Santa Barbara is filled with innovative arts and craft stores, rare antique shops, fashion boutiques with designer clothes, shopping complexes, and specialty gift shops. From upscale venues like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, to "big box" warehouses such as Costco and Home Depot, Santa Barbara offers a wide variety of shopping venues. Following are a few of the most popular shopping areas, beginning with downtown on State Street and continuing north to the largest local mall in the neighboring city of Goleta.

Downtown

• Paseo Nuevo - Paseo Nuevo is one of Southern California's favorite get-away places. Here you'll discover a picturesque world of Spanish-style courtyards, winding paseos, gently flowing fountains and lush tropical flowers. Paseo Nuevo includes Nordstrom, Macy's, and more than 50 specialty shops.
• El Paseo - Historic El Paseo, California's first shopping center, was built in the 1920s and features a variety of unique  gift shops, jewelry stores, galleries and restaurants nestled amid romantic gardens and Spanish courtyards.
• La Arcada - On the north end of the downtown State Street shopping district is La Arcada Court, a Spanish paseo and courtyard with exotic plants, trees, tiled fountains and an amazing collection of life-like bronze statues. La Arcada has a variety of interesting shops, galleries, restaurants and Cafes.

Upper State Street

• La Cumbre Plaza - One of Santa Barbara's largest shopping malls is La Cumbre Plaza, located on the 3800 block of upper State Street. Serving shoppers since 1967, it includes two department stores, Robinsons-May and Sears, and more than 60 shops, restaurants, services and lots of parking.

Goleta

• Camino Real Marketplace - Camino Real Marketplace introduced "big box" shopping to Santa Barbara county. This includes giants such as Costco and Home Depot. In addition to several stores, the complex features ten restaurants and a first-run movie multiplex with stadium seating.