As Chinese New Year and Ramadan converge in 2026, brands face a more compressed and complex festive window.
Criteo has released new insights from Ramadan 2025, revealing how shoppers across Southeast Asia are starting earlier, navigating longer consideration journeys and converting closer to peak moments – trends that are set to intensify as Chinese New Year and Ramadan fall in the same week in 2026. Criteo has released new insights from Ramadan 2025, revealing how shoppers across Southeast Asia are starting earlier, navigating longer consideration journeys and converting closer to peak moments – trends that are set to intensify as Chinese New Year and Ramadan fall in the same week in 2026.
Based on indexed commerce data from retailers across the region, Criteo found that retail sales across Southeast Asia increased 13% year-on-year during Ramadan 2025, underscoring the growing importance of the holy month for brands.
The data points to a clear shift toward earlier discovery and intent-led shopping, offering a timely benchmark for marketers preparing for a more compressed festive calendar ahead.
Early discovery, late conversion define Ramadan shopping
Ramadan 2025 showed that shopping is no longer confined to the final days before Eid. For purchases made in the last two weeks of Ramadan 2025, the average time between a shopper’s first product visit and completed purchase was 19 days, with some journeys extending beyond 50 days. This highlights the importance of influencing consumers well before peak sales periods.
This extended consideration window underscores the importance of staying visible at moments when shoppers are actively researching and comparing options, rather than competing only at the point of purchase.
Despite earlier discovery, conversion activity remained concentrated closer to Eid. During the final two weeks of Ramadan, Indonesia recorded a 35% uplift in retail sales, peaking at 57% on 16 March, while Malaysia saw sales rise 26%, reaching a peak of 52% on 23 March. Singapore, meanwhile, experienced more stable sales patterns, reflecting a more diversified retail calendar and consumer base.
Shopping follows Ramadan’s cultural rhythms
Criteo’s data also shows that shopping activity closely followed Ramadan’s daily cadence. While afternoon hours still generate the highest overall sales, the largest Ramadan-driven uplift versus pre-Ramadan occurred during Suhoor.
This increase in activity was strongest in Indonesia, between 3:00am and 5:00am, and shifted later in Malaysia, between 4:00am and 7:00am, underscoring the importance of aligning engagement with culturally relevant moments.
Category demand reflects seasonal and cultural priorities
Spending patterns during Ramadan 2025 reflected both cultural traditions and everyday needs. Across Southeast Asia, religious and ceremonial products saw the strongest growth (+54%), followed by apparel and accessories (+18%), as shoppers prepared for Eid celebrations.
Growth was also observed across home and garden, furniture and food and beverages, highlighting the importance of capturing consumer intent across categories rather than focusing on a single purchase moment.
Why this matters more in 2026
The behaviours observed during Ramadan 2025 offer an early signal of what brands can expect in 2026, when Chinese New Year and Ramadan coincide in the same week, compressing discovery, consideration and conversion into a much tighter window.
“Ramadan 2025 underscored a fundamental shift in how consumers plan and purchase—discovery is happening earlier, and shopping journeys are becoming increasingly fluid across channels,” said Sukesh Singh, Managing Director, SEA, Criteo.
“As festive moments begin to overlap, this behaviour will only accelerate. At Criteo, our AI-powered intelligence helps brands identify the right audiences at the right time and place, adding relevance across touchpoints and strengthening full-funnel, cross-channel outcomes. Brands that anticipate demand and stay relevant across the entire journey will be far better positioned to earn attention that drives higher conversion.”
Preparing for a more compressed festive calendar
- Plan Ramadan as a multi-stage season
Ramadan can no longer be approached as a short, promotion-led sprint. With shoppers beginning discovery weeks ahead of purchase while conversion activity still concentrating close to Eid, brands need to treat the season as a multi-stage planning cycle. This means building awareness and consideration early, then shifting toward conversion and urgency as peak moments approach. - Prepare for demand compression
As major festive moments converge, demand is likely to compress. Shorter decision windows and heightened competition mean brands must be prepared for sharper spikes in activity, ensuring that budgets, inventory and activation plans can adjust quickly to capture high-intent moments rather than being spread evenly across the season. - Align activity with cultural and daily rhythms
Shopping behaviour during Ramadan also closely follows cultural and daily rhythms, with clear peaks during pre-dawn hours and slowdowns around Iftar that vary by market. Aligning campaign timing, messaging and promotions with these moments can significantly improve relevance and engagement. - Design for non-linear purchase journeys
Ramadan 2025 also showed that there is no single path to purchase. Consumers range from fast, high-intent buyers to those with longer consideration cycles spanning weeks, making it essential for brands to stay present across touchpoints and adapt engagement as intent builds, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all funnel.
Against this backdrop, engaging shoppers closer to moments of purchase with retail media becomes increasingly important, where intent is clearer and outcomes are easier to measure. - Rely on data-led optimisation and automation
As festive calendars become more crowded and dynamic, static campaign plans struggle to keep pace with shifting demand. Using data and automation to anticipate peaks, identify emerging intent signals, and adjust activation in real time allows brands to move from reactive execution to more agentic approaches, where media, timing and messaging adapt continuously to shopper behaviour.
