Omnisend vs OneSignal

Back-to-school spending 'moderate at best'

A Circana report warns that the 2026 back-to-school season will be “moderate at best,” with lower unit demand and revenue pressure driven in part by pricing. Circana found overall retail sales revenue fell 1% year-over-year in July and unit sales dropped 2%. Discretionary general merchandise dollar sales declined 4.3% for the four weeks ending Aug. 1, with unit demand down 3.9%. Circana says spending growth is concentrated among higher-income consumers who prioritize purchases. Additional data cited include Omnisend findings on parental financial stress and increased buy-now-pay-later use, and NRF/Prosper forecasts that K-12 spending could reach $43.3 billion in 2026.

• Circana reported the back-to-school shopping season will be “moderate at best.”
• Circana found overall retail sales revenue decreased 1% year-over-year in July, and unit sales dropped 2%.
• Discretionary general merchandise dollar sales declined 4.3% for the four weeks ending Aug. 1, and unit demand dropped 3.9%, per Circana.

Parents increasingly use BNPL for back-to-school shopping

A survey by Omnisend of 1,075 U.S. consumers found rising reliance on buy now, pay later (BNPL) for back-to-school purchases: 45% of households plan to use BNPL this season, up from 39% in 2025. About 40% of parents expect to be more financially stressed compared with last year. Nearly 20% of respondents expect to spend more than $1,000 on back-to-school items, and 44% anticipate spending over $500. Omnisend reports nearly one in three households expect BNPL to cover over half of school spending. To fund purchases, parents plan measures including cutting family activities, using credit, dipping into other savings or borrowing from friends/family.

• Omnisend surveyed 1,075 U.S. consumers about back-to-school spending.
• 45% of households plan to use BNPL for back-to-school purchases in 2026, up from 39% in 2025.
• About 40% of parents expect to be more financially stressed this back-to-school season than last year.

Measure What Sticks: New Retention Metrics and the Journeys API

A roundup of August's OneSignal releases: better ways to measure whether people actually came back, more automation through code and AI, and new protections for your sender reputation.

OneSignal Opens AI and MCP Server for Autonomous Marketing

OneSignal announced its vision for Autonomous Lifecycle Marketing (ALM) and released OneSignal AI and the OneSignal MCP Server in open beta, available to all OneSignal accounts on July 14, 2026. OneSignal AI is an in-platform assistant that helps marketers create push notifications, email, in-app messages, SMS, build segments and Journeys, and provides analytics, recommendations and benchmarks. The OneSignal MCP Server, built on the open Model Context Protocol (MCP) with OAuth support, enables external AI assistants to securely operate OneSignal features—including messaging, users/subscriptions, segments, templates, exports, and analytics. OneSignal framed ALM as a staged path from dashboards to fully autonomous operators and cited customer results from Cashea, letgo, and BetterMe demonstrating improved activation and retention.

• OneSignal announced a vision for Autonomous Lifecycle Marketing and opened OneSignal AI and the OneSignal MCP Server in open beta on July 14, 2026.
• OneSignal AI is an integrated AI assistant that can create push notifications, emails, in-app messages, SMS, build segments and Journeys, and provide reporting, recommendations and industry benchmarks.
• The OneSignal MCP Server is built on the open Model Context Protocol (MCP) with OAuth support and lets external AI assistants operate OneSignal capabilities (messaging, users/subscriptions, segments, templates, exports, analytics).