Christmas in October? Shoppers are planning ahead

Though the holidays come around every year like clockwork, holiday trends aren’t quite as predictable. Shopping habits are notoriously susceptible to change, especially when the economy is so volatile. Despite the erratic nature of consumers this time of year, understanding patterns around the holidays is critical for marketers.

We already know that people take to the web to plan holiday activities, but we wanted to paint a clearer picture of when people start thinking about them.

Using our Surge.AI intelligence software, we calculated the monthly search volume for the term “Christmas Decorations” across Google, and Amazon. Turns out, folks start taking Christmas seriously in October, and their preferred search engine is the latter, Amazon.

Let’s unpack that Amazon search: in August and September, search volume for Christmas Decorations hovered around the 200k mark, which was a slight boost from July’s 100k. By October, that same figure reached almost 987.6k, a 361% increase from the previous month. Google saw similar trending, though there was a steadier growth with lower searches overall: about 20k in August, almost 50k in September, and about 160k in October.
The minute Halloween is in sight, people seem to plan ahead for the rest of the holiday season. Perhaps putting up spooky decor inspires folks to get excited about Christmas splendor.

Either way, consumers are excited to shop for Christmas as soon as the holidays kick off in October, and Amazon is their favorite place to get inspired.  

To see what brands are trending in your category and which competitors are the ones to watch, contact us at hello@surge.ai to schedule a demo.