One season. Different shoppers. Different decisions.
Based exclusively on ThinkNow Holiday Shopping 2026: Multicultural Consumer Study, a national study of 1,500 U.S. adults.
For years, holiday shopping could be represented as a relatively linear path.
Editorial note: The title and the contrast between the “old journey” and “new journey” are strategic interpretations of the behaviors measured in the study. They are not literal survey questions.
Shoppers are starting earlier. AI is entering discovery. Social media is becoming a shopping channel. Economic pressure is reshaping budgets and decisions.
ThinkNow surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults age 18+. The sample includes 500 Hispanic, 250 Black, 250 Asian and 500 Non-Hispanic White respondents. Total Market results are weighted; holiday-specific questions are based on shoppers who plan to purchase gifts.
One season. Very different shoppers.
The Total Market can tell us what is happening. Differences between audiences show where a strategy needs greater precision.
Planned spending also varies by audience. The Total Market average is $752, ranging from $528 among Asian shoppers to $785 among Non-Hispanic White shoppers.
Inflation / rising prices influence 58% of holiday shoppers. Black (58.4%) and Asian (56.2%) shoppers are the groups most likely to plan to keep total holiday spending below $500.
The journey starts earlier and in more places.
By the end of Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend, 77.7% of shoppers have already started or finished their holiday shopping. Another 33.8% begin in September or October, while 24.0% begin in November before Thanksgiving.
Ai is entering discovery.
The generational gap is even wider: 52.3% of Gen Z and 47.7% of Millennials use or plan to use AI for gift ideas, compared with 14.6% of Boomers.
Social is becoming part of the storefront.
Online retailer sites remain the leading destination at 61.3% of the Total Market. But social media shopping varies sharply by audience and generation.
Payment behavior changes by audience, too.
The marketing question: Do you know where your audience enters the journey and which options they use to complete it?
Reach is not the same as relevance.
Technology is transforming discovery. But reaching an audience and being relevant to that audience are still two different things.
Relevance can also extend the calendar. 37.4% of Hispanic shoppers celebrate Three Kings Day and consider it important to their household. Among those who celebrate, 61.6% mention a special family dinner, 60.0% gifts for children and 52.7% traditional foods such as Rosca de Reyes.
One season. Many paths to purchase.
Holiday Shopping 2026 shows a market where timing, discovery, channels, payments, budgets, language and culture do not behave the same way across audiences.
The average shows you the market. The differences show you the opportunity.
For sample buyers, the implication is direct: if a strategy needs to understand differences between targets, the research needs enough representation to analyze those groups separately and compare behaviors with rigor.
ThinkNow’s study was designed with oversamples of Hispanic, Black and Asian consumers and reports statistically significant differences at the 95% confidence level where applicable.
The Holidays are upon us again. It seems they come faster every year. This holiday season comes after a summer of high gas prices so we were curious to know how that might affect spending. We surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults online about how they plan to shop, spend, and celebrate this holiday season. The sample has 500 Hispanic, 250 Black, 250 Asian, and 500 non-Hispanic White respondents and was weighted to represent the U.S. 18+ population. Where possible, we compared this year’s results with surveys we fielded in 2023 and 2025.
Download the full report here.
Most of our trend comparisons go back to 2023, and a few compare with 2025. The largest change is timing. Fifty-eight percent of shoppers now start before Black Friday, up from 40% in 2023. Gift cards moved from 48% to 58.9% of shoppers, and clothing from 54% to 59.2%. Shopping mainly on online retailer sites went from 54% to 61.3%.
Two measures slipped a little. Twenty-three percent plan to spend more than last year, down slightly from 25% in 2023, and 27.2% plan to use buy now, pay later for gifts, down slightly from 29%. Both changes are small enough that we would not read much into them.
Attitudes have moved as well. Financial optimism sits at 35.7%, down from 40% in 2025. Among Hispanic shoppers, the preference for a Spanish-language option rose from 53% in 2025 to 63.5%, and the share rating culturally relevant holiday marketing as important rose from 42% to 57.1%. We cover that further down.
