'Selfish' post-Christmas shopping means retail bonanza says eBay

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 17, 2019

A new report from eBay on Tuesday suggested that retailers should be ready to pounce on shoppers focused purely on themselves (rather than on buying gifts as they have been in recent weeks) on Christmas Day and the week following Christmas.

New insights from eBay Advertising “reveal an untapped opportunity for brands to reach consumers in the week after Christmas as time-rich shoppers come out in force to find the gifts they wish they had received or didn’t have time to buy,” the company said.

That process should kick off on Christmas Day with shopping traffic having been rising fast on December 25 in recent years. In fact, eBay said that searches for items such as ‘iPhone’ and ‘Mulberry Handbag’ surged 70% and 85% respectively on December 25 last year and rose a further 22% and 33% the following day.

Overall, daily searches on eBay’s UK site climbed 62% in the three days following December 25 last year and remained consistently high for the final days of 2018.
 
According to eBay data, “shoppers left disappointed by their package of presents come out in force as they switch to selfish mode and hunt down gifts for themselves that they didn’t receive”.

The company also highlighted the activity of a cohort of ‘left it too late’ shoppers, “who are still searching for gifts after Santa has been and gone – whether that’s down to disorganisation or simply taking advantage of the Boxing Day sales”.

In 2018, searches for ‘Christmas’ on eBay soared by 47% in the three days after Christmas, compared to the three days before, with women accounting for a 63% rise in searches for the keyword compared to a 26% increase in searches made by men.

Pauline Robson, Managing Partner at eBay’s media agency MediaCom, said: “As these new insights demonstrate, the week after Christmas is an important additional retail ‘moment’ for marketers to focus on. While brands battle for consumer attention in the busy build-up to Christmas, there’s a good argument to be made to stagger spend throughout December and hold back some budget for the post-Christmas period.”