• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 30, 2026

The festive season now approaching will aggravate many people as inboxes are swamped with holiday promotional mail. 

That sheer volume causes almost 25% of all consumers to distrust brands, a stat that amps up to nearly 50% of Gen Z, according to Validity’s Holiday 2026 Consumer Survey. 

Trust is the key issue—it is the leading factor for 47% when deciding to open an email. Another 41% say it’s relevance that moves them. And 27% cite the value explained in the subject line. 

Many shoppers agree they get more email during Q4 than they do the rest of the year. They report:

• I do not receive promotional emails from brands—11%
• I receive fewer promotional emails—5%
• It stays the same—41%
• I receive somewhat more promotional emails—24%
• I receive significantly more promotional emails—20%

The last two statistics signal trouble for email senders. In prior holiday seasons, 36% of consumers missed, deleted or overlooked an important non-promotional email—say, a bill, shipping notice, account alert, work message—because of the overload. And 33% say too many emails per day or week would cause them to unsubscribe. 

"Holiday volume doesn't just strain retail marketers — it strains the entire inbox ecosystem every sender depends on," said Cynthia Price, senior vice president of marketing at Validity. "Consumers are drawing a clear line between brands that respect their attention and brands that don't. That line doesn't move for who's sending."

Consumers are reacting by managing promotional emails in the following ways (AI summaries are not quite there yet):

• Become more selective about which emails I open—31%
• Nothing changes in how I manage my inbox—29%
• Delete emails without reading them—28%
• Unsubscribe from brands—26%
• Mark emails as spam/junk—25%
• Ignore more emails—21%
• Rely more on AI summaries and annotations to parse through information—7%

What can brands do to help? One way would be to honor consumer preferences. Of the shoppers polled, 21% said they would like to receive daily holiday emails. And the same percentage want them every two to three days. 

However, 25% prefer weekly emails from brands, and 6% biweekly. Another 16% want them only for major sales events, while 11% would rather not get holiday promotional emails at all. 

Want to reach holiday buyers? Of those polled, 21% would welcome emails in early October and 28% later in the month. In November, 24% want them sent early, and 14% after Thanksgiving. A mere 2% say, “December only.”

Beyond that, consumers offer these suggestions (or demands):

• Nothing—I just delete/unsubscribe as needed—40%
• Temporary "opt down" or snooze option instead of unsubscribing entirely—22%
• Category-based subscriptions (deals only, order updates only, etc.)—20% 
• Clearer subject lines flagging urgency vs. promotional content—20%
• Preference center to choose email frequency (daily, weekly, monthly)—18%
• Single digest/summary email instead of multiple individual sends—16%
• A way to say "I’ve already bought this—stop sending me deals on it"—15%
• Option to choose which channel gets the message (email vs. SMS vs. app notification)—14%
• Interactive emails, which are easier to engage with—5%

This is not as bad as it could be. But it’s still not a pretty picture. As the study asks, “How hard can you pull the frequency lever before an extra send costs you more subscribers than it earns in revenue?”

Validity surveyed 1,000 consumers.