Shifting trends and gift-shopping dominance: insights from Amazon.it Black Friday week 2023

In exploring the data gathered during the Black Friday Week of 2023 on Amazon.it, intriguing patterns and consumer inclinations have come to light. Amidst the bustling deals, a significant number of brands strategically increased their advertising investments to enhance catalog visibility and capitalize on the high traffic during these peak shopping days.

Key findings

Persistent players in quests and Amazon's role in Christmas gift shopping

Within the subset of terms incorporating the keyword "Black Friday," "lego black friday" emerged as the frontrunner in estimated relevance. This underscores Lego's prowess in the Giochi e Giocattoli category.

Joining Lego in the spotlight were perennial favorites in Black Friday-related searches, including Yankee Candle, Barbie, and Thun. Despite the absence of explicit Black Friday references among the top 100 searches, Amazon remained a preferred platform for Christmas gift shopping at favorable prices: these three brands, associated with high search frequencies, continued to be synonymous with gifting.

Shifting dynamics in pellet searches and consumers’ behavior

A noteworthy transformation unfolded in search trends associated with pellets. The once prominent "pellet per stufa sacchi 15 kg offerte" plummeted from the 324th most searched term in 2022 to the 3,970th position in 2023. The diminishing significance of searches for pellet-related deals compared to 2022 may signify a shift in consumer priorities (factors such as rising natural gas prices due to raw material scarcity could be influencing these changing trends).

Resurgence of advent calendars

With the festive season approaching, searches related to advent calendars gained prominence. The search term "calendario avvento 2023" ranked fourth in search frequency, with Lego standing out as a top-clicked brand, boasting over 10,000 units sold in the last 30 days.

Impact of advertising investments

Concurrent with the prevalence of deals, many brands supported by Witailer allocated a significant percentage of their advertising budget to increase catalog visibility during this high-traffic period. According to proprietary Witailer data, advertising investments during the period of 17/11-27/11 saw a remarkable 146% increase compared to the preceding period (6/11-16/11) and a 16% rise compared to 2022.

Specifically:

• With heightened competition, the average cost per click (CPC) on Amazon's site increased by 33% compared to the previous period and 10% year on year;
• Sales witnessed a peak on the main day (24/11/2023), showing a 10% increase compared to Black Friday 2022 (25/11/2022);
• Additionally, Witailer clients observed a 7% increase in the conversion rate (CR%);
• Overall, during the period of 17/11-27/11, a Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) exceeding 7 was noted, indicating a successful outcome of the increased advertising investments.