US Holiday Spending in 2026 Shifts Toward Discounts and Essentials
US consumer demand is still growing, but shoppers are placing greater importance on price, promotions, and purchase timing; online holiday spending is expected to become more concentrated in Cyber Five.
What are the key facts?
- 1US holiday spending is expected to continue growing in 2026
- 2Consumers are placing greater importance on price, promotions, and purchase timing
- 3Cyber Five is expected to account for a growing share of holiday online sales
- 4Convenience stores, pharmaceuticals and everyday goods, and other categories have recently performed strongly
What happened?
Relevant consumer data indicates that US holiday spending will continue to grow in 2026, but purchasing behavior is becoming more oriented toward price, promotions, and purchase timing. Cyber Five is expected to account for a growing share of total holiday online sales, indicating that demand will be more concentrated in major promotional windows rather than distributed evenly across the quarter. Recent consumer data also shows strong performance in convenience stores, pharmaceuticals and everyday goods, leisure and entertainment, third-party delivery services, and consignment and secondhand apparel. At the same time, broad online retail growth has slowed compared with the first half of the year, while some apparel subcategories and discretionary products are under pressure. For cross-border sellers, low-priced essentials, replenishment products, discounted bundles, secondhand or refurbished categories, and household everyday goods are more likely to see stable demand; high-priced home goods, non-essential electronics, and fashion premium products depend more heavily on discounts and installment payments. When stocking the US and European markets, sellers can allocate more inventory, advertising budgets, and promotional resources to high-turnover, price-sensitive products with stronger potential for repeat purchases.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
US holiday spending is still expected to grow in 2026, but demand will be more concentrated in Cyber Five, while consumers are placing greater importance on price, promotions, and purchase timing. Sellers should reduce inventory exposure to high-premium discretionary products and allocate more resources to low-priced essentials, replenishment products, and household everyday goods.
What should sellers do now?
- 1This week, classify SKUs for the US and European markets into essentials, replenishment products, discounted bundles, and high-priced discretionary products, then review inventory and replenishment priorities; produce a stocking list ranked by turnover and repeat-purchase potential.Procurement List
- 2This week, separately schedule inventory, advertising, and promotional budgets for the concentrated Cyber Five sales window, covering high-turnover, low-priced products on the US site; produce a resource-allocation table for the event and identify each product and budget line.
- 3This week, review discount and installment-payment plans for high-priced home goods, non-essential electronics, and fashion premium products across relevant US and European listings; produce a post-promotion profit estimate for each SKU.Profit calculator