We're already deep into the 2026 holiday season, and the National Retail Federation projects holiday spending in November and December will reach $1.013 trillion this year, up 4.2% over 2025. With the season's biggest shopping weeks still ahead, the real question for retailers and brands isn't whether shoppers will show up, it's how to get more value out of the ones who do.
Shoppers Are Spreading Their Budgets Across a Longer Season
According to NRF, 43% of holiday shoppers planned to start before November this year, mostly to spread their budgets across a longer stretch of the season. That doesn't mean the window to reach them is shrinking. Shoppers are simply making purchase decisions earlier and more often throughout the season. At the same time, 64% say they'll still do the bulk of their shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, essentially the same share as last year. That stretch, which is still ahead for most of the country, remains the single biggest concentration of holiday spending decisions, even as shoppers spread the rest of their budget across a longer calendar.
The Store Is Still Where It Happens
Online retail gets most of the attention, but the physical store hasn't lost its place in the holiday season. ICSC's Thanksgiving weekend survey found that 206 million people, 77% of U.S. adults, shopped over the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday last year. Of those shoppers, 84% bought in a store or used in-store pickup, six points higher than the year before. Another 152 million people visited a shopping center that weekend to shop, dine, or just be around other people doing the same. And 64% of shoppers who picked up an online order in-store ended up buying something else while they were there.
Fewer Visits, More Valuable Ones
Not every trend points toward more traffic. Sensormatic's 2026 forecast expects in-store visits to dip slightly this year, continuing a pattern retailers have seen most of the year. But shoppers who do walk in are converting at a higher rate and spending more once they're there, with conversion rates and sales per shopper both up over the summer months. The number of people walking through the door matters less than what happens once they're inside. A shopper who makes the trip this year is making a more deliberate one, and that changes what a store needs to deliver.
Why Experience Converts Shoppers
Getting a brand in front of holiday shoppers is only half the story. What actually moves a shopper from browsing to buying is the experience itself: a product demonstration they can see up close, a sample or tasting, a giveaway, a piece of useful information they didn't have before, a gift card that gives them a reason to come back. Those moments turn a routine errand into something worth remembering, and they're what separates a store visit that converts from one that doesn't.
The Financial Upside for Retailers
There's also a straightforward financial case here. A brand partnership built around in-store experiences can generate real incremental revenue for a retailer without requiring new inventory, additional staff, or added operational responsibility. The brand funds the activation, supplies the staff running it, and often pays directly for the access. For a retailer, that's a new revenue line layered onto traffic that's already walking through the door during the exact stretch of the year when that traffic is most valuable.
Where Old City Media Fits In
This is the gap our In-Store Partners program is built to close. We connect brands that already have experiential and customer-acquisition budgets with retailers who have the floor space and the traffic, and we manage the activation from the first conversation through the last day on-site. It's the same dynamic we see across the retailers and brands we work with: the store is still where the relationship happens, and the right partnership makes every visit count for more.
Let's Talk
There's still plenty of the season left to make count. Whether you're a retailer looking to turn your remaining holiday traffic into real revenue or a brand looking for direct access to shoppers who are already walking through the door, we'd welcome the conversation. Connect with our team to see how we work.