Almost as many shoppers plan to spend less this year as plan to spend more. Twenty-three percent said more, mostly because of higher prices, and 23.3% said less, largely because of inflation. Hispanic shoppers are the most likely to spend more (31.4%), followed by Black shoppers (25.5%), non-Hispanic White shoppers (20.6%), and Asian shoppers (17.4%).
Men are more likely than women to plan a bigger budget (27.1% vs. 18.1%). Both groups feel about the same about their finances, with 36.5% of men and 34.3% of women saying they are better off than a year ago. This survey can't tell us why the spending plans differ.
Overall, 35.7% say their finances are better than a year ago. Black consumers are the most upbeat at 42.5% and Asian consumers the least at 32.4%. Gen Z sits far above everyone else at 57.5%, while only 18.1% of Boomers feel that way.
Budgets stay small for a lot of people. Forty-six percent plan to spend under $500 in total, including 58.4% of Black and 56.2% of Asian shoppers. Average planned spending follows the same split, at $549 for Black and $528 for Asian shoppers, against $744 for Hispanic and $785 for non-Hispanic White shoppers. Gen Z is in the same spot as the lower-budget groups, with 55.0% under $500 against 39.2% of Gen X.
Inflation is the biggest factor in how people plan to shop (58%), followed by tariffs (31%). Hispanic shoppers are the most likely to bring up housing or rent costs (40%).
By the end of Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, 77.7% of shoppers have started or finished. About a third (33.8%) begin in September or October, and another 24.0% begin in November before Thanksgiving. Only 20.6% wait for the final stretch.
The pre-Thanksgiving November group skews Asian (34.4%) and Hispanic (31.8%), against 21.0% of non-Hispanic White shoppers.
Thirty-four percent have used or plan to use AI for gift ideas this year. Black shoppers lead at 44.2%, Hispanic shoppers follow at 40.7%, and then come Asian shoppers at 35.7% and non-Hispanic White shoppers at 30.9%. The spread by age is much wider than the spread by race or ethnicity: 52.3% of Gen Z and 47.7% of Millennials, against 14.6% of Boomers.
The numbers drop when the question shifts to retailers. Only 18.8% of shoppers want AI-powered personalized gift recommendations as a retail feature. Interest runs highest among Asian shoppers (28.2%, against 17.1% of non-Hispanic White shoppers) and Black shoppers (24.9%), and among Gen Z (27.4%) and Millennials (26.3%).
Online retailer sites are the top destination at 61.3%. Black shoppers are the exception at 49.8%, against 61.4% to 62.8% for every other group. Hispanic shoppers buy through social media platforms at 23.2%, against 14.1% of non-Hispanic White shoppers. Gen Z is at 31.5% and Boomers are at 3.0%, one of the widest gaps in the study.
Cyber Monday interest is high everywhere, between 71% and 81% across race and ethnicity, with no significant gaps. Black shoppers lead on curbside pickup and buy-online-pickup-in-store (58.3% vs. 45.6% of non-Hispanic White shoppers).
Waiting for a sale (45.9%) and using coupons or promo codes (43.7%) are the most common deal habits. Coupon use varies by group: 46.4% of non-Hispanic White shoppers, 43.6% of Asian shoppers, 38.1% of Hispanic shoppers, and 30.6% of Black shoppers.
About a quarter (27.2%) plan to use buy now, pay later for gifts. Black shoppers are far more open to it (41.5%), followed by Hispanic (32.6%), non-Hispanic White (23.3%), and Asian (20.1%) shoppers. Among Gen Z, 45.0% plan to use it, against 11.3% of Boomers.
Gift cards top the list for non-Hispanic White shoppers (64.3%) and rank lower for Hispanic (48.0%) and Black (44.5%) shoppers. Those two groups buy more clothing (66.5% and 60.1%).
