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Holiday Shoppers Face Greater Financial Pressure, Making Payment Choice More Important

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Seventh annual ETA-TSG study finds 44% of consumers feel more financially stressed, while 57% report negative consequences when merchants don’t accept their preferred payment method

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Holiday shoppers are entering the 2026 season under greater financial pressure, and payment flexibility has become one of the clearest ways merchants can win and keep their business, according to a study released today by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and TSG (The Strawhecker Group).

The seventh annual Consumer Holiday Spending Study found that 44% of consumers feel more financially stressed than last year, up from 27% in 2025. Thirty percent report more debt than two years ago, up from 17%, and 33% say they usually take on holiday debt or likely will this year, up from 19%. Concern rose across all eight shopping issues measured by the study, led by inflation (82%). Concern about the affordability of gifts (64%) and managing a budget (57%) each rose 17 percentage points.

Consumers are responding by planning their spending more carefully. Seventy-two percent plan to set a holiday budget this year, and only 23% will shop without one, down from 40% in 2025. Seventy-three percent plan to spend less than $1,000 on holiday purchases. Spending plans are more polarized than last year: 22% expect to spend more, up from 18%, while 32% expect to spend less. This points to a competitive season in which consumers continue to spend but are selective about where those dollars go.

“Consumers are being careful with every dollar this year, and they are paying close attention to how they pay,” said Jodie Kelley, CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association. “Merchants that offer the payment options their customers rely on, with clear terms and strong security, are in the best position to win the sale and keep the customer. The payments industry is helping businesses of every size do exactly that.”

The study of 1,099 U.S. consumers, conducted September 8–13, 2026, found that payment acceptance directly affects where consumers shop. When a merchant does not accept a shopper’s preferred payment method, 24% of consumers would look for the same product at another merchant, and 7% would abandon or postpone the purchase. Another 26% would complete the transaction using a different method but would be less likely to return. In total, 57% report a negative consequence for the merchant.

Newer payment methods are becoming routine. Eighty-one percent of consumers use tap-to-pay regularly, and 89% of those who try it continue using it. Digital wallets and peer-to-peer (P2P) apps also see strong repeat usage, at 61% and 60%, respectively.

“Rising stress and debt make payment flexibility more appealing, and they make transparency and responsible financing more important,” said Mike Strawhecker, President of TSG. “Consumers are telling merchants that value and checkout flexibility matter more than speed. The merchants that deliver both will be best positioned this season.”

The study also found:

Online shopping: Free shipping (74%) and the ability to pay how they want (72%) are shoppers’ top priorities for online purchases.

Gift cards: 71% plan to buy at least one gift card, led by retailer-specific cards.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL): Opinion is split, with 37% viewing BNPL favorably and 36% unfavorably. Twenty percent expect to use it more this season than last.

AI-assisted shopping: 46% plan to use AI tools to compare prices, but only 23% would let AI complete a purchase on their behalf.

The complete study is available here.

About the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA): The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the world’s leading advocacy and trade association for the payments industry. ETA’s members include the world’s leading payments and financial technology companies—including payment processors, networks, banks, fintechs, software providers, independent software vendors, and payment technology innovators—collectively processing approximately $56.75 trillion annually in purchases and peer-to-peer payments worldwide. Learn more about ETA at www.electran.org.

Media Contact: Scott Talbott, stalbott@electran.org

About TSG: TSG (The Strawhecker Group) is a globally recognized analytics and consulting firm that supports the entire payments ecosystem, serving over 1,000 clients from Fortune 500 leaders to more than a dozen of the world’s most valuable brands. Trusted by industry leaders, TSG’s strategic services, market intelligence, and analytics merge to empower clients with actionable and accessible information. Please visit www.tsgpayments.com.

Media Contact: Andy Nuss, anuss@tsgpayments.com

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SOURCE Electronic Transactions Association (ETA)

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Shenzhen Unveils APEC China 2026 Host-City Theme Song and Music Video

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SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The host-city theme song for APEC China 2026, Meet You Where Wonders Bloom (在奇迹之城遇见你), was produced by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee and created by Shenzhen Media Group. Written and composed by He Muyang, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association and a Shenzhen-based musician, the song is performed by popular singers Jane Zhang and Joseph Zeng. With its fresh, youthful pop sound, the song tells the stories of ordinary dreamers, weaving together personal aspirations, Shenzhen’s remarkable development, and the broader vision of Asia-Pacific cooperation.

Released alongside the song, the music video goes beyond showcasing Shenzhen’s cityscape to put people at the heart of the story. Through the experiences of people from all walks of life, particularly young people and those from overseas, it captures the energy and appeal of Shenzhen, the City of Miracles, and its warm welcome to the world. Running 4 minutes and 45 seconds, the video features 176 shots filmed across Shenzhen, with more than 100 residents appearing on screen. From location coordination and filming support to bringing participants together, the production was a citywide effort. More than just a music video, it became a shared expression of Shenzhen’s enthusiasm as APEC host city.

From a refreshing melody to a city ready to welcome the world, Shenzhen is embracing its role as APEC host with openness and inclusiveness, extending a warm invitation to guests from near and far to gather in Shenzhen.

