Consumer Behavior

Holiday shopping budgets being reset this season

Generated by AI/Adobe Stock

November 3, 2026

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Consumers are shifting their holiday spending this year, doing a reset given higher prices and increased living costs such as increasing fuel costs.

That's a top finding from Simon-Kucher's eighth annual 2026 Holiday Shopping Study that also revealed retail revenue growth will likely be due to higher prices rather than more purchases.

"Holiday budgets are being reset, not abandoned," Shikha Jain, partner and head of consumer, North America, Simon-Kucher, said in a press release on the study's findings. "High fuel costs and inflation have made consumers far more focused on value and deals. For lower and middle-income households, financial fragility is growing. They're choosing between record debt and everyday essentials, and holiday gifts add more to the financial pressure."

While shoppers are shopping earlier they're scaling back discretionary purchases and using holiday promotions to stock up on basic needs.

Consumer Behavior