Hot Holiday Tech Products and Key Trends!

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