Analyst CornerAnalyst Corner: The Holiday Retail Outlook—Unit Growth Under Pressure as US Consumers Rethink How They Shop, with Aditya Kaushik Aditya Kaushik, Analyst Sector Lead: John Mercer, Head of Global Research and Managing Director of Retail Research October 11, 2026 Reasons to ReadEach Analyst Corner features highlights and insights from the respective week’s “Report of the Week”—our featured must-read research report. This week, our featured report was Holiday 2026: US Consumer Survey and Retail Outlook—Unit Growth Under Pressure as Consumers Rethink How They Shop. Discover how US consumers are approaching the 2026 holiday season as affordability pressures reshape spending, shopping behavior and purchase decisions. Read this report to uncover answers to these and other questions: What will be the mix between inflation and real growth in holiday retail sales expansion, according to Coresight Research estimates? How are affordability pressures changing the number of gifts consumers buy, how much they spend and when they shop? How are consumers using secondhand shopping and flexible-payment options such as BNPL to manage holiday budgets? What role are AI-powered shopping tools and social media playing in product discovery, comparison and purchase decisions? Topics covered include: US holiday retail sales and retail inflation projections; consumer spending and purchase decisions; inflation impacts; shopping timing and promotions; secondhand, BNPL, AI and social-media usage; and retailer and channel preferences. Other relevant research: All Analyst Corners This document was generated for
