Shopping Blog

Well, the results are in on some of the biggest consumer electronics shopping days of the year! According to CEA’s Black Friday survey, a whopping 47% of shoppers purchased consumer electronics over the course of the Thanksgiving / Black Friday holiday. And the top consumer electronic purchases were: Smartphones (26%), Headphones (25%), Tablets (22%), Portable media players (22%) and Video game consoles (20%).

Prior to Thanksgiving, we also sought out what the top tech purchases this holiday season would be, using our own Google Consumer Surveys tool. When asked which tech products they planned to purchase for the holidays, here’s what holiday tech shoppers had to say:


Given that the average consumer has 49% of their holiday shopping left to complete, these products are still up for grabs! On average, tech shoppers are planning to spend $412 towards tech purchases over this holiday season, and over half (52%) plan to purchase 2 or more tech products. For more consumer holiday 2012 insights, be sure to visit our Google Consumer Surveys Holiday Center.

KEY TRENDS

The increasing use of eCommerce
Online has already captured a significant portion of attention from holiday shoppers, with Black Friday online retail sales topping over $1 billion for the first time in history, and 48% of consumers having shopped online on Black Friday. Black Friday 2012 saw a 21% increase in online shopping year-over-year, and Cyber Monday 2012 itself saw a 30% increase in online sales from Cyber Monday 2011.

Digital offers a great medium to influence different segments of holiday shoppers at various stages in their purchase process: from those who use digital to evaluate products prior to purchasing in-store; to those who seek the convenience of home to shop; from the in-store mobile shopper to the last minute shopper; or just anyone, anywhere, who at any time of day reaches out for the device closest to their fingertips to browse the web for their holiday shopping!

For fun: How do consumers feel about doing holiday shopping online? Get a glimpse by viewing their one-word responses here!

The growing importance of mobile
IBM found that mobile made up 24% of site traffic and 16% of sales on Black Friday. And with tablets and smartphones being hot gift items this season, we can only expect this mobile shopping behavior to increase with time!

For fun: Is your site mobile-friendly for holiday shoppers? See what your customers see by testing the mobile readiness of your site.

And the push through December
In our tech shoppers survey, we found close to half (49%) planned to purchase tech products primarily in December, prior to Christmas. And, historically, comScore has found that biggest online retail shopping weeks occur in the first three weeks of December, highlighting some key upcoming periods to reach holiday shoppers as they choose amongst items to purchase for themselves and their loved ones.

And the shopping doesn’t stop even once Christmas is over: NRF found that 81% of consumers plan to purchase gift cards this holiday season, meaning there will be post-holiday funds available for use by giftees. With regards to technology purchases, we’ve found that 17% of consumers who plan to purchase phone or tablet accessories plan to do so after Christmas.

For fun: Check out Google Trends to keep track of rising search interest on some key holiday topics in December, from Green Monday to Free Shipping Day, to gift cards and device accessories!

With all of this in mind, be sure to stay warm, and have a happy, techy holiday season!

Payal Shah, Google Technology Markets Team

While retailers might still be carting out decorations and Black Friday deals have yet to hit shelves, the holiday shopping season is already in full swing. Searches for “holiday gift” on Google have already spiked 156% since the first of November, and searches for “Black Friday” are up 546%.

In the days leading up to the biggest shopping event of the year, we took a look at early trends in holiday shopping using Google Consumer Surveys and found that it’s shaping up to be the first Nonline holiday season. People are shopping earlier and shopping smarter, both online and in stores. Case in point, while 80% of shoppers plan to research their purchases online, 69% of apparel shoppers still plan to make their purchases in a store while 36% plan to purchase online.


Shopping earlier, shopping smarter
Although we’re only halfway into November, many consumers have already purchased their holiday gifts - 14% of people who plan to shop for toys have already made purchases, 11% for apparel shoppers, and 6% for electronics shoppers. Most plan on completing their shopping primarily in December, but Thanksgiving weekend shopping remains strong. We found that 28% of people who plan to shop for electronics plan to make their purchases primarily during Thanksgiving weekend, 18% for toy shoppers, and 17% for apparel shoppers.


In addition to shopping earlier, people are using smartphones to be smarter about the purchases they make. We found that 80% of shoppers use their smartphone or tablet to shop before buying online or in a store. If you’re a retailer, most people that walk through your doors will already have an idea of what they’re looking for in mind.

Smart marketers are helping customers pre-shop items online before getting to the store. Macy’s is using search ads to drive people to their Black Friday sale preview whether they’re on a laptop or mobile device. Holiday card searches jump after Thanksgiving, and new ad formats are allowing Storkie Express to raise awareness of their Hidden Dimension app, a new tool that animates their paper holiday cards. Running the mobile app extension on search ads has boosted downloads for their app across screens.

Discounts and free shipping seal the deal
Consumers still see shipping costs as a barrier, and for some it can be a deal breaker. If the a site doesn’t offer free shipping:

• 48% will look for it on another site with free shipping
• 32% will visit a nearby store to buy the product
• 20% will still purchase the item from the site

Most shoppers felt that they are seeing the same amount of holiday discounts and coupons as they did last year (70%). However 22% of shoppers feel that they’re seeing fewer deals for holiday sales and promotions - which opens the opportunity for retailers to reach consumers with special offers as they’re actively hunting for deals this week. This is particularly impactful for toy retailers, as 40% of shoppers always compare prices on toys before making a decision.

Shoppers go online to beat crowds
As more people cross-shop online and in stores this season, many view online shopping as an easier way to shop. Consumers described holiday shopping online as easy, great, and convenient, while they described holiday shopping in stores as crazy, hectic, stressful, and exciting.

However, having an easy-to-use mobile website is essential to keeping shoppers on your site. More than 46% feel frustrated when mobile sites are hard to navigate. And as we’ve seen from past research, mobile shoppers will quickly move on to another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away.

You can find these stats and more by viewing the full report on Google Consumer Surveys. Find more of our holiday shopping research here.

Posted by Jon Sadow, on behalf of the Google Consumer Surveys team