Americans bought less but spent more in the first half of 2026, according to a new industry benchmark that tracked real transaction data from 2,319 brands and retailers.
The pattern signals a shift in how consumers decide to open their wallets.
Fewer trips, bigger baskets
Impact.com analyzed H1 2026 performance data from 2,319 North American brands and retailers and found that transactions fell 7% year-over-year while average order value climbed 16% and total consumer spending grew 8%.
The report, released in August, draws on same-store data covering the January through June period.
Average order value rose from $111 to $130, while consumer spending growth was driven mostly by higher per-item prices, up 13% year-over-year, rather than larger basket sizes, which grew 3% year-over-year.
Online prices rose just 2% to 3% over the same period, according to Adobe Digital Insights, a fraction of the 13% year-over-year jump in what shoppers actually paid per item. The gap points to shoppers trading up to pricier products, not just paying more for the same ones.
This selective upgrading behavior is consistent with tighter household budgeting reported earlier this year, where more than half of Americans said covering essentials was their primary reason for tracking spending.
Browsing rose while conversions fell
Click volume increased 6% year-over-year while conversion rates dropped 12% year-over-year, signaling that shoppers are taking longer to decide, comparing options, and only buying when confident.
Click volumes topped 2025 levels in most months, with the sharpest gains recorded in the spring. More shoppers were arriving and browsing; they just were not converting at the same rate, a combination that suggests more deliberate comparison-shopping rather than less interest overall.
Coupons lost ground, tech channels gained
Technology Solutions Partners gained 15% year-over-year in transaction volume and posted the largest conversion-rate gain of any partner type. Voucher and coupon partners lost share on both fronts, with their portion of consumer spending falling from 11% to 5%.
The data suggests that discount-driven shopping is giving way to intent-driven purchasing, where a shopper who arrives already convinced of a product’s value is far more likely to complete a transaction than one lured by a promo code.
Brands shifted away from fixed-cost models, down 19% year-over-year, while performance-based commissions climbed 14% and now represent 90% of total brand spend.
The pattern echoes a separate finding from Ibotta’s 2026 State of Spend report, which surveyed more than 5,000 US grocery shoppers. Of the consumers surveyed, 44% are buying more store brands than last year, and 88% plan to either maintain or increase private label purchasing in 2026.
A further 62% of shoppers now value price above brand name in their purchasing decisions , pointing to the same underlying logic: shoppers are rationalizing every purchase more carefully than before.
What the second half may hold
Shoppers bought less often in H1, but spent more, and only because they trusted a purchase enough to commit. The data shows that confidence, not raw traffic, decided who won the sale.
That framing carries direct implications for the holiday season, when retailers typically rely on high transaction volume to drive revenue.
The shift also reshapes how stores measure success in physical locations. A store visit that results in a shopper going home and making an online purchase later can still be counted as a win, because consumers may use physical locations to validate quality before committing to a purchase digitally.
That blending of in-store browsing with online checkout is now a defining feature of the cautious but deliberate research-first shopper that has reshaped retail this year.
The impact.com mid-year benchmark is available at impact.com, with the full methodology covering same-store comparisons across 2,319 brands and retailers operating in North America through June 2026.
