Gen Z Holiday Shopping in Stores 2026: The Mall Trip Is a Social Plan Now

The strangest number in this year’s holiday forecasts is not a spending total. It is this: 97% of Gen Z shoppers in the United States expect to visit a physical store during the holiday season, a higher share than shoppers overall, according to ICSC’s 2026 Holiday Shopping Forecast, reported by Chain Store Age. Gen Z holiday shopping in stores 2026 is not a nostalgic detour. On the evidence of two large surveys this autumn, the store trip is where the season actually happens for the youngest adult shoppers — part errand, part outing, part group chat made physical.

Put the generations side by side and the pattern sharpens. ICSC found 93% of all U.S. adults expect to visit a brick-and-mortar store to buy something or pick up an online order, so Gen Z’s 97% sits at the top of an already store-heavy season (Chain Store Age). PwC’s Holiday Outlook 2026, based on 4,093 U.S. consumers surveyed in June, found 71% of Gen Z shoppers say they enjoy browsing in person, against 60% of consumers overall (Retail TouchPoints).

Gen Z holiday shopping in stores 2026 is partly a social outing

Ask what the trip is for and the answer is only partly “buying things.” A third of store shoppers in ICSC’s survey — 34% — describe their trips as social outings, or a mix of shopping, dining and entertainment. Among Gen Z that share jumps to 48%, and half of Gen Z shoppers plan to spend more on experiences than they did last year (Chain Store Age).

That matches what mall traffic data was already showing earlier this year. Traffic to indoor malls in the U.S. rose 4.5% in January and February from the previous year, according to Placer.ai figures reported by USA TODAY, and shoppers aged 18 to 24 made 62% of their general merchandise purchases in stores last year, compared with 52% among shoppers 25 and older, according to Circana data in the same report. One shopper quoted by USA TODAY put it plainly: the mall is an experience, a way out of isolation at home. Lightspeed Commerce research cited there found 75% of 18- to 24-year-olds say cafés, lounges or other social spaces inside stores influence where they choose to shop.

Gen Z screen-free gifts and the pleasure of browsing

The gift list leans the same way — away from the screen. Nearly eight in 10 Gen Z consumers in PwC’s survey are drawn to nostalgic, screen-free gifts, compared with 64% of all consumers, and 81% say they are prioritising offline activities (Retail TouchPoints). Among people shopping for children, 41% lean toward screen-free, hands-on gifts such as board games and art supplies, against 27% planning to buy tech devices or tech-enabled entertainment.

PwC’s Ali Furman called Gen Z “somewhat of a paradoxical generation” in that report: digitally native, yet fond of stores; cost-conscious, yet willing to splurge. The browsing itself seems to be part of the product. Fifty-two percent of consumers plan to browse stores for gift ideas this season, and 60% expect to buy gifts in person — ahead of search engines, social media and AI tools as sources of gift decisions in PwC’s figures.

Why Gen Z prefers shopping in person — and where stores still lose them

None of this means the store wins automatically. A Sogolytics study of 951 U.S. adults who had shopped in a physical store in the previous three months, fielded in August 2026, found shoppers aged 18 to 24 report a negative outcome on 45% of visits — nearly double the 24% rate for shoppers 65 and older (Retail Dive). The generation most likely to show up is also the hardest to send home happy.

The friction is mundane, not philosophical. Product problems — an item out of stock, the wrong size or colour, something hard to find — hit 28% of shoppers, twice the 14% who ran into a problem with staff. One issue on a visit lifts the negative-outcome rate from 20% to 48%. And among shoppers not firmly planning in-store trips, 52% cite crowds as a reason to stay away, double the 26% who cite better deals online. Checkout lines rank second at 33%.

So the social trip has conditions. A store that is out of the right size, or that keeps people in a long queue, burns the goodwill that brought a group of friends through the door in the first place.

Deals still open the door

Money, as ever, talks. ICSC found 68% of shoppers say discounts, promotions and exclusive offers will encourage extra store trips, 58% expect to try a new brand this season, and 78% plan to spend the same or more than last year — even though 49% worry about affording gifts and half say household debt will shape their spending (Chain Store Age). ICSC president and CEO Tom McGee described shoppers in that report as resilient but “more discerning and value-conscious.”

PwC’s numbers rhyme. Average gift spending is projected to dip just 2%, to $708, even as consumer confidence fell sharply; millennials are cutting gift budgets by 10% and travel by 37%, while Gen Z gift spending is down 9% on the lowest total base of any generation (Retail TouchPoints). People are protecting gifts and family occasions, and trimming elsewhere to do it.

Analysis: Read together, the surveys describe a generation using stores the way earlier generations used them before e-commerce — as a place to be, not just to buy — while judging those stores by online standards of stock accuracy and speed. Retailers get the visit almost by default this year. Keeping it is the hard part, and it will be decided by unglamorous things: the right size on the shelf, a short queue, a price that matches the sign.

Information verified through 1 November 2026.

Photo: Acabashi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources

1. https://chainstoreage.com/icsc-93-shoppers-visit-store-holiday-shopping
2. https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/pwc-holiday-outlook-2026-spending-holds-shopping-habits-shift/621355/
3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2026/03/26/gen-z-retail-shopping-malls-resurgence/89233505007/
4. https://www.retaildive.com/press-release/20260923-sogolytics-in-store-retail-study-gen-z-leaves-stores-most-unsatisfied-lim-1/