The 2026
Holiday & Seasonal Shopping Trends Report
The holiday season is no longer won in a single sales weekend.
By the time Black Friday Cyber Monday arrives, consumers have already been exploring options, comparing brands, saving ideas, and deciding which ones feel worth choosing.
That is exactly what makes holiday and seasonal advertising so high stakes in 2026. From Labor Day and October Prime Day to fall football and the final December rush, tvScientific by Pinterest’s 2026 Holiday & Seasonal Shopping Trends Report1 indicates that the year’s biggest shopping season is now shaped by a series of connected, high-intent moments.
But, the pressure is not just to show up in these peak moments. It’s to show up early enough, clearly enough, and convincingly enough to shape the decision before intent gets crowded.
of marketers are starting their holiday campaigns earlier because there’s more pressure to prove ROAS or revenue impact
Marketers’ top stressors heading into the 2026 holiday and seasonal shopping season
Reaching high-intent shoppers
New product launches or business priorities
Rising media costs
Reaching
high-intent shoppers
New product launches or
business priorities
Rising
media costs
The old seasonal playbook focused on the final conversion moment. The new one is about reaching shoppers sooner, shaping intent earlier, and tying that influence to real business outcomes.
tvScientific by Pinterest surveyed marketers about their plans for the 2026 holiday and seasonal shopping season, spanning key moments such as Labor Day, October Prime Day, fall football season, Black Friday Cyber Monday, the year-end holiday rush, and New Year’s. This year’s report goes beyond marketers’ plans alone, pairing their strategies with consumer behavior to show how consumers actually discover, evaluate, and buy across screens during the year’s highest-stakes shopping moments.
What emerges is a clearer picture of what it takes to win the holiday and seasonal moments in 2026.
01
Performance TV is a priority investment during the holiday season and across peak shopping moments
Performance TV is no longer a side bet for the holidays.
It has become a priority investment across the seasonal calendar, because marketers increasingly see it as a measurable growth driver during the biggest shopping periods of the year.
Channels receiving the largest share of media budget during the 2026 holiday season and peak shopping moments
Performance TV is now being treated as a core performance channel in moments where revenue expectations are at their highest, second only to social in share of seasonal media budget. That momentum is also accelerating:
of marketers plan to run ads on Performance TV during the 2026 holiday season and peak seasonal shopping moments
say their Performance TV budget for holiday and seasonal shopping moments has increased
The shift is not limited to one tentpole event either. Marketers are planning to use Performance TV across the broader seasonal calendar, from October Prime Day promotions to the fall football season.
Top seasonal shopping moments by advertising budget in 2026
- Black Friday Cyber Monday — 35%
- Holiday season (Nov – Dec) — 24%
- Fall football season — 16%
- October Prime Day — 12%
- Labor Day — 9%
- New Year’s — 4%
Black Friday Cyber Monday still matters, but it is no longer the only moment driving Performance TV investment. tvScientific’s internal data underscores that shift, with October Prime Day spend running 250% above the daily average spend, while Black Friday and Cyber Monday spend ran 87% and 88% above average in 2025.3
As marketers use Performance TV across more seasonal moments, they are also expecting it to drive strong business outcomes.
of marketers expect Performance TV to help them achieve revenue growth during the 2026 holiday and seasonal shopping season
That is a major signal. In the highest-pressure shopping windows of the year, marketers increasingly believe Performance TV helps move the metric that matters most: revenue.
This is also part of a broader industry evolution. TV is no longer just about maintaining presence or driving top-of-funnel awareness. It’s about reaching consumers in high-attention environments, influencing them before the market gets crowded, and connecting exposure to measurable business outcomes.
Performance TV is not just present in the holiday seasonal plan anymore. It is central to it.
02
High-intent seasonal shoppers are won before the last click
The last click often gets the credit. But it doesn’t tell the full story.
By the time a shopper is actively comparing products during October Prime Day or Black Friday Cyber Monday, much of the real work has already happened. They have already researched the brands, formed preferences, and started building a mental shortlist before the final conversion moment arrives.
That’s why Performance TV matters earlier in the journey.
Customer journey
The majority of marketers say the 'planning and consideration' stage of the customer journey is when Performance TV is the most valuable during the holiday and seasonal moments
The implication is clear: Performance TV is increasingly valued as a way to shape consideration before shoppers become overwhelmed by price comparisons, promotions, and marketplace competition.
Once the shortlist starts to form, winning gets harder and more expensive.
of marketers say it is extremely or very critical to reach shoppers before they begin actively searching or comparing products
of marketers prioritize high-intent shoppers on Performance TV during holiday and seasonal shopping moments
This is where high-intent environments become especially powerful. It’s about finding consumers when they are actively planning what to buy, evaluating possibilities, and moving from inspiration toward intent.
