What to expect this holiday shopping season

Black Friday is just days away, which signals the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. So what should holiday shoppers expect this year?

WalletHub has conducted a handful of studies about the upcoming holiday shopping season to give folks an idea of what to expect, and it says that if you’re looking for the best prices, JCPenney, Belk and Macy’s are offering the best deals, with the average discount at those stores being at least 57%.

Of course, what deals you get will depend on what you buy, with the best deals expected to be on jewelry, compared to current prices, with computers and phones offering up the worst deals.

But it sounds like deals may simply be hard to find, with 41% of items not having any deals this year, compared to pre-Black Friday prices.

And all of this is likely to translate to less presents under the tree, especially since 68% of people say Santa will be buying less this year due to inflation, and 31% saying they’ll spend less this year than they did last year.

Meanwhile, if you’re someone who’s not good at picking out gifts and you’d rather give a gift card, you’re best bet is to stick with Amazon, Target and Sephora, which WalletHub says are the best gift cards to give in 2024, with a Mastercard gift card being the worst.