Optimove Insights: 52% of Summer Shoppers Plan to Spend More This Year, Signaling a Season of Optimism

New Optimove report reveals Summer 2026 as a high-intent, multichannel shopping season where quality leads, price converts, and AI plays a growing role in product discovery

New York, May 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Optimove, the creator of Positionless Marketing, released its 2026 Summer Shopping Report. The findings reveal that summer shoppers are entering the season with strong optimism and clear purchase intent. More than half of shoppers (52%) say their budget will be higher than last year, while 31% expect to spend the same. 

The data point to a favorable but highly competitive moment for retail brands. Consumers are willing to spend, but they are not buying indiscriminately. Quality is the dominant factor in summer purchase decisions, selected by 81% of respondents, followed by price at 70% and brand reputation at 45%. They expect products to feel worthwhile, durable, and aligned with their needs.

The report, based on a Spring 2026 survey of 648 U.S. consumers with household incomes of $75,000 or more, shows that summer shopping is led by the lifestyle category. Clothing is the top priority, selected by 81% of shoppers, followed by swimwear at 50%, and beauty and skincare products at 49%.

“This summer, shoppers are not pulling back. They are leaning in,” said Pini Yakuel, CEO of Optimove. “But optimism does not mean brands can rely on broad seasonal campaigns or generic promotions. Consumers want quality, value, relevance, and timing. The brands that win will be the ones that recognize intent early and act on it immediately with the right message, through the right channel, at the right moment. That is what Positionless Marketing makes possible.”

Additional findings from the report underscore the importance of relevance, timing, and omnichannel execution:

• Price remains a powerful conversion trigger. While quality leads in a consumer considering a brand, price can accelerate action. Fifty-nine percent of shoppers say an item going on early sale would sometimes or often motivate them to buy. Better prices are also the top motivator for shopping at an unplanned location, cited by 44% of consumers, and for trying a new brand, cited by 80%.
• Summer purchasing is mostly multichannel. Fifty-nine percent (51%) of shoppers plan to buy soft goods both in-store and online, while 50% say the same for skincare and beauty, and 46% for hard goods. Category differences remain important: hard goods show a stronger in-store preference, while travel is the most online-led category.
• Summer is a progressive shopping journey, not a single campaign window. Consumers begin shopping throughout the first quarter of the year. Twenty-six percent said they started shopping as early as January and February, 12% in March, 20% in April, and 30% in May or June. The data show that brands need sustained engagement, not one seasonal push.

AI Plays a Growing Role in Shopping 

The survey also revealed that 49% of consumers regularly consult AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, for shopping ideas or gift recommendations, while 23% do so occasionally. 

Access the full Summer Shopping Report 2026. 

More insights and reports are available at www.optimove.com/resources/reports.

About Optimove

Optimove, the creator of Positionless Marketing, frees marketing teams from the limitations of fixed roles, giving every marketer the power to execute any marketing task instantly and independently. Positionless Marketing has been proven to improve campaign efficiency by 88%, allowing marketing teams to create more personalized engagement with existing customers.

For two years running, Optimove has been positioned as a Visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, recognized for its AI-driven decisioning, prescriptive insights, and proven ability to orchestrate thousands of personalized campaigns in real time across channels. AI-led marketing is a hallmark of Optimove’s visionary leadership. By embedding AI directly into its platform as early as 2012, Optimove paved the way for today’s Positionless Marketing standard.

Its Positionless Marketing Platform includes Optimove Engage and Orchestrate for cross-channel campaign decisioning and orchestration; Optimove Personalize, a digital personalization engine; and Optimove Gamify, a loyalty and gamification platform.

Today, its comprehensive AI-powered suite is at the leading edge of empowering marketers to streamline workflows from Insight to Creation and through Optimization. Optimove provides industry-specific and use-case solutions for leading consumer brands globally.

About Optimove Insights

Optimove Insights is the analytical and research arm of Optimove, dedicated to providing valuable industry insights and data-driven research to empower B2C businesses.

Olivia Arruda
Optimove
8585881053
olivia_a@optimove.com

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