Welcome to the 2022 holiday season! Like Santa’s elves, retailers are hard at work planning, setting goals, and creating innovative and personalized customer experiences for busy holiday shoppers.

And while it’s the most wonderful time of the year, there are some trends and economic factors that are more naughty and less nice that will impact holiday shopping this year.

First, there’s the matter of rising inflation and interest rates, which will affect holiday shoppers’ budgets and pocketbooks as they plan how to make their dollars stretch when buying gifts.

According to research from Salesforce, due to inflation and rising prices, 42% more shoppers worldwide and 37% more US shoppers are planning to begin their holiday shopping earlier to get better deals.