o9 Solutions, a leading software company that is powering enterprise planning and decisioning models across 30-plus industry verticals with its groundbreaking, AI-powered Digital Brain platform, today released a new consumer survey that reveals how Americans are planning to spend this summer.
The survey, in collaboration with TEAM LEWIS, found only 12% of Gen Z and 9% of Millennials plan to shop entirely online this summer. Despite the increase of technology and online shopping platforms, younger generations are still shopping in-store. The findings align with the growing “Mallmaxxing” trend, as young adults return to malls for socializing, fashion discovery, and content creation, serving as a partial “digital detox” from constant phone use.
The research surveyed 1,000 Americans between March 12-19, 2026, and found most shoppers are omnichannel with 69% of Americans planning to shop both in-store and online during the summer months.
Summer Defrost: Younger Generations Plan to Spend More This Summer
As temperatures rise, so does younger consumers’ appetite to spend. Gen Z and Millennials are leading summer spending, with 62% of Gen Z and 61% of Millennials planning to spend more this summer, compared to Gen X (46%), Boomers (24%), and the Silent Generation (10%).
The importance of summer promotions or sales is highest amongst Millennials (75%) and Gen X (73%), compared to their counterparts, Gen Z (69%), Baby Boomer (67%), and the Silent Generation (50%).
“Trends can spike overnight, especially with younger consumers,” said Igor Rikalo, President and COO at o9 Solutions. “Tighter demand sensing and rapid scenario planning give brands the ability to rebalance inventory quickly and protect loyalty.”
All Eyes on Food and Beverage Industry This Summer
Food will be the top summer spend with Americans saying they will buy more food and beverages (53%) in the summer, even more than clothing (40%) and skincare/sun protection (38%).
Gen Z is particularly interested in spending more on food and beverage (48%), clothing (42%) and skincare products/protection (41%). This comes as disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz are tightening fertilizer supply during peak planting season, likely impacting food and beverage prices and availability.
The findings also revealed women are more likely to buy more food and beverages (57% vs. 48%), skincare and sunscreen (46% vs. 30%), and clothing (45% vs. 34%) during the summer months than their male counterparts.
“This survey underscores that omnichannel shopping and rapidly evolving, younger-driven demand are raising expectations for planning. Retailers need connected demand and inventory visibility across channels, as well as the agility to rebalance inventory as trends spike and shift,” Rikalo said. “With scenario planning technology, teams can pivot in real time, especially in categories where uncertainty is high.”
To learn more, please visit o9solutions.com.
About o9 Solutions
o9 Solutions is a leading Enterprise Knowledge and AI-powered platform helping companies build Agile, Adaptive & Autonomous Planning & Execution Models for transforming enterprise decision-making in environments of rising volatility and uncertainty. Whether it is improving forecast accuracy, matching demand and supply and driving collaboration across the multi-tier supply chain to improve resilience at optimal costs and inventory, or optimizing new product and commercial initiatives to drive revenue growth and margins, decision-making processes from long-range to tactical to execution horizon can be made faster and smarter and connected on o9’s Digital Brain Platform.
o9 brings together game-changing technology innovations — such as innovative enterprise knowledge graph modeling, big data analytics, advanced algorithms for forecasting, demand/supply balancing, scenario planning, real time learning, collaboration, generative and agentic AI, easy-to-use interfaces and cloud-based delivery, and innovative management methods — as well as organization, process and change management best practices to transform decision-making speed and intelligence. For more information, please visit www.o9solutions.com.
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