Produced by Epsilon, Holiday Shopping Trends delivers an authoritative executive breakdown of consumer behaviors, channel preferences, and spending intentions across North America. Synthesizing insights from the retail, consumer goods, and technology sectors, this research offers category strategists and enterprise teams a rigorous lens into modern holiday purchasing dynamics.
As documented in the study, contemporary holiday commerce is characterized by a fascinating duality. Consumers are balancing robust enthusiasm for festive traditions with pragmatic financial restraint, leveraging advanced digital tools while simultaneously driving a surprising resurgence in analog and in-store discovery. For executive leadership, understanding these shifting paradigms is paramount to capturing market share during the most critical retail window of the year.
Methodology & Research Scope
Holiday Shopping Trends was compiled by the Epsilon Research Team, drawing on extensive primary consumer surveys, retail performance telemetry, and cross-category market data. The study focuses on North American consumer cohorts across diverse age brackets, examining purchasing intentions, media consumption habits, and technological adoption rates leading up to the holiday season.
The research methodology captures quantitative responses from thousands of shoppers, balancing representation across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. By tracking metrics ranging from anticipated category expenditures to media trust and promotional sensitivity, the evidence base provides a clear statistical foundation. The scope specifically isolates holiday spending categories including gifts, travel, entertainment, and seasonal groceries, offering granular visibility into where capital is allocated.
Critical Data Spine
To navigate the modern retail landscape, enterprise leaders must ground their strategies in the empirical metrics established by the research. Epsilon's findings quantify both the resilience of the consumer base and the rapid adoption of new discovery mechanisms.
According to the study, average projected holiday spending reaches $946 per shopper in 2026, representing a notable increase over previous baseline levels despite lingering macroeconomic anxieties. When analyzing how this capital is distributed, the report highlights that gift purchases represent the largest outlay at an average of $518 per shopper, followed by vacation expenses at $215, groceries for seasonal meals and hosting at $203, family travel at $177, and holiday apparel at $155.
Discovery and engagement metrics further reveal how consumers navigate the vast array of seasonal offerings. The report finds that online search engines and digital gift guides serve as the leading source of holiday shopping inspiration across all demographics at 78%, followed closely by recommendations from friends and family at 68% and product reviews at 65%. Furthermore, holiday advertising proves exceptionally potent, with more than four in five consumers (81%) taking action after viewing a holiday advertisement, and 37% ultimately purchasing a product. This seasonal conversion rate significantly outperforms other major retail touchpoints recorded earlier in the year, such as Halloween at 29% and back-to-shopping events at 26%.
Market Tensions & Strategic Challenges
Despite positive spending projections, retail strategists face distinct friction points. Chief among these is the tension between digital convenience and the tactile desires of younger demographics. While digital channels dominate initial discovery, retailers must simultaneously support analog touchpoints without fracturing their omnichannel infrastructure. This dynamic mirrors broader shifts in consumer trust, where younger cohorts exhibit high participation in seasonal retail moments, as highlighted in Fodda Research's analysis on Gen Z leads promotional trust and drives future Black Friday spending growth.
Furthermore, integrating artificial intelligence into the shopping journey presents operational hurdles. While nearly half of consumers utilize AI tools for price comparison and gift ideation, establishing consumer trust remains a prerequisite for sustained engagement. As explored in broader technology evaluations like Carbon Mapper to Expand Tanager Constellation for Next-Gen Methane Detection and industry frameworks regarding AI adoption, transparency and low-stakes interaction models are critical for driving user confidence. Retailers risk alienating shoppers if AI recommendation engines prioritize margin over genuine consumer value.
The 3 Core Trends
Digital & Analog Convergence: GEN Z In-Store & Analog Revival
Younger consumers are spearheading a surprising return to physical retail environments and traditional print media during the festive season. The market mechanism driving this trend is digital fatigue combined with a craving for tactile, experiential brand interactions. According to Epsilon's research, 54% of holiday shoppers utilize physical stores and digital channels equally when purchasing gifts, but Gen Z exhibits the highest preference for exclusively in-store gift shopping at 28%, outpacing Boomers at 23%. Moreover, 41% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers indicate they are likely to buy gifts from a physical holiday catalog, exceeding older cohorts. Organizations that fail to bridge physical catalogs and immersive flagship store experiences with digital inventory systems risk missing high-value younger buyers.
Intelligent Commerce: AI-Assisted Holiday Shopping
Artificial intelligence has transitioned from a backend operational tool to a front-facing consumer assistant. Nearly half of holiday shoppers (approximately 48%) leverage AI tools to compare prices, uncover deals, and generate gift inspiration. This trend is led by 30% of Gen Z consumers who rely on AI frequently or nearly always, whereas Baby Boomers show the lowest utilization. The practical implementation reality requires brands to optimize their product data feeds and semantic search structures so that AI agents can accurately parse, recommend, and price-compare their merchandise. Organizations lagging in machine-readable product data risk being entirely omitted from AI-generated gift itineraries.
Purpose-Driven Commerce: Seasonal Philanthropy & Volunteering
Holiday shopping is increasingly viewed by consumers through an ethical and community-oriented lens. Three in four consumers (75%) prioritize giving back during the holidays through goods, monetary donations, or volunteering. Crucially, 19% formally factor charitable contributions into their seasonal budgets for an average anticipated allocation. Brands that embed charitable matching, transparent community giveback programs, or volunteer incentives into their holiday campaigns successfully capture the goodwill of values-driven consumers, while transactional brands risk appearing tone-deaf.
Strategic Implications & Practitioner Verdict
Based on Epsilon's empirical findings, executive teams must immediately reallocate resources toward omnichannel fluidity, structured product data optimization for AI agents, and experiential physical marketing. Marketing leaders should treat holiday advertising not as a generic promotional blitz, but as a high-conversion engagement channel that requires distinct creative messaging compared to back-to-school or spring campaigns.
Framing this through the lens of modern commerce architecture, Nathan Grotticelli observes that retail discovery has evolved past the traditional text box into a rich, cross-media ecosystem where physical touchpoints and agentic tools intersect. When their Human Agent is queried through Fodda, it explains that modern consumers do not separate digital convenience from physical ritual, meaning brands must build unified stacks that honor both analog nostalgia and automated efficiency.
The strategic takeaway is clear: future resilience will be predicated on orchestrating seamless hybrid journeys that meet consumers wherever their discovery happens, whether through a printed holiday catalog, an AI price-comparison engine, or a brick-and-mortar storefront.