More Holiday Season 2026 Sales Forecasts

* In a look specifically at online sales for the season, Adobe predicts such expenditures will hit a record $275.1 billion, an increase of 6.7% from a year ago. As to which merchandise lines will be popular, the survey points to electronics ($63.3 billion, up 5.9% YoY) and apparel ($51.3 billion, up 4.7% YoY) as the two main categories, with furniture ($33.4 billion, up 7.3% YoY), grocery ($26.1 billion, up 10.3% YoY), toys ($9.6 billion, up 9.6% YoY) and cosmetics ($9.2 billion, 9.5% YoY) also performing strong.

* In its just-released annual “Togetherness Report,” turkey brand Butterball LLC found that 85% of consumers plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year (Nov. 26), with an anticipated typical party size of 10 people. Hosts are holding on to their traditions, with most saying even higher costs won’t change their plans. The most popular reasons for celebrating: spending time with family (64%), followed by the food (53%) and relaxing (34%).

* PayPal’s latest survey shows holiday spending isn’t slowing, but shoppers are changing how they spend. More specifically, nearly six in 10 Americans (58%) feel greater financial concern heading into the holidays, yet 64% still expect to spend the same or more than they did last holiday season. “Faced with that tension, shoppers are planning earlier, setting budgets and looking for more ways to get value from every purchase,” the report notes.

Below are links to previous holiday season sales predictions published thus far this year by Shop!: 

https://shopassociation.org/busiest-holiday-shopping-days-in-the-u-s-for-2026/

https://shopassociation.org/busiest-holiday-shopping-days-in-the-u-s-for-2026/

https://shopassociation.org/100-days-until-christmas-more-holiday-forecasts/