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RetailMeNot’s September 2026 survey of 1,183 shoppers found that 41% start holiday shopping before October and 90% stack savings at least sometimes. The picture is a holiday shopper who starts earlier, compares before buying, and looks past the advertised discount to the real final price.
We’re 100 days out from Christmas, which every retail calendar still files under early. A quarter of shoppers already disagree, in the form of receipts. They started before September, and 41% will be shopping before October, according to RetailMeNot’s Q4 2026 survey of 1,183 shoppers. The early ones came in with a plan. They’ve stopped taking the advertised price as the real one, and they’re deciding for themselves what something is worth.
Key Takeaways: 2026 Holiday Shopping Trends
- Early Shoppers: 41% of consumers begin holiday shopping before October, with 25% starting before September.
- Stacking Savings: 90% of shoppers combine multiple ways to save (promo codes, cash back) on a single purchase, prioritizing overall value over just the lowest tag price.
- Self-Gifting: Shoppers plan to spend an average of $435 on themselves alongside $589 on gifts for others.
- Month-Long Black Friday: 58% treat Black Friday as a multi-week event rather than a single weekend, while only 17% wait for Black Friday/Cyber Monday specifically.
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Cash Back & Real Final Price: 78% state cash back impacts their purchasing decisions, and tools like Scout Price
calculate the true final price after codes and cash back. - Logistics & AI Integration: 34% of last-minute shoppers rely on Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS), and 14% use AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) for gift discovery.
How do you tell if a holiday sale is a good deal?
The deal-hunter stereotype is out of date. A big percent-off sign used to close the sale. Now it opens the negotiation, and the shopper decides whether the price holds up. This is someone who compares across sites, stacks whatever savings apply, and won’t buy until the value is there. In RetailMeNot’s survey, 90% said they combine more than one way to save on a single purchase at least sometimes, and 63% do it always or often. More people pick best overall value (25%) than the lowest price (19%), and 79% feel at least somewhat confident they can tell whether a holiday sale is worth it. Separate RetailMeNot research found that only 7% of people finish an online purchase without doing some research first. The goal is to shop smarter, not just cheaper.
How much are people spending on themselves this holiday season?
There’s one more name on the holiday list, and it’s the shopper’s own. Shoppers plan to spend an average of $435 on themselves this season, next to an average of $589 on gifts for others, according to RetailMeNot’s survey. People are buying for themselves during the sales, right alongside everyone else. The sale is the permission slip. It gives people a reason to finally buy the thing they’d been circling for months, and the timing lets them stack savings on it on the way. From the outside, that spending can look impulsive. The timing tells a calmer story: people using holiday pricing to buy something they’d already decided they wanted.
How do you know the real final price before you buy?
Shoppers want to know the real final price before they buy, and the advertised discount is only the first draft of it. A product listed at $50 and marked to $40 might have an eligible promo code and cash back sitting on top of it, which is the difference between a fine deal and a good one. In RetailMeNot’s survey, 78% said cash back matters to their holiday decisions, and 44% called it very important. Another 71% said the economy makes them more likely to reach for promo codes, cash back and other savings offers.
Working all of that out by hand is where most people give up. Scout Price in the RetailMeNot Rewards app does the arithmetic for them. It shows the potential final price of a product after a verified promo code and available cash back. The tool starts from the current sale price, finds the best working code, and takes cash back off the discounted total. It checks for fresh codes and offers often, and confirms a code works on that specific product before it counts. Knowing the real final price without opening a dozen tabs is the point.
The app keeps verified promo codes and cash back in one place so shoppers can stack savings and optimize every purchase, and RetailMeNot works directly with merchants to provide active cash back offers and exclusive deals.
When should you buy, and is Black Friday still the best time?
Black Friday moved in for the month. 58% of shoppers now treat it as a season that runs for weeks instead of a single weekend, and 47% plan to buy earlier than last year, according to RetailMeNot’s survey. Only 17% are still holding out for the Black Friday or Cyber Monday date itself. Buying across more weeks is a way to spread the cost over more paychecks.
Waiting still pays in the right spots. While 60% of shoppers said Black Friday has the best prices on at least some things, this is split between 40% who mean most things and 20% who mean certain categories. So it comes down to category. Some things are worth grabbing in October, and others don’t hit bottom until the week of Black Friday.
What’s the smartest way to shop the final stretch?
For last-minute holiday shopping, buy online and pick up in store is how people beat the shipping cutoff. Among shoppers buying within 72 hours of Christmas, 34% plan to use it, ahead of walking into a store to browse at 18% and same-day delivery at 15%. The panic run to the mall has a logistics plan now.
Where people look for gifts is moving too. 14% told RetailMeNot they already use AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude for holiday inspiration and gift discovery. That’s an emerging behavior, and it shows where shopping research is headed. Smart Search (beta) in the RetailMeNot Rewards app takes a plain-language request and returns results grounded in live product, pricing and offer data. People want to shop with confidence, sure they got the right thing at a price they can defend.
Shoppers already figured this out on their own. The tools are finally catching up to them.
Methodology: RetailMeNot Group Q4 2026 consumer survey, fielded September 2026. N=1,183.
The post 100 Days Until Christmas, and the Holiday Shopper Already Has a Plan appeared first on The Real Deal by RetailMeNot.
