What Shopping Trends Can We Anticipate For 2026, and Which From Last Year Will Carry Forward?

With 2025 receding further into the rear-view mirror with each passing day, questions surrounding what this year might bring in terms of new trends -- retail and beyond -- proliferate. In many cases, it can be useful to analyze the sum of data presented by last year's figures: Fetch has thankfully provided analysts with a glut of information gleaned from "billions" of U.S. shoppers' receipts.

Based on these statistics, we might ask -- which shopping trends from 2025 will carry forward into 2026, and what new shopping trends might logically emerge?

Some of the most interesting findings include:

• The meatless push has petered out: While plant-based meats continued their downward spiral -- shedding 9% in terms of units sold in the frozen category, and 11% down in refrigerated -- both fresh and dried meats showed unit sale improvements in 2025 versus 2024's figures. Fresh beef was up 13%, fresh pork and chicken by 12% each, and jerky and dried meat products moved 6% more units than the year prior.
• Speaking of food, dining out showed resilience: As Fetch noted, luxuries such as enjoying a dinner out at a restaurant are typically first to be axed from the household budget, according to conventional wisdom. Not so, according to the receipts: Visits to sushi restaurants increased a whopping 45.6%, and Mexican restaurants saw a more modest 13.9% increase in visits. Pizza and Italian restaurants also exhibited slight traffic improvements, up 6.7% and 3.5%, respectively.
• Protein pantry staples showed growth: While many might commonly assume that gym-goers of all stripes would drive booming protein supplement sales, it was actually the pantry that played host to the most substantial growth. Protein-labeled breakfast cereal soared in terms of units sold by 69.8%, while similarly labeled granola sold 45.9% more units than in 2024. Dry pasta took third place on the podium, selling 35.4% more units than the year previous.
• Marie Kondo would be proud: Americans are seemingly beefing up their decluttering efforts, with household storage bags selling 55.8% more units in 2025 when compared to the year-ago period. Household storage caddies (up 37%), cleaning globes (up 13.4%), clothing and closet storage solutions (up 12.2%), storage drawers and containers (up 9.5%), and paper towels (up 6%) are testament to U.S. consumer appetites for a cleaner, tidier abode.
• Comfort reigns supreme, in all its forms: After the house is cleaned and possessions organized, it appears U.S. consumers were into taking a breather -- and enjoying some classic comfort food. Loungewear moved more than twice the units overall in 2025 than in 2024 (up a whopping 218%), and weighted blankets to cozy up in saw an improvement of 45%. Candles (up 20%), chicken nuggets (up 5%), and macaroni and cheese dinners (up 5%) rounded out this category.

What Conclusions Can Be Drawn About What 2026 Might Bring For US Consumers?

In a breakdown of the data presented by Forbes contributor Richard Kestenbaum, it was suggested that beyond the particulars provided by Fetch, the overall theme of 2025 was value -- more specifically, that shoppers were still spending, "just more selectively" and while looking for "immediate benefits, not big investments."

Kestenbaum moved on to offer his own playbook for 2026, in terms of retailers and brands looking to capture consumer spend.

• Daily payoffs: Kestenbaum suggested a value-add to existing products or routines, pointing to the protein-enhanced snacks and breakfast foods as prime examples of doing so.
• Hybrid bundles: Grouping products by association, rather than strictly by category, could drive real results, per the Forbes contributor. Beyond the candles, blankets, and snacks grouping, Kestenbaum mentioned Ben & Jerry's flavor "Netflix and Chill" as emblematic of an opportunity to marry ice cream, entertainment, and a broader concept of romance in marketing efforts.
• Repositioning: "If your product isn’t in favor, it probably needs to be presented in a different way. If you’re in plant-based products, instead of moralizing about sustainability, you may want to focus more on what might work better now, like 'tastes great/fills you up/easy dinner/priced right,' Kestenbaum wrote.

"The 2026 winners will be the brands that stop asking consumers to buy into a lifestyle and start helping them solve a problem like energy, satiety, calmness and organization, and enable them to accomplish more in one purchase than they could before," Kestenbaum concluded.