Despite its status as the shortest month of the year, February is a crucial promotional month that bridges the gap between the holiday season and major spring sales events.
Did you know?
In 1971, Congress moved this federal holiday to the third Monday in February, with the idea that a long weekend would spur greater economic growth. Since then, Presidents Day has grown into the first major sales period after the new year, with top deal categories typically including home furnishings, bedding, and large appliances.
Despite U.S. consumers’ cautious approach to 2026, data from the deal-finding, cash back site RetailMeNot revealed that twice as many (46 percent) planned to shop Presidents Day weekend sales in 2026 than in 2025. Yet, planned spending remained flat year-over-year (YoY), “telling you that consumers are motivated by sales, but they’re not loosening their budgets,” shared Stephanie Carls, retail insights expert at RetailMeNot.
Presidents Day Promotional Performance Results
For Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) appliance dealers, the Presidents Day promotional window took place from February 5 – 25, with in-store and online deals available in all major appliance categories.
While NMG retailers saw a YoY decline in overall volume (down 5 percent) and units (down 3 percent), a comparison to 2023 and 2024 shows volume up 10.8 percent and 8.4 percent respectively.
Online sales offered another silver lining, with YoY increases in orders (+2.1 percent), revenue (+4.4 percent), and average ticket (+ 2.3 percent).
READ THE FULL PriMetrix Presidents Day Recap Report here. *MemberNet login required
January and February 2026 Retail Performance
In spite of the year’s slow start, February did show small signs of improvement.
For independent retail specifically, the latest Fiserv Small Business Index® for February 2026 reported stabilized sales overall (up 0.6 percent YoY), thanks to higher ticket purchases that offset a decline in foot traffic (down 0.8 percent YoY) due to weather.
Overall, “consumer momentum strengthened in February,” according to credit and debit card data from Bank of America. The institution’s recent Consumer Checkpoint reported that:
- U.S. households spent 3.2 percent more YoY in February 2026
- Month-over-month (MoM) spending in February increased by 0.9 percent per household (when adjusted seasonally)
In other promising news, the Bank of America Consumer Checkpoint also indicated that two of the top three spend categories for early tax filers are electronics and home furnishings and improvement.
While the U.S. Department of Commerce has yet to release category-specific retail sales results for February, the January data had electronics and appliances up a modest 1.6 percent YoY, furniture and home goods down 3.5 percent YoY, and total e-commerce up 8.6 percent YoY.
Retail Outlook for 2026
With the end of Q1 rapidly approaching, what can we expect for the remainder of 2026?
As reported by Fox Business, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index showed that, “plans to purchase big-ticket items in the next six months rose in February, with the share of respondents who replied ‘yes’ and ‘maybe’ increasing and the share of those saying ‘no’ declining.”
Every bit of optimism counts. With interest rates slowly creeping down and plenty of promo periods left to take advantage of, keep leaning into every opportunity for growth.
