2026 Holiday Shopping and Advertising Trends Report

The holiday season is won months before checkout

The 2026 season is longer, more digital, and more deliberate than the one before it. Shoppers now start earlier, compare across more channels, and lean on search, social, and AI long before a brand enters the picture. This report shows you where consumers actually form their decisions, so you can plan campaigns around how people shop instead of how we assume they do.

Whether you plan media at an agency or lead marketing for a brand, this report gives you the consumer evidence to brief creative, set budgets, and time your flighting with confidence.

What's inside the report

See how US shoppers will discover, decide, and buy this holiday season, and find out what it means for your 2026 campaigns, in this new proprietary research report Basis.

The report features:

• The five shifts shaping holiday shopping 2026, with the data behind each
• How connection and tradition drive holiday spending, and where parents over-index
• When the season starts and how long it now runs
• How search, social, and AI shape discovery, broken out by generation
• Where AI helps shoppers decide, and where they still say no
• Dozens of actionable lesson for brands

Five shifts defining the 2026 holiday season

The report's findings come from a proprietary Basis ImpactIQ and GWI survey of 2,006 US consumers, fielded in May 2026 and weighted to be nationally representative. The study captures how people celebrated in 2025 and how they plan to shop and celebrate in 2026.

Select insights include:

• Meaning and money, together: 72% of US adults plan to buy gifts this season, and over half say their top goal is a meaningful or personal gift.
• Deals are validation: 26% of gift buyers plan to actively seek out more deals, and price, shipping, and reviews now decide whether an offer is worth it.
• Shopping is a system: 68% of consumers shop early to avoid delays and 57% shop year-round for deals, stretching the season from September into January.
• Digital defines consideration: 71% of consumers used at least one digital tool, search, social, or AI, to find gift ideas in 2025.
• AI assists, but it doesn't decide...yet: 40% are open to using AI this season, but 42% of them won't let it buy a gift on their behalf.

Ready to uncover all the details and start building more successful campaigns? Download your free copy of the 2026 Winter Holidays Shopping Trends report today.