Etsy is seeing an increase in holiday-related searches, it revealed on Monday. Searches for “holiday” were up 79% in early October compared to the same time last year, while searches for “gift” were up 128%.
Etsy surveyed buyers in September and founds some additional trends:
- It’s a hybrid holiday season: Buyers anticipate smaller gatherings with much more time spent at home. Half of buyers (49%) anticipate both in-person and virtual celebrations, while 15% will only celebrate virtually.
- Gifting from afar will redefine gift-giving: To avoid crowds and still find ways to share gifts with loved ones, 7 in 10 buyers (69%) expect to buy gifts online and send directly to the recipient.
- Gift wrap + personalized note = “special”: With the rise of gifting from afar, buyers overwhelmingly felt retailers/sellers offering gift wrap and gift messages would make gifting this year more special.
Etsy told sellers they can display gift-wrap options to shoppers in their listings by adjusting their shop settings. “Once turned on, shoppers will be able to see when an item includes a gift wrap option from the listing page and in their cart.”
Interestingly Etsy allows shoppers a way to filter search results to show only items that can be gift-wrapped. You can find the full post on the Etsy boards.
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.