(NewsNation) — Shoppers are already showing up for Black Friday deals, with online shopping up nearly 6% compared to last year.

At the American Dream Mall in New Jersey, one of the largest malls in the U.S., people were showing up early as stores started to open with sales advertising 40% to 50% off.

Across the country, Americans are hunting for deals in an economy that many say is a struggle.

Data from the National Retail Federation’s annual holiday forecast predicted about $1 trillion in sales between November and December.

That’s a pretty significant jump from 2024 holiday sales, which came in around $976 billion.

While sales overall are expected to increase, the amount spent on gifts, food and decoration per person is expected to go from last year, averaging about $890 this year, compared to around $900 in 2024.

Experts say that if you’re trying to stretch your budget, using tools like websites, apps and browser extensions like CamelCamelCamel, Shopzilla, Google Shopping, and ShopSavvy can help stretch a dollar by allowing consumers to compare prices online and in-store.

“What I do see is that consumers are being very careful with how they’re spending their money right now, because budgets are tight, and also because we are seeing tariff-related price hikes, and so we’re kind of coming up against these higher prices that are going to be hard for consumers to afford,” said smart shopping expert Trae Bodge. “Something really interesting that I saw from Lightspeed Commerce, which is a payment platform for retailers, is that they found in their poll about Black Friday, is that 47% of us are going to be shopping on that day, but we’re dividing our purchases between gifts and then household essentials.”

The goal this year seems to be shopping smart, with window shopping, browsing and deciding where to get their gifts at the best price.

Those shoppers are on a timeline, with just 16 days until Hanukkah, 27 days till Christmas and 33 days until Kwanzaa.