Most Consumers Are Only Feeling Mild Tariff Effects. Resonate Data Reveals What This Means for Brands

Nearly Half of U.S. Consumers Maintain Spending Levels Despite Expecting Financial Strain in the Coming Months

RESTON, Va., Aug. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Resonate – the leader in AI-powered predictive consumer intelligence – today released its latest Consumer Trends Report, which reveals new insight into American spending behaviors and highlights areas where brands can find opportunity ahead of the holiday season:

Consumers aren't fully feeling the effects of tariffs (yet): 62% of consumers never or rarely find that the items they want aren't available because of tariffs. And despite ongoing economic pressure, 47% say they don't plan to delay or cancel any financial decisions. In fact, nearly half (49%) are spending the same amount as they were six months ago, and 30% say they've made no changes to their spending habits to accommodate higher prices.

Consumers aren't afraid to walk away from non-essential spending when they feel the pinch from tariffs: Consumers are prepared to make changes if economic conditions worsen. 37% will stop dining out or ordering takeout, 26% will cut vacation and travel spending, and 24% will halt entertainment and events purchases. Additionally, 24% will cut back on luxury purchases, while 19% will avoid them entirely.

Confidence is waning in personal finances: Despite only 22% of consumers being worried about the economy (a 19% decrease since March), a quarter (23%) expect to be personally worse off financially in the next six months. With 70% of consumers in debt, 16% of them are struggling to meet debt obligations. This could be a reason for 34% saying they are also saving less than they were six months ago.

Budget-friendly travel is on the rise: 55% of consumers don't plan to travel this fall/winter holiday season, and for those who do, consumers are changing their vacation habits. 32% plan to spend less than $2,000. As a result, 21% are opting for shorter trips, 11% are choosing domestic over international travel, and 13% are switching to budget-friendly travel options like camping or road trips.

Holiday spending will be slower: Over the last two years, Resonate data shows a 38% increase in consumers opting out of buying presents completely. 25% intend to shop exclusively during events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, showing little change since 2024, but a focus on consumers pursuing deals to get the best bang for their buck.

"Americans aren't pulling back yet, but tariffs have the potential to cause consumer behaviors to shift overnight," said Bryan Gernert, CEO of Resonate. "The brands that win won't just be focused on cutting costs — they'll drive growth by understanding why people buy and acting on it in real time, keeping customers loyal even in uncertain times."

The report emphasizes that brands can no longer rely on "holiday intuition" or historical campaign performance alone. With shifting consumer perceptions of inflation, debt, and pricing pressure, AI-powered consumer intelligence can arm brands with the insights needed to reach consumers during times of economic uncertainty.

Access the full report HERE.

About the Resonate Consumer Trends Report

The Resonate Consumer Trends Report is a bi-monthly report offering current sentiment shifts on key issues impacting American consumers. This analysis is powered by Resonate's proprietary system of AI-powered models known as rAI. rAI employs advanced AI algorithms to identify patterns and uncover correlations from a variety of sources, including the observation of 30B daily online behaviors, data from the US Consumer Study, and offline consumer data. This analysis allows Resonate to develop a deep understanding of consumer and voter values, preferences, motivations, and intent spanning 15,000+ attributes across 250 million US adults.

About Resonate

Headquartered in Reston, VA, Resonate is the leader in predictive consumer intelligence, delivering proprietary, privacy-safe consumer and voter data for insights, analysis, and activation. The Resonate data set includes more than 15,000 rich, relevant, real-time data points that holistically describe more than 250 million U.S. consumer profiles. Resonate's AI-powered data is readily available for delivery and activation where marketers need it most, offering unmatched flexibility and integration across the marketing ecosystem. This data can be accessed directly through top demand-side platform (DSP) providers, data append and licensing, the Resonate Ignite platform, and Resonate Managed Media Services. Marketers can leverage this data to enrich their first-party information, activate media across all channels, and install it to power predictive models, clean rooms, or data lakes, enabling comprehensive consumer insights and targeted marketing strategies.

Hundreds of companies and campaigns use Resonate to drive more effective marketing strategy and execution fueled by a comprehensive and continuously updated understanding of their audience that extends beyond traditional demographics, psychographics and behavioral data to uncover why people choose, buy, or support certain brands, products, candidates or causes.  

SOURCE Resonate