Consumer behavior strongly supports that approach, especially when watching TV is no longer a single-screen experience, but a connected one.
of consumers scroll social media while watching TV2
of consumers browse online shopping while watching TV2
of consumers look up a product they saw while watching TV2
That dual-screen behavior turns Performance TV into an action-ready channel. This matters even more during the holiday season because the competition only intensifies as peak shopping dates get closer.
The strongest seasonal strategies recognize that the goal is not simply to convert existing intent. It is to help create it. That’s why intent signals matter so much. With Pinterest audiences now available on Performance TV, brands can reach future customers earlier, using Pinterest’s signal from consumers who are actively planning, saving, and searching for what they may want next.
[Testing Pinterest Audiences on Performance TV] showed that we can expand beyond our existing audience strategy without sacrificing efficiency. The incremental reach and performance were both strong.
LG Marketing Team
03
Seasonal performance demands personalized ads built for the moment
Seasonal shopping does not unfold as one uniform event. It unfolds in waves.
Each seasonal moment comes with its own mindset, timing, and buying behavior. And consumers do not all begin researching and buying on the same schedule.
That’s why seasonal performance demands more than a single generic holiday campaign. It demands creative, messaging, offers, timing, and calls to action that are built for each moment.
When marketers plan to use Performance TV in 2026
Top ways marketers tailor campaigns
for different seasonal moments
Audience targeting
Offers / promotions
Creative assets / visuals
Timing / flighting
Copy / messaging
Calls to action
Landing pages
Measurement / KPIs
That kind of adaptation is not just best practice. It is increasingly necessary because consumer behavior is far from uniform.
From the consumer side, the biggest shopping moments still command the most attention.
Shopping moments consumers pay attention to the most2
That alignment is striking. Across the biggest moments of the season, marketer budget and consumer attention track closely, suggesting that brands are largely investing where interest is already concentrated.
But attention alone does not tell the whole story. Timing does.
By the time the season’s biggest shopping moments arrive, many shoppers have already narrowed their choices.
This varies meaningfully by generation:
of Gen Z wait to purchase gifts for Black Friday Cyber Monday2
of Millennials start purchasing gifts in October2
of Gen X start purchasing gifts in November2
of Baby Boomers start purchasing gifts in November2
These differences matter because they reveal just how limited a one-size-fits-all holiday creative strategy really is. Some audiences are waiting for the biggest discount moment. Others are shopping well before it.
When marketers first launch TV campaigns for each moment
Most campaigns launch close to the peak shopping window
Labor Day
Most launch in September
Fall football season
Most launch in September
October Prime Day
Most launch in September
Black Friday Cyber Monday
Most launch in November
Holiday season
(Nov – Dec)
Most launch in November
New Year’s
Most launch in December
For advertisers focused mainly on Black Friday Cyber Monday or the broader holiday season, waiting until November to launch ads means entering the market after many consumers have already begun researching, and in some cases purchasing, in October or earlier. The seasonal moments leading into the holiday rush, from Labor Day to October Prime Day, create earlier opportunities to connect with shoppers while they are still exploring options and deciding what makes the shortlist.
This is exactly what makes seasonal creative harder to manage. Teams need more versions, more relevance, more ways to adapt one campaign idea across multiple tentpoles without losing speed — and a way to make sure their ads are actually impactful. This is where tvScientific by Pinterest’s Creative Advisor can help, using tvScientific AI to predict how TV creative is likely to perform and surface recommendations before media dollars are spent.
Because in 2026, seasonal performance is not just about launching campaigns. It is about having the right creative at the right moment, before the opportunity passes.
Creative Advisor quickly analyzed our existing creative and provided recommendations we could implement quickly. By making small changes to the visibility of our branding throughout the ad, we drove more site visits without rebuilding the entire spot.
Anastasia Jenkin
Director of Affiliate Marketing + Partnerships
04
The best holiday and seasonal strategies connect campaigns across moments and channels
The traditional marketing funnel assumes consumers behave with remarkable discipline. First, they become aware, then they research, consider, and after a thoughtful and orderly journey, they purchase.
But consumers do not move that neatly. They discover in one place, validate in another, and often make the purchase elsewhere.
That’s why the strongest seasonal strategies do not treat TV as an isolated channel or each shopping moment as a separate campaign. They connect both.
And marketers are actively coordinating TV with the rest of the media mix during high-stakes shopping periods.
