It’s Time For Marketers To Start Preparing For Christmas

I came across the results of a new study from eBay, showing that consumers start looking for Christmas gifts as early as May. Marketers therefore need to monitor consumers’ searches for such purchases as early as possible to better tailor their messages.

The e-commerce site said it recorded over 150,000 UK searches for “Christmas” on its platforms between May and June 2013. This is the time when consumers start drafting plans for their seasonal gift lists, with eBay terming this behaviour “long-listing”. They are urging marketers to take measures in order to impact consumers before making their final purchasing decision. According to Phuong Nguyen, head of eBay Advertising in the UK, tracking online behaviour ahead of the Christmas holidays can help brands identify and differentiate between people looking for presents and those buying products for themselves.

Usually, consumers start actively searching for gifts in October, and eBay suggests this is the perfect time for marketers to start adapting their messages to the “gifting market.” The e-commerce platform gave an example: the number of searches related to “lingerie” by male customers began to increase in October 2012, before scoring a 23% surge in November. Women, at the same time, were actively looking for “neck-ties”, with the number of searches leaping 25% during the same period.