Shopping Blog

Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday showed a strong surge in online shopping searches, with searches for "Black Friday" up by more than 20%, year over year. Searches for "black friday sales" and "black friday ads" were both up by more than 50%, year over year.

These notable increases indicate that consumers now expect to find the weekend's hot deals prominently listed online (as opposed to solely in newspaper circulars). Some of the fastest rising search terms were "Walmart Black Friday", "Kohls Black Friday Ad", "Sears Black Friday Sales" and "Target Black Friday Deals Online", as consumers planned their purchases, based on each store's specials. Google Search was also used to develop in-store shopping strategies, as "Walmart Black Friday Store Map" surfaced as a fastest rising term, blurring the lines between online and in-store shopping.

Value minded shopping continued to reign, as searches for "printable coupons" on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were up about 50% over last year and searches for "sales" were up by more than 25%.

Consumer interest in apparel, electronics and toys was revived, as searches in the apparel and toys categories rose about 50% and searches in the consumer electronics category more than tripled over last year. This was reflected in Thanksgiving and Black Friday's fastest rising search terms, with "Toys R Us Black Friday Sale", "Best Buy Black Friday Deals" and "Black Friday Computer Deals" high on the list.

Source: Google Insights for Search, 2009.

Posted by Sara Kleinberg, the Google Retail Team

With Black Friday weekend seeing strong e-commerce growth last year, Cyber Monday too posted impressive gains. In fact, Cyber Monday accounted for $836 million in e-commerce sales in 2008, up an impressive 15% over the previous year. [1] This indicates that consumers have become increasingly familiar with this major online shopping day.

First coined in 2005 by Shop.org based on research that showed that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004, Cyber Monday has only gained in popularity over the past few years. In fact, earlier this season we saw early-than-expected consumer interest - searches for "Cyber Monday" began upticking in mid-September versus mid-October in previous years. Likewise, using Google Insights for Search, we find that search interest in "Cyber Monday" has increased steadily each year, starting in 2005.


Over the last 30 days, top rising searches have focused on Cyber Monday sales, deals, ads, and key retailer offerings, reflecting a research-oriented consumer. Searches for 'Black Monday' also prevail, indicating there is still opportunity for Cyber Monday to be better understood by consumers.

With these year-over-year increases in traffic and early upticks in Cyber Monday searches, is this online holiday poised to be bigger than ever?

Posted by Eric Lopez, the Google Retail Team

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, shoppers are primed and ready for the biggest shopping weekend of the year. With the idea of 4 a.m. doorbuster sales making some of us weary, more and more shoppers are avoiding the crowds and turning online as an alternative to the traditional Black Friday Weekend shopping experience.

In 2008, in the midst of the economic downturn, the online channel proved more than resilient on this weekend. In fact, according to comScore, the Black Friday weekend saw substantial growth year-over-year in e-commerce sales - 6% growth on Thanksgiving, 1% on Black Friday, 19% on Saturday and Sunday.


With that, is Black Friday weekend becoming the new Cyber Monday? With the substantial e-commerce growth throughout these days and conversion rates on Black Friday rising above those on Cyber Monday in 2008, it's looking like that weekend may be bigger than ever online. Consumers are headed to the web not only to research deals and product information before heading to the stores bright and early, they are also making that special purchase for their loved ones.

Be sure you're not underestimating these in-market online shoppers.

Posted by Eric Lopez, the Google Retail Team

Last week, Marissa Mayer, Google VP of Search Products and User Experience, appeared on CNBC's Power Lunch to discuss what consumers are searching for this holiday season.


For more on CNBC's Power Lunch, please visit their site.

Posted by Eric Lopez, the Google Retail Team

Each year shoppers scramble to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones. But what happens when they don't know what to buy?

Over the last seven days the 'Gifts' category has seen an increase in gift 'idea' terms on Google Insights for Search as users search on broad categories to find the perfect gift:

What does this mean for advertisers? Make sure your ads address the consumer need for gifting ideas. Write ads that state your major product offerings, but also let them know that you have ideas to help them narrow down their gift options. Also, make sure your website is optimized for indecisive buyers. Options to look for gifts by recipient ('Gifts for Dad,' 'Gifts for Wife,' etc), interest (sports, biking, reading, film, etc.) or price point are all popular ways to help shoppers find the right present.