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SOURCE Shenzhen Media Group

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Shenzhen Unveils APEC China 2026 Host-City Theme Song and Music Video

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SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The host-city theme song for APEC China 2026, Meet You Where Wonders Bloom (在奇迹之城遇见你), was produced by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee and created by Shenzhen Media Group. Written and composed by He Muyang, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association and a Shenzhen-based musician, the song is performed by popular singers Jane Zhang and Joseph Zeng. With its fresh, youthful pop sound, the song tells the stories of ordinary dreamers, weaving together personal aspirations, Shenzhen’s remarkable development, and the broader vision of Asia-Pacific cooperation.

Released alongside the song, the music video goes beyond showcasing Shenzhen’s cityscape to put people at the heart of the story. Through the experiences of people from all walks of life, particularly young people and those from overseas, it captures the energy and appeal of Shenzhen, the City of Miracles, and its warm welcome to the world. Running 4 minutes and 45 seconds, the video features 176 shots filmed across Shenzhen, with more than 100 residents appearing on screen. From location coordination and filming support to bringing participants together, the production was a citywide effort. More than just a music video, it became a shared expression of Shenzhen’s enthusiasm as APEC host city.

From a refreshing melody to a city ready to welcome the world, Shenzhen is embracing its role as APEC host with openness and inclusiveness, extending a warm invitation to guests from near and far to gather in Shenzhen.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shenzhen-unveils-apec-china-2026-host-city-theme-song-and-music-video-302925715.html

SOURCE Shenzhen Media Group

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Context Labs AI Distillery™ Lets Enterprises Run Sovereign AI on Data They Own

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Company launches the Context Engine for trusted sovereign AI, which packages an enterprise’s own data with verified lineage for use with the frontier or open-weight model the enterprise chooses.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Context Labs B.V. (“Context Labs”), the AI Data Infrastructure company, today launched the Context Labs AI Distillery™, the Context Engine for trusted sovereign AI. The AI Distillery converts an enterprise’s operational and business data into a governed Context Package that the enterprise owns, creating their own protected competitive moat. Every answer an AI model draws from the package is traced to its source records, and the package works with the frontier or open weight model the customer chooses, inside the customer’s own environment.

Analysts have quantified the obstacle to scaling enterprise AI. Gartner predicts that through 2026 organizations will abandon 60% of AI projects unsupported by AI-ready data, and that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027. McKinsey reports that eight in ten companies name data limitations as the barrier to scaling AI agents. Gartner has also described what enterprises now need: software that lets teams construct, govern and deliver semantically organized knowledge to AI agents, built on ontologies and knowledge graphs.

 The Context Labs AI Distillery™ is designed around six outcomes:

Own your IP. An enterprise’s knowledge, know-how and operating context stay inside a Context Package that only it controls and are not used to train third-party AI models.

Own your AI. The intelligence employees create in everyday use accrues to the enterprise, not to a model provider, and grows with every interaction.

Trusted, provable answers. Every output carries its data lineage and decision provenance, so answers can be verified, audited, and defended.

Build, protect and scale a proprietary competitive asset. The Context Package captures how the enterprise describes and runs its operations, starting with one facility and extending to others without rebuilding.

Sovereign by design. The AI Distillery runs inside the customer’s own data center or chosen cloud, so data stays where the customer decides.

Freedom of model choice, at lower cost. Customers can use any frontier or open-weight model and switch models without rebuilding the Context Package. Precise, verified context reduces the tokens each query uses.

The AI Distillery works in three steps: distill, package, and prove. It maps an enterprise’s structured and unstructured data to industry-specific ontologies, stores the result in a Context Package with cryptographic provenance, and checks answers against the company’s own records before any model goes into production. Work that has typically required teams of specialist engineers becomes a guided, governed workflow.

Context Agents and the Semantic Context Tunnel. Context Agents answer operational, commercial and compliance questions from the enterprise’s Context Package, with every figure traced to its source. The Semantic Context Tunnel brings the same context into the AI assistant employees already use. Both work within the access controls the enterprise sets.

“Models come and go. An enterprise’s context should not,” said Dan Harple, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Context Labs. “Frontier models will keep improving, but they do not supply governance, provenance or trust, and they should not absorb the knowledge that makes a company competitive. The AI Distillery gives enterprises a moat they own: their own context, proven and protected, working with whichever model they choose. That is how our customers own their IP and own their AI.”

At ADIPEC 2026, Context Labs is demonstrating the AI Distillery on energy-sector use cases, in which a Context Agent answers operational questions with every figure traced to the underlying plant records. Context Labs is located Arab Development Group stand, Stand #5240, Hall 5 and in the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, AI Zone, Hall 13.

Availability. The Context Labs AI Distillery™ is available now through the Microsoft Marketplace. Each enterprise license includes an industry starter kit to accelerate time to value. Companies can request a briefing or technical working session at contextlabs.com/distillery.

About Context Labs B.V.

Context Labs is an AI Data Infrastructure company delivering the Context Engine for Trusted and Secure Sovereign AI. Its platform turns complex, fragmented operational, engineering and enterprise data into continuously verified, auditable information that AI systems, people and markets can trust. Built on an extensible library of industry-specific ontologies that map to established standards published by ISO and other standards bodies, the platform is deployable across sectors, with use-case applications delivering decision-ready intelligence on a common foundation. The Context Labs AI Distillery™ lets enterprises run sovereign AI inside their own data centers, so they own their IP and own their AI. Formed out of MIT research and led by a team that helped drive the at-scale growth of the Internet, Context Labs has offices in Amsterdam, Cambridge (Mass.), Houston and Abu Dhabi. Learn more at www.contextlabs.com.

Media contact
press@contextlabs.com | 1-617-902-0932 | contextlabs.com/resources

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