Cartograph December Newsletter

Winter sales events, the latest Amazon search term trends, and our monthly ad spend index.

December 11, 2025

A note from our CEO

Happy holidays, everybody,

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are in the rearview, and holiday shopping is in full swing. The Thanksgiving shopping period - now 12 days for the second year in a row - has fully expanded the period and de-emphasized Thanksgiving weekend in the process. We found that Cyber Monday is often bigger now than Black Friday. 

2025 looks to be following the typical end-of-year flow based on search term trends (more on that below) and other indicators:

  • Christmas/holiday shopping up until ~December 22nd

  • Quiet for a few days 

  • New Year / New You starts ramping around the 27th 

  • NYNY goes full-steam starting January 2nd.  

This transition from holiday decadence to restrained reinvention can be tricky for brands to ride. But the ones that nail the dance are rewarded with strong end-of-year AND start-of-year performance. Keep your audience in mind and be ready for the pivot - the products that sell in Dec aren’t always the same as Jan!

Speaking of the end of the year – looking back on 2025, it’s been a big year for Cartograph. Business has grown, and our team has too. Now north of 80 team members, it’s exciting to see the energy, ideas, and fresh perspectives these new faces have brought to the mix. As we head into 2026, our theme is to focus in our core competency – getting wins for our customers. And celebrating those wins as a collective Cartograph family.

So from our ever-expanding family to yours – happy holidays, and I hope the season has treated you right both personally and professionally!

In this month's newsletter, you'll find:

  • Current and upcoming Amazon sales events

  • The latest sales and ad spend numbers

  • Trending search terms

Feel free to reply direct - it goes to my inbox!

Cheers,

Chris

Last Month’s Sales and Ad Spend Numbers

Note: In the last year, Amazon updated their accounting transaction report (how you’re paid by Amazon) to only reflect sales once goods are delivered. This has the biggest impact in November, where a lot of Black Friday sales are credited to December. If your disbursements look a bit undersized for the month, they should catch up in December.  

Current and Upcoming Amazon Sales Events

1. Rerun BFCM Deals: December 8-23

2. Super Saturday: December 20

3. New Year New You: December 24 - January 31

4. Winter Sale: December 23 - January 11

Search Term Trends

Each month, we track and analyze search volume and CPCs for popular Amazon search terms. Here are some recent trends from the last month that we found interesting.