Among Hispanic shoppers, 63.5% prefer a Spanish-language option when shopping online, up from 53% in 2025. And 57.1% rate culturally relevant holiday marketing as important, up significantly from 42% a year ago. A 15-point move in one year is large, and it is the change we would want a retailer to look at first.
Three Kings Day matters to 37.4% of Hispanic shoppers, who celebrate it and consider it an important holiday for their household. Among those who celebrate, 61.6% point to a special family dinner, 60.0% say gifts for children are the center of it, and 52.7% mention traditional foods like Rosca de Reyes.
Start campaigns early, since 58% of shoppers are underway before Black Friday. Put a Spanish-language option in front of Hispanic shoppers and plan Three Kings Day content for early January. Make sure your brand shows up when someone asks a chatbot for gift ideas, because a third of shoppers are doing exactly that. Hold off on building your own AI recommendation tool until you know your customers want one, since only 18.8% say they do. And lead with price: 58% cite inflation and 46% plan to spend under $500 in total.
The full report has cuts by race and ethnicity, generation, and gender. You can download it here, or if you need a version built around your category, get in touch with the ThinkNow team.
For many consumers, looking up health information involves Chatbots. These consumers are using new AI tools to understand symptoms, learn about treatments, and prepare for conversations with their doctors.
ThinkNow’s latest AI in Healthcare report examines how Hispanic, Black, Asian, and White consumers are using and evaluating AI for health decisions. A national survey of 1,548 U.S. adults shows that AI has become a meaningful source of health information for more and more Americans. The findings also show that AI adoption is moving faster than trust, though the degree of trust varies considerably across race, ethnicity, age, and gender.
Download the full report here.
Our first finding shows that roughly 43% of adults say they have used an AI chatbot for a health question in the past year. Usage rises to 57% among Hispanic consumers and 54% among Asian consumers. Only 35% of Black consumers and 39% of White consumers report using AI chatbots for health research purposes.
Consumers are also doing more than gathering information. Among those who have used AI for health questions, 60% say it prompted a doctor’s visit they would not have made, while 65% say it led them to ask a doctor about medication or treatment by name. The most interesting implication of these findings is that AI is now becoming an increasingly important entry point into the healthcare system.
However, doctors and healthcare providers remain the most trusted source at 81%, followed by pharmacists at 70%.; only 40% of consumers trust AI chatbots for health information. At the same time, this level of trust carries over to AI tools. Sixty percent of consumers say they would trust an AI health tool offered by their doctor or health system, compared with 34% who would trust one from a large technology company. For healthcare organizations, the credibility of the provider matters more than the novelty of the technology. Consumers are more receptive when AI supports an established healthcare relationship rather than attempting to replace it.
Interestingly, multicultural consumers are leading the way in AI adoption for healthcare. Hispanic and Asian consumers report some of the highest levels of AI familiarity, health-related usage, trust, and interest in future tools and Hispanic consumers are especially likely to say AI prompted a doctor visit or led them to ask about a treatment. Asian consumers show strong interest in using AI to understand symptoms and seek second opinions.
Language access is another significant advantage for multicultural users. More than half of Hispanic consumers (53%) have used AI to obtain health information in Spanish or another preferred language, while 41% of Asian consumers have used it in a heritage language. Nearly half of Asian consumers (47%) agree that AI provided heritage-language health information they could not easily find elsewhere. This is a practical benefit for consumers navigating complex information across languages, not simply an added feature.
AI usage, though increasingly widespread, is still not universal. Women trail men in AI health usage and trust, even though women who use AI are more likely to rely on it to prepare questions for a visit or decide whether to see a doctor. Black consumers report lower usage overall, and some non-users say they did not know AI could be used for health questions.
Adoption seems to be geared by purpose and trustworthiness. Women may respond to clearer evidence of safety and accuracy, while Black consumers may benefit from practical demonstrations of how AI can support, rather than substitute for, conversations with healthcare professionals.
