With a week to go until Christmas Day, new data from eBay has revealed that shoppers are far from slowing down, giving retailers an extended opportunity to make the most of the festive period.
According to insights from ebay.co.uk, in the final week before Christmas last year, shoppers made more than 330,000 searches for Christmas-related items on the site. And the interest in festive shopping continued right into the eleventh hour, with related searches rising by nearly 4% on Christmas Eve.
Women drive last-minute shopping frenzy
Despite men being burdened with the stereotype of leaving their shopping until the last minute, women knocked them off their perch last year, making twice as many (100% more) searches for Christmas-related items on ebay.co.uk than their male counterparts from 18th to 24th December 2016.
But whilst women are busy filling their baskets with Christmas paraphernalia, men are more likely to be looking for a special something for their loved ones. On 19th December last year, men made an average of 9 searches for ‘necklace’ every minute, and 5 searches for ‘handbag.’
Seasonal blockbuster power
It’s never too late for a blockbuster movie to make its mark on Christmas purchasing patterns. In 2016, searches for items related to recent cinema release ‘Rogue One’ in the Toys & Games category leapt by 574% from 18th to 24th December as schools finished for the holidays and families flocked to the cinema. This year the latest Star Wars instalment was released on 15th December, meaning searches are likely to spike this week.
Changing tides of fashion
Despite Christmas Jumper Day having been and gone, shoppers are still on the lookout for festive knitwear. Last year, in the week leading up to 25th December, Christmas jumpers were the top-searched term in the Clothes, Shoes & Accessories category on eBay.co.uk
However, the tides of festive fashion changed two days before Christmas, as shoppers concentrated on luxury brands and fashionable clothing, with big names such as Ralph Lauren, Ted Baker, Stone Island and Timberland appearing in the top category searches.
Lorna Dunne, Head of UK Trading – Lifestyle & Health at eBay, commented: “The final week in the run up to Christmas is a great time for retailers to capitalise on the pre-Christmas gift rush. It’s important for sellers to plan ahead and manage inventory carefully during this period, to avoid front-loading their stock and hold some back for the last minute shoppers – particularly as past trends show that some items may not fly off the shelves until the final week before Christmas.
“Although shoppers may feel under pressure and be tempted to turn to physical stores this week, there are still plenty of opportunities for online retailers as long as they have a reliable delivery network in place.”