Holiday shopping is hitting stores earlier. It's stressing us out.

When it comes to holiday shopping, if you’re on time, you might already be too late.

Many retail stores have started preparing for upcoming holidays earlier than ever. Halloween items hit shelves as early as August, and Christmas and Hanukkah decorations popped up in October or even September.

If consumers wait too long to make holiday-related purchases, they may find stores have moved on to the next big event, leaving options limited.

It’s almost as if the year is stuck on fast-forward, and it contributes to shopper stress, a psychology expert told USA TODAY.

How holiday marketing trends are shifting

Holiday marketing online and in stores has expanded over the past few years, experts say. Though the shift is true for holidays year-round, it has especially been the case for the bigger commercial holiday period toward the end of the year, from Halloween to New Year’s Eve.

Before the pandemic, “most of the holiday merchandising in stores really started after Halloween,” said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst for retail at eMarketer. “That’s what we think of as a traditional holiday sales period: November and December. But because the pandemic disrupted supply chains to a great extent, we started getting holiday sales all over the place.”

There are more reasons retailers are encouraged to stock shelves earlier for holidays.

“First, the consumer is more receptive to buying products earlier,” said Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at GlobalData, a research and analytics company. “And second, there is more competition in the market now. Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days in October are almost like a kickoff for the holiday season.”

The fall/winter holiday season is one of the most lucrative for retail companies, and retailers can make “more of their sales in the fourth quarter in the eight-week holiday period,” said Canaves. “Even more so for online retail.”

Online sales during the holiday season are expected this year to grow at the fastest rate since 2021, according to an eMarketer retail forecast report.

Consumers are still cautious when it comes to purchases, though, and many families look to limit expenses or have more constrained budgets than usual, Saunders said.

But consumers in general will still make purchases for holiday events and occasions.

“Retailers are leaning more heavily into them because they know it generates some sales and some interest in what is otherwise a fairly flat and subdued market,” Saunders said. “That’s not necessarily always great for consumers, but a lot of retailers are very conscious about, ‘What’s the next thing?’ They’re always trying to think ahead.”

But the holiday marketing cycle might be “a permanent shift of the marketing and merchandising calendar earlier into the season,” Canaves said. “It also shifts consumer behavior because consumers, especially now when they’re increasingly budget-conscious, might be able to spread out their spending a little more if they can.”

More:‘I like when the deals are spread out’: Why holiday shoppers are starting early this year

Why holiday marketing can stress us out

Stores preparing for holidays earlier may help shoppers spread out purchases, but the holiday marketing cycle can be stressful for consumers.

Retail marketers can “build a false sense of urgency” around holiday shopping, said Kristina Durante, a psychologist and marketing professor at Rutgers Business School.

Feeling an urgency to buy something as soon as possible can encourage shoppers to spend more money.

“There’s a lot to capitalize on there. It’s that sense of urgency and scarcity with resources,” Durante said. “We don’t know when they’re going to be depleted because we don’t have control over what other consumers do. I think we want to have a good Christmas and we want to have a good Halloween and we want to be prepared for back to school. We have high expectations for these things, so we’re more motivated to buy.”

Nostalgia can also add to stress around holidays, creating pressure to shop.

On average, many people have happy memories from their childhood centered on holidays, Durante said, “and then we try to re-create that for ourselves and for our kids.”

Shopping is often tied to a stress response, Durante said.

“It’s stress,” Durante said. “One of the things we know is that what underlies almost everything we buy is a desire to have control over our lives. In today’s world, everything is so uncertain, and we want to have some sense of control of things.”

Tips for managing holiday and retail stress

The feeling of control consumers experience when making purchases is fleeting, Durante said.

When it comes to mental health, “if we can’t control our stress, then we’re emotionally dysregulated,” she said. “We try to regulate and gain control. One way we can do that is going out and buying things. It feels like this might solve problems, but it doesn’t really.”

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