Survey: Holiday shopping begins early for large number of consumers
More than a third of consumers plan to start buying holiday gifts before the calendar turns to November.
That’s according to a new survey from cryptocurrency payment app Oobit, which found that 34% of those surveyed have bought, or planned to buy, their first holiday gift before November. Nearly one-in-10 (9%) started holiday shopping this year before September.
A quarter (25%) of Americans started shopping early to spread the cost across multiple paychecks, a tactic reported by a third (34%) of parents, while 10% of respondents said they got an early start on the holidays mainly to beat rising prices or tariffs. This was more common among Gen Z (14%) and millennials (11%) than among Gen X (8%) and baby boomers (4%).
[READ MORE: Deloitte forecasts 2026 holiday sales to grow 4.0% to 4.8%]
When it comes to how they plan to pay for gifts, nearly half (46%) of those surveyed said they are using or considering using buy now, pay later this holiday season, including 16% who were already using it. Millennials (19%) are the group most likely to use it.
Nearly six-in-10 (58%) consumers said earning rewards or cash back matters more this year than last, and 66% of Gen Z said the same.
Additional highlights from Oobit’s survey include the following:
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) said gifts caused them the most stress, nearly three times as many as named travel (23%).
- Nearly one-in-five (18%) said October Prime Day was their most important sale day for holiday shopping.
- Half (50%) of Americans said holiday tipping expectations have become excessive. Gen X was the most likely to say so (57%), followed by baby boomers (52%) and millennials (51%). Fewer Gen Zers felt this way (38%).
Oobit’s survey of 1,007 Americans was conducted via CloudResearch Connect in July 2026.
