With Black Friday marking the official start of the holiday shopping season, Rakuten Rewards chief revenue officer Julie Van Ullen sits down with Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman on Catalysts to discuss key trends among shoppers.

"What we've been seeing effectively since the election is that consumers are browsing less but buying more. So, when we look at our platform, we see decreased browsing, but we see increased sales, and probably what's driving that is the increased average order value," Van Ullen tells Yahoo Finance.

The chief revenue officer adds, "I think that's very much in line with the fact that this is a season of value-conscious shoppers, one who feels a certain amount of turbulence in the economic sphere, and so, of course, they're going to be out there making their lists, researching, and then waiting for that moment, that permission, to buy, if you will, when it feels like they're getting the value that they're looking for."

She says self-gifting has been a common theme, as people are "buying things for themselves. They're buying nontraditional gift-giving categories like pet supplies or restaurant [gift cards]" from retailers like CVS (CVS) and Walgreens (WBA).

Watch the video above for more insights about retail shopping from Rakuten.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here.

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.