Channels marketers actively coordinate with TV during holiday and seasonal campaigns
Social
Influence / creator marketing
Email / CRM
Search
Display
In-store / offline media
Affiliate
That coordination mirrors how consumers actually behave. 46% of consumers say they are more likely to buy if they have seen the brand on social media before seeing it on TV. 46% say the same if they have seen the brand in search before seeing it on TV.
This means cross-channel strategy is not just a media planning preference. It is a consumer reality.
TV works especially well when it strengthens what consumers are already encountering elsewhere. It brings legitimacy to the brand, increases confidence, and helps other channels perform harder.
That is why the best marketing teams are not only connecting TV with other channels. They are also applying key learnings and carrying over campaign components from one seasonal moment into the next.
What marketers intentionally carry forward from one shopping moment to the next
This is a major shift away from planning each tentpole in isolation. Instead of reinventing everything for October Prime Day, then starting over for Black Friday Cyber Monday, then starting over again for New Year’s, marketers are building connected systems. They are using earlier moments to learn faster, refine audiences, sharpen messaging, and enter the next shopping window smarter.
Measurement is what makes that possible.
Top 5 outcomes marketers care about most when evaluating Performance TV during holiday and seasonal shopping moments
These priorities show that marketers want more than broad reach. Compared with 2025, they are placing much greater weight on direct business outcomes like sales, revenue, and traffic. And delivering those outcomes requires a more connected view of performance.
The most effective holiday strategies do two things well: they connect campaigns across moments, and they connect measurement across channels.
Anything less leaves performance undervalued and opportunity on the table.
Advertisers are under increasing pressure to prove the business impact of every media dollar spent, especially as streaming becomes a larger part of the media mix. By partnering with tvScientific by Pinterest, we’re helping brands better understand the true impact of Performance TV and optimize around measurable business outcomes with greater precision and transparency.
Alex Roucourt
Chief Partnerships Officer
05
AI is the new edge in peak shopping moments
Peak shopping moments put more pressure on every decision.
Shopping windows are compressed. Consumer behavior shifts quickly. Promotions change. Competition intensifies. Creative needs to multiply. And teams are expected to make faster decisions with less room for error.
That is where AI is starting to play a much bigger role.
Where marketers are using AI in holiday and seasonal shopping campaigns in 2026
Marketers are not using AI just to save time. They are using it to handle the growing complexity of seasonal performance: more moments, more audiences, more creative variants, more channels, and more pressure to optimize in real time.
AI’s impact during the holiday and seasonal campaign
The message is clear. AI’s value during seasonal shopping is not novelty. It is speed, adaptability, and the ability to act on performance signals before the moment is gone.
That is especially important in a holiday environment where creative fatigue sets in quickly and audience behavior can shift from one week to the next. Teams need to test faster, adapt faster, and optimize faster.
This is also where AI begins to close one of the biggest operational gaps in seasonal marketing: the distance between insight and execution.
Ultimately, the best use of AI during peak shopping periods is not simply automation for its own sake. It is using AI to make better performance decisions faster, from audience targeting and creative personalization to campaign optimization and measurement.
That is the real edge.
06
Seasonal shopping is won before the biggest sale
The brands that win the 2026 holiday season will not be the ones that simply spend the most during Black Friday Cyber Monday, fall football season, or October Prime Day.
They will be the ones that understand a more important truth: by the time the biggest sale begins, the consumer decision is often already in motion.
Shoppers are discovering earlier. Researching earlier. Narrowing options earlier. Buying earlier. And moving across TV, search, social, and mobile in ways that make last-click thinking feel increasingly outdated.
That is why the most effective seasonal strategies now follow a different playbook:
- Reach high-intent shoppers before comparison gets crowded
- Treat Performance TV as a priority investment, not a seasonal add-on
- Personalize creative for each shopping moment
- Connect strategy and measurement across channels and across tentpoles
- Use AI to move faster when speed matters most
Performance TV is rising in seasonal importance because it matches how consumers actually behave today: fluid across screens, influenced early, and ready to act in real time.
For marketers, the opportunity is not just to show up in the biggest moments. It is to shape them before they peak.
That is how seasonal shopping performance gets smarter.
That is how holiday revenue gets stronger.
And that is how brands win before the last click.
Sources:
1tvScientific by Pinterest, 2026 Holiday & Seasonal Shopping Trends Report (N=487), US, July 2026 – all data in this report except where a different source is cited. For all year over year trends, this was compared to results from 2025 Holiday Report data
2tvScientific by Pinterest, 2026 Consumer Trends Report, US, February 2026, n=600 people that watch tv
3tvScientific by Pinterest Internal Data, December US, 2025.