead of trying something new).
How do you reduce cart abandonment in retail media? The biggest lever is cutting the number of clicks between an ad and a completed cart. Traditional offsite retail media can take four to five clicks; single-tap add-to-cart formats remove most of that drop-off.
What’s the difference between retail media and offsite media? Retail media refers to advertising bought through a retailer’s own media network. Offsite media refers to that same retailer’s ads run on outside platforms and apps. The friction point is usually the same in both: how many steps it takes a shopper to act.
How do you re-engage holiday shoppers after the first purchase? Retargeting shoppers who already added a product to their list or cart, combined with keyword intercept on related searches, is the most effective way to turn a single purchase into a repeat one.
The Bottom Line
Friction shows up somewhere in every holiday campaign, and the brands removing it, not just outspending it, are the ones converting shoppers into buyers. Discovery, consideration, purchase, and re-engagement aren’t equally weighted for every brand, but ignoring any one of them costs real holiday revenue.
We put everything we found this holiday season into a new report. Download From Festive to Frictionless to see exactly how these four brands did it.