From May 18 to May 26, 2026, 1,574 brands sent 4,816 distinct SMS campaigns to our sample inbox. The biggest sending day was Memorial Day itself. The morning after, dozens of brands sent a follow-up to say the sale was extended.
Timing
Memorial Day was the loudest day, by a lot
The biggest sending day was Memorial Day itself — Monday May 25, with 915 distinct campaigns from 821 brands. Friday May 22 — the conventional “go big before the weekend” day — came in second at 683 campaigns.
Tuesday May 26 — the day after the holiday — was also surprisingly busy with 444 campaigns from 411 brands — more than any pre-MD day except Friday. That’s the extension wave, which we’ll get to later.
Sending volume kept growing right through the weekend — no slowdown before the holiday. The peak was Memorial Day morning.
Pattern
Senders
Decor Steals and DIFF Eyewear tied at the top with 19 campaigns each
Across 10 days, the most active brands ran near-daily campaigns. Decor Steals and DIFF Eyewear tied at the top with 19 distinct campaigns each — about two new sends every day, for a week and a half straight.
| # | Brand | Industry | Campaigns |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Decor Stealsdecorsteals.com |
Home & Garden | 19 |
| 2 | DIFF Eyeweardiffeyewear.com |
Apparel, Health | 19 |
| 3 | MicroPerfumes.commicroperfumes.com |
Beauty & Fitness | 18 |
| 4 | www.originalsoegear.comoriginalsoegear.com |
Safety & Survival | 17 |
| 5 | Javvy Coffeejavvycoffee.com |
Food & Drink | 16 |
| 6 | nobltravelnobltravel.com |
Travel | 13 |
| 7 | Pure Romancepureromance.com |
Adult | 13 |
| 8 | Truekind Brastruekind.com |
Apparel | 13 |
| 9 | BYLT Basics®byltbasics.com |
Apparel | 12 |
| 10 | For Love & Lemonsforloveandlemons.com |
Apparel | 12 |
SMS Campaigns from top brands
A snapshot of how some of the most recognized DTC brands — all in the top 500 by store rank — handled Memorial Day on SMS. Click any brand to see all their campaigns in the library.
Playbook
A Recart client grew Memorial Day revenue 77% YoY — and lost fewer subscribers doing it
While consumer sentiment looked shaky going into 2026, the brands leaning harder on holiday targeting are seeing the opposite of a slowdown. A top-500 Shopify brand asked Recart’s customer success team to plan and execute their Memorial Day SMS campaign series (props to Kait and Alice!) — and walked away with $306,570 more in revenue than the same weekend last year.
| 2025 (May 22-27) | 2026 (May 21-26) | YoY change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign revenue | $396.29K | $702.86K | +77% |
| Recipients reached | 2.55M | 5.49M | +115% |
| Opt-out rate | 0.2% | 0.1% | −50% |
| Campaigns sent | 2 | 5 | +3 |
What changed: more sends, mostly targeted
In 2025 the brand sent 2 campaigns — both full-audience blasts. In 2026, Recart’s CS team rebuilt the cadence into 3 targeted sends + 2 full-audience sends. Send count more than doubled, but the opt-out rate cut in half (0.2% → 0.1%). Recipients reached grew 115% as the brand’s list expanded over the year.
The playbook isn’t “send more to everyone.” It’s “send more, mostly to the right segments.” When the cadence is well-targeted, opt-outs go down even as send count goes up.
Takeaway
Offers
What kind of offers?
Memorial Day SMS is mostly a % off holiday. 57% of campaigns led with a percentage discount. Everything else — dollar off, BOGO, free shipping, free gift — added up to less than 7%.
Discounts
Most brands settled on 20% off
The most common Memorial Day discount was 20% off. 25% and 30% were close behind. Above 40% off, you start to see a different kind of brand — usually ones clearing seasonal stock.
There are basically two kinds of Memorial Day discounts. Most brands stayed at 20–30% off — enough to drive purchases without hurting margins. The 40–50% off group is mostly brands clearing seasonal stock. Once you cross 50%, the discount stops being about the holiday and starts being about moving inventory.
Pattern
Extensions
The extension: 75 brands kept the sale going
Out of 1,574 brands sending in the window, 75 (4.8%) sent at least one message using the word “extended”, “extending”, or “extend” on Memorial Day or after. Of the 917 brands that ran a Memorial Day-themed campaign, 63 (6.9%) chose to extend.
Almost no one used the word “extended” on Memorial Day itself. 93% of these messages landed on Tuesday — the day after the holiday — as a “last chance” pitch to anyone who hadn’t bought yet.
Headline finding
How brands phrased it
Almost every extension message hits the same note: “the sale was supposed to end, but you get one more day.” A few real examples from Tuesday May 26:
An additional ~40 brands extended the sale without using the word — phrases like “one more day” (21 hits) or “still on/live/going” (17 hits). So the real number of brands that extended was closer to 110.
Industries
Apparel ran away with it
Apparel sent more than 1,600 campaigns — nearly twice as many as the next industry. Beauty & Fitness and Home & Garden took the next two spots. Together, these three categories accounted for more than half of all Memorial Day SMS sends.
Naming
How brands named the holiday
About 1 in 3 campaigns said “Memorial Day” outright. A smaller group used “MDW” or “Memorial Day Weekend.” A similar-sized group just said “long weekend” or “holiday weekend” without naming the day. Most messages didn’t name the holiday at all — the discount was the headline.
Emojis
The emojis brands used
Across 4,816 distinct campaigns, patriotic emojis were rare. The 🇺🇸 flag appears in 76 messages — about 1.5% of them. The 🎆 fireworks emoji shows up exactly once.
Vocabulary
The Memorial Day vocabulary
The most-used words across all 4,816 distinct campaigns — what the channel sounded like.
Source: Recart SMS Campaign Library. Window: May 18–27 2026 EDT inclusive.