Overall, our research only solidifies what was already becoming evident: AI is becoming part of everyday life, including health. AI increasingly informs how consumers research health concerns, evaluate options, and prepare to seek care. For healthcare organizations, the opportunity is not simply to introduce another digital tool. It is to offer useful guidance through sources consumers already trust connecting AI tools to doctors and health systems, providing strong language support, explaining how information is reviewed, and showing consumers where AI fits within the care process. Organizations that address these expectations will be better positioned to develop tools that consumers view as credible, accessible, and relevant.
Download the full report here.
We surveyed 1,548 U.S. adults about how they use AI for health decisions, with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Forty-three percent have asked an AI chatbot a health question in the past year. Among Hispanic consumers it's 57%. Among Asian consumers, 54%.
Doctors are already feeling this. Sixty percent of people who've used AI for a health question said it sent them to an appointment they wouldn't have booked otherwise. Sixty-five percent said it gave them a specific drug or treatment name to bring up once they were in the room.
That second number surprised us more than the adoption figure did. Forty-three percent using a chatbot sounds like a curiosity stat but patients showing up already able to name a treatment changes the actual conversation happening in the exam room.
Download the full report here.
Trust hasn't caught up to usage, though. Forty percent of people trust AI chatbots for health information. Trust in Doctors sits at 81%, pharmacists at 70%.
We expected that gap to be about quality. It isn't, at least not according to the people who've actually used these tools: 85% or more of AI health users, across every group we measured, rate the information they got as accurate. So the 40% trust number isn't a verdict on whether AI gets things right. It's a judgement on who's saying it.
We tested that directly. Would you trust an AI health tool built by a big tech company? Thirty-four percent said yes. Would you trust one provided by your own doctor or hospital? Sixty percent said yes.
A 26-point swing on branding alone is a bigger lever than most product features a health system could build this year. If you're a hospital or a pharma brand hesitant to touch AI because it feels like Silicon Valley's territory, this data says the opposite: your name is worth more here than theirs is.
Hispanic and Asian respondents lead nearly every measure in this study: usage, trust, optimism about where AI is headed, interest in new features. Fifty-six percent of Hispanic consumers are optimistic about AI's future, against 47% for the total market. Fifty-seven percent of Asian consumers trust AI chatbots for health info, against 36% of White consumers.
Some of that comes down to language. Fifty-three percent of Hispanic consumers have used AI to get health information in Spanish or another preferred language, and 38% said it worked well. Forty-one percent of Asian consumers have used AI in a heritage language, and 47% said it gave them information they couldn't easily find elsewhere.
We want to flag something in that number, “Worked well” and “worked” aren't the same claim, and we're relying on self-report here, not a clinical accuracy check. Still, for a household that's been stuck translating a pamphlet by hand or waiting weeks for a bilingual appointment slot, “worked well enough to help” is a real result, and it's one users are reporting without much prompting from us. A brand that shows up early with genuine language support in this space is solving a problem that's been difficult to address for a long time.
Black consumers show lower AI usage for health questions (35%, against 43% market-wide), but the reason isn't distrust of the technology. The top answer non-users gave was “I prefer a real doctor.” The second was simply not using AI much at all. Black non-users were also more than twice as likely as Asian or White non-users to say they didn't know AI could help with this kind of question in the first place.
Women lag men on almost everything we asked: usage, trust, comfort, optimism. Only 23% of women who've used AI for health questions have told their doctor about it, compared with 37% of men. Whatever's driving that gap, it isn't education or income, since we controlled for those. It looks more like confidence, and confidence gaps close differently than awareness gaps do.
Boomers are the strangest case in the dataset. Once they try AI for a health question, 90% rate the information as accurate, the highest of any generation. But general trust in AI chatbots among Boomers sits at 27%, the lowest of any generation. They rate it best and trust it least.
One more thing worth noting on the doctor side of this: trust in providers themselves is high and fairly even across the market, with one exception. Black consumers report comfort discussing health concerns with a provider at 82%, ten points below every other group we measured. That gap predates AI and probably says more about the health system than about any chatbot.
