In honor of the holidays: Malls are giving you free gifts

The summer season, the long vacation, and preparations for the school year have led to a situation where households in Israel are facing an unprecedented sequence of financial expenses ahead of the autumn holidays of 2026. Following this financial burden, shopping centers have decided to abandon familiar percentage discounts and move to a strategy focused on direct value return. The goal is to provide tangible value and attract consumers whose wallets were depleted even before the holiday shopping began.

Moty Azulay, a consumer behavior researcher, explains the change in approach:

"The 2026 consumer arrives at the holiday shopping marathon already bleeding cash from summer and back-to-school expenses."

According to him, in a situation of financial pressure, consumers are looking for tangible, clear, and immediate monetary value. He adds that actions offering a useful gift or an extremely low price create a sense of victory that reduces purchase regret, and that malls understand they must provide value that goes directly to the kitchen or saves money at the checkout.

Malls are offering several types of benefits. At the Seven Stars Mall, visitors who make purchases totaling 699 shekels in one day will receive a voucher to choose a premium gift, such as a frying pan. At the Ir Yamim Mall, shoppers spending 599 shekels or more will be able to choose a gift for the home and kitchen worth hundreds of shekels at no extra cost.

Keren Hen Ganon, the mall's CEO, noted: "Instead of another percentage discount that fades at the checkout, the consumer receives a high-quality and useful product for the home worth up to hundreds of shekels. This is our way of thanking visitors and making their holiday shopping much more profitable and joyful ahead of the new year."

The Sha'ar HaTzafon Mall will offer popular shelf products from leading brands for only 25 shekels. Ilanit Grivovich Berger, the mall's CEO, explains that the move was born "in light of the success and high demand in previous holiday seasons" to provide "a direct and accessible response to the public ahead of the autumn holidays, which are characterized by a sharp rise in household expenses."

The Rananim Mall is offering an aggressive move of distributing baking and cooking products completely free of charge to club members. The mall CEOs explain that actions without a purchase requirement are also a strategic tool designed to collect data and expand their customer clubs.

Once the consumer physically arrives at the mall to collect the gift, the probability that they will make their holiday purchases there increases significantly. Malls understand that to attract the public during days of budget constraints, they must provide defined and measurable savings.

As Moty Azulay concludes: "The Israeli consumer has become much more calculated, and when they identify accessible and immediate value, the psychological barrier is broken. Once you have managed to bring them physically to the complex through a clear benefit, half of their holiday budget will already remain in your cash registers."