TULSA, Okla. — About 4 in 10 holiday shoppers are concerned about prices potentially being higher this year, sparking a push to get shopping done now and spurring retailers to start holiday offers earlier.
The surge to hit stores on Black Friday used to kick off the holiday shopping season, but now things are different.
"You don't have to wait until Black Friday anymore. We expect a lot of the best deals will come around early October, that's usually when we see Amazon Prime Day, Target Circle Week, Walmart has a big holiday kick-off around then," Ted Rossman said.
Financial analyst Rossman said new research shows about half of all shoppers plan to start their holiday shopping before the end of October.
Doing so brings some benefits. It lets you spread out your spending over a number of paychecks so you may not be as tempted to put the holidays on credit cards.
"That's gonna be your buffer against high-cost credit card debt, because you don't want to finance the holidays at 20% interest and still be paying it off a year from now," Rossman said.
It also gives you more room to be selective about sales.
"Retailers are going to have to offer discounts to get people excited," Rossman said.
When you stack on coupons, use cash back apps, or use a buy now, pay later plan to spread the cost over 4 to 6 weeks without interest, you can keep a lid on holiday spending — which could take a little of the stress out of your holidays.
"This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."
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