While some consumers will need help finding the right gift, others know exactly what to buy. While some people are cutting back and looking for creative gifting opportunities, as evidenced by the rise in searches for homemade holiday gifts, others are buying practical, large-ticket items that can be used for years. Seaches for netbooks are up more than 60% over last year and searches for mini notebook computers are up by more than 70% over last year. If you offer a wide selection of price points, don't shy away from marketing large ticket items, but be sure to position their longevity and practicality.

Some classic kids toys (Barbie, Nerf, bicycles) will remain popular gifts, but there is growing demand for trendy, new toys this year. Zhu zhu pets searches are up 75% since October, as parents across the US scramble to find the 'must have' electronic hamsters. Not surprisingly, Twilight gifts will be extremely popular, as searches for Twilight dolls are on the rise, and searches for the Twilight soundtrack are 20% higher than those for High School Musical and the Hannah Montana soundtrack.

Posted by Erin Piper, the Google Retail Team

Canadians started shopping for the holiday season in early November but that does not mean they will stop any time soon. The buying fever is here and will continue until the end of the holiday season. In fact when we spoke with consumers in our Google/OTX Canada Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey, 37% of Canadians will do the majority of their purchasing by November, while 42% will do so in early/mid December.

We are seeing similar trends as in 2008. According to our survey, the Internet remains the top Canadian source of information for holiday shopping both as a research tool and to help make a purchase. The “Internet” was actually selected as the leading shopping resource ahead of “in-store” by a large margin as Canadians are more likely to research their holiday gifts online before going to a store to make their purchase. In this context, it is not surprising to realize that online advertising is more important than TV commercials when it comes to influencing Canadian purchase decisions this holiday season. In fact, search engines were cited by almost 50% of Canadians as the leading online resource for making holiday purchase decisions. [1] Rising searches in Google Insights for Search can help to identify the hottest gifts for 2009. Some of the top rising searches include: GI Joe, Transformer toys, Barbie games, Beatles Rockland, Twilight DVD release, Laptops, iPhones and more.

So, is your holiday campaign ready? Are your online ads visible from now until Christmas? Google Insights for Search data shows that search activity for the boxing day and boxing week start ahead of time and 54% of Canadians intend to take advantage of post holiday sales. Did you know that in 2008, searches for “boxing day sales” started to climb on Dec 20, and lasted until around Dec 29? Search volume for “boxing day sales” has shown growth year over year. [2]


So make sure you do not miss out on the opportunity to finish strong in 2009 and start 2010 on a positive note. The number of Canadians online is at an all-time high, keep your campaigns on and relevant to reach last minute and boxing week shoppers throughout the holidays. Happy holiday season!

Source: [1] Google/OTX Canada Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey, October 2009, n=1,004, [2]Google Insights for Search, 2009

Posted by Xavier Pepion and Andrea Wahbe, the Google Canada Team

Happy Monday! Does it really grind your gears when someone arrives in the office Monday morning bright-eyed and bushy tailed and greets you with a resounding “Happy Monday!”? If so, please give this person a break because he/she is right. During the holiday season we have a lot to be happy about on Mondays.

Mondays seem to bring out the shopper in all of us - especially online. According to ComScore, during the last holiday season two of the top three days for purchases from Retail websites were Mondays, including Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving, which will be November 30th this year).
But why limit ourselves to Mondays? Fridays are pretty happy too. Last year, conversion rates for Retail websites were higher on Black Friday than Cyber Monday [1] (although total e-commerce sales were higher on Cyber Monday according to Comscore). It’s interesting that the day best known for the image of ravenous shoppers stampeding through the doors at the local mall was actually a banner day online as well.

So where do I focus my marketing efforts this holiday season? Online or in-store? How about the place our good friend Avinash calls the nonline world (he got the term from David Hughes). This is the place where consumers live, aka the real world, where purchase decisions are not linear and certainly not channel exclusive. In the nonline world customers move back and forth between channels and each stop influences the final purchase. In the nonline world web and store are not mutually exclusive. To the customer all channels coexist and commingle peacefully. The consumer lives in the nonline world and therefore the retailer must also live in the nonline world with an integrated strategy free from the curse of “organizational silos”.

The most important thing to do is to prepare for everyday from Black Friday through to the shipping cut off to be happy online, offline and nonline.

[1] Source: Google/Compete Daily Search Barometer, 11/2009. Based on visits to top 450 Retail websites.

Posted by Emma Weisberg, the Google Retail Team