AI will continue to shape how consumers find health information and prepare for medical decisions. Thirty-nine percent expect their use of AI for health to increase. The figure reaches 51% among Asian consumers and 44% among Hispanic consumers.
Healthcare organizations should begin with several priorities:
Build AI tools around established relationships with doctors, health systems and trusted health brands. Develop practical features tied to clear consumer needs. Invest in multilingual and culturally informed experiences. Explain privacy protections and information sources. Give consumers clear guidance about the appropriate role of AI in health decisions.
The adoption data shows that consumers have already incorporated AI into their healthcare routines. Their questions, expectations and behaviors will continue to evolve as the technology becomes more familiar.
Healthcare brands now have an opportunity to shape that experience with accuracy, transparency and cultural relevance.
Download the full report here.
This analysis is drawn from ThinkNow's national study of 1,548 U.S. adults, fielded with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Full topline data and methodology available on request.
For years, many organizations have approached multicultural marketing by asking who their audience is. Increasingly, however, the more important question is how people define themselves, experience representation, influence culture, and make decisions.
ThinkNow's latest Diversity OS report demonstrates that diversity is no longer simply a demographic characteristic to account for during campaign execution. Instead, it functions as the operating system shaping consumer behavior, brand perception, and purchasing decisions, particularly in markets like Los Angeles that often foreshadow broader national trends.
One of the clearest findings from the report is that consumers do not think about diversity the same way many marketers still do. Nearly seven in ten Los Angeles residents (69%) say everyday diversity best represents the city, while 67% believe brands should reflect that diversity in their advertising. These findings suggest that multiculturalism is no longer viewed as a niche audience strategy but as a baseline expectation for brands operating in diverse markets.
The report further shows that traditional marketing models often treat diversity as a downstream campaign decision through casting, language adaptation, or audience segmentation. ThinkNow’s diversity OS model, a market research framework designed to help businesses understand how modern consumers make choices based on consumer cultural background, identity, personal values and spending habits, positions diversity as market infrastructure that should inform consumer outreach strategies from research and creative development through media planning and customer.
The report also shows that while consumers expect brands to reflect diverse communities, they do not believe current advertising meets those expectations. Although 67% of respondents say diversity in advertising is important, only 37% feel Los Angeles is accurately represented in advertising and media. In what we document as a ‘representation gap,” we find that consumers are not simply asking to see more diverse faces. They want authentic portrayals of neighborhoods, families, languages, values, and everyday experiences. For organizations, accurate cultural representation means measuring cultural accuracy and credibility in advertising, not just diversity in visible representation.
Our report also further reinforces Los Angeles' role as a leading indicator for national consumer behavior. Sixty-five percent of Los Angeles residents agree that the city sets trends for the rest of the country. Respondents point to entertainment, food, fashion, sports, and neighborhood culture as major areas of influence. The implications of our findings point to more targeted efforts to connect with the communities where trends first emerge. Understanding local cultural signals can help brands anticipate broader shifts in consumer expectations before they spread nationally.
Perhaps the most practical finding in our report is that cultural relevance directly influences purchasing behavior. More than half of respondents (58%) say local authenticity matters when it comes to purchases and experiences. These trends are even higher among Black and Hispanic consumers. In this context, authenticity cannot be added at the end of a campaign. Instead, the data shows that it should shape research, messaging, partnerships, media strategy, and customer experience from the beginning, because consumers increasingly evaluate brands based on whether they demonstrate a genuine understanding of the communities they serve, not simply whether they acknowledge diversity.
Our diversity OS framework encourages organizations to rethink multicultural marketing as an ongoing strategic discipline rather than a campaign-level tactic. Overall, our findings highlight four interconnected drivers of consumer behavior: identity, representation, influence, and decision-making. Together, these dimensions provide a more comprehensive way to understand how consumers connect with brands in increasingly multicultural markets. As consumer expectations continue to evolve, organizations that build cultural intelligence into research, creative development, media planning, and customer experience will be better positioned to create messaging that feels relevant, credible, and authentic across the communities they hope to reach.
