Holiday 2026 Shopping Data: Where Budgets, Timing and AI Intersect

Where Holiday Budgets and Timing Are Heading

Tinuiti's 2026 holiday shopping report surveys 1,000 US gift buyers and argues that the season is less about ad volume and more about how well brands read real behaviour. Shoppers are starting earlier, watching their money closely and moving between channels to research and compare. The piece pairs its own findings with forecasts from Deloitte, PwC and the National Retail Federation, showing that total sales can rise even as individual households cut back. It also tracks where gifts are discovered, from in-store displays and search to social platforms and influencers, and how AI tools are entering the process.

For brand builders, the useful part is the advice to plan across the whole season rather than one November push, and to measure discovery and conversion across channels instead of crediting only the final sale. Media buyers, retail marketers and anyone deciding how to split budget between Amazon, streaming and social will find concrete benchmarks to test their assumptions against. It is worth a read before locking your holiday plan.