CheezeDMG Blog

The ease of online shopping has shaped the way consumers prepare for the festive season. With competitive offers, gift wrapping and free delivery online now offers that ‘perfect’ gift and has resolved that age old question of “what to buy?”. But has the effortlessness of a ‘click and buy’ generation misplaced the heart and warmth behind venturing into the real world and looking for that perfect gift?

Google Insights shows that searches for ‘Christmas gifts’ have reached unprecedented heights when compared to last year in addition to which searches for ‘personalised Christmas gifts’ have increased by 40%. Online advertisers this year are capitalising on this shift in consumer wants and needs, we no longer need just a gift but want that gift to evoke a feeling.

This holiday season John Lewis have successfully run advertising campaigns on and offline encouraging consumers to ‘find the perfect present’. With the option to shop by recipient we can now be inspired with the knowledge that if we choose to buy we are choosing an ideal gift. Similarly, Comet have now changed their slogan to reflect this shift from ‘we live electricals’ to ‘we deal in your ideal’.

To overworked, time poor consumers online shopping has provided the opportunity to not only find a gift but discover ‘the’ perfect gift for their loved ones this Christmas. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into 2009 reflecting the change of consumer mindset or if this is just a way for retailers to get around ‘Crunchmas’…