Download full report here.
Brands have spent years investing in segmentation, personalization, and multicultural marketing strategies. Today, consumer decisions are shaped by more than age, income, or geography. Identity, representation, cultural influence, and a sense of belonging all play a growing role in how people discover brands, interpret messages, and decide what to buy.
This is the foundation of Diversity OS, ThinkNow's new framework designed to help organizations better understand consumer behavior in multicultural markets.
Los Angeles is one of the most culturally diverse markets in the United States and has long served as an early indicator of trends that later spread across the country.
The research behind Diversity OS found that 69% of Los Angeles residents say the city's everyday diversity, expressed through its languages, culture, and food, best represents what Los Angeles stands for. This makes the city a valuable environment for understanding how consumer behavior continues to evolve.
The study also found that 65% believe Los Angeles sets trends for the rest of the country, reinforcing its role as a leading indicator for brands looking to anticipate cultural and market shifts.
Demographic segmentation remains valuable, but it provides only part of the picture.
Diversity OS introduces four interconnected dimensions that shape every consumer decision:
Identity: How people define themselves and how that identity influences their preferences.
Representation: How consumers perceive the way brands and media reflect their communities and lived experiences.
Influence: How ideas, behaviors, and cultural trends spread across different communities.
Decision: How authenticity and cultural relevance shape brand preference and purchasing decisions.
Together, these dimensions help explain why consumers with similar demographic profiles can respond very differently to the same campaign.
One of the study's most important findings is the gap between consumer expectations and their experiences with brands.
Sixty-seven percent of Los Angeles residents say it is important for brands to reflect the city's diversity in their advertising. Yet only 37% believe Los Angeles is accurately represented in advertising and media.
For brands, this gap represents an opportunity to build greater relevance, trust, and stronger connections with their audiences.
Understanding how identity, representation, and cultural influence interact enables organizations to develop more relevant strategies for increasingly diverse consumers.
More than a segmentation model, Diversity OS provides a practical framework for understanding the forces that drive consumer behavior and turning those insights into smarter business decisions.
Download the full framework and discover how Identity, Representation, Influence, and Decision are reshaping the future of consumer behavior.
For decades, brands have treated diversity as just another category within their marketing strategies. A segment to target, a specific audience to reach, or an additional variable within the broader market.
Today, that way of thinking is becoming outdated.
In Los Angeles, diversity influences how people build their identities, how cultural trends spread, and how consumers make decisions. It is not simply a characteristic of the market. It is the environment in which everything happens.
This is the central idea behind ThinkNow’s latest report, The Diversity OS: How Los Angeles Runs the Future of Consumer Behavior.
Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world and often serves as an early indicator of cultural shifts that later spread across the country.
ThinkNow’s research found that everyday diversity is the defining characteristic of the city. Elements such as language, food, communities, and shared cultural experiences carry more weight than many of the traditional associations people have with Los Angeles.
This makes the city more than just a local market.
To help brands better understand this reality, ThinkNow developed the Diversity OS framework.
The model explains how four key dimensions of consumer behavior interact:
Identity: How people define themselves across different cultural and social contexts.
Interaction: How communities connect, share experiences, and exchange cultural influence.
Influence: How ideas, behaviors, and trends spread across different groups.
Decision: How cultural relevance, representation, and belonging influence consumer choices.
Together, these four layers provide a more complete understanding of how multicultural markets operate today.
Today’s audiences are increasingly complex. People participate simultaneously in multiple communities, identities, and cultural spaces.
Brands that better understand these dynamics will be better positioned to create relevant messaging, build trust, and develop stronger connections with their audiences.
For organizations looking to understand where consumer behavior in the United States is headed next, Los Angeles offers a unique window into the future.
Explore the complete findings from The Diversity OS: How Los Angeles Runs the Future of Consumer Behavior and discover how identity, culture, and representation are transforming the way people connect with brands.
Download the report here.