Google trends expert Christina Basilio joins the Mason Paine show to discuss the most in demand and trending items for the holiday season. Christina also discusses how to use various Google tools to help with your shopping.
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Google Holiday Trends Transcription
00:00 – Announcer: Mason Vera Paine.
00:01 – Mason: Holiday season is upon us and to find out what are some of the hottest gifts that are in demand, as well as how to use various Google tools to alleviate your troubles, joining us is Google trends expert Christina Basilio. Thanks for joining me, Christina.
00:14 – Christina: Hi, it’s so great to be here.
00:15 – Mason: So to top off first, I got to know, what are the top gifts trending for the holiday so far?
00:21 – Christina: Yeah. Based on a search trend we’ve been seeing through the year, we’ve been able to identify about a hundred gifts and ideas. For me, I’m looking for something fun, unique, and maybe a little nostalgic. So some things that stood out to me on the list were things like our engraved necklaces. Purchases for that are up about 5,000 %, as well as lab-grown diamond tennis bracelets, so economically sourced diamonds, folks are looking at. And the beauty space, things like claw clips to pull your hair back, those are making a resurgence this year. On the electronics front, we’re seeing things like headsets are really of interest. So either gamer headsets with a mic on them or even sleep headphones for people that are trying to maybe get a more restful sleep. We’ve been seeing stuff like that pop up.
1:07 – Mason: I’m a little bit curious about the keyword Choiceage. So when going through the apparel and accessories, I noticed that one of the things that was trending was target cozy sneakers. Why use the word cozy? Why not just word like, slippers?
1:22 – Christina: Yeah. So what we’re seeing is seeing the search trend for things like flippers. They always spike in December. So if I had to guess, it’s because people are trying to stay warm this holiday. And what are fun words that people think of? And I think cozy is probably one of them.
1:36 – Mason: Okay, that’s fair enough. When it comes to the searches, what’s driving the holiday sales? Is it like deep discounts or special promotions?
1:45 – Christina: So I think it’s probably a mix of both, right? So we get the list of things that people are really looking for. But what we also see is people come to Google to find things like deals. So maybe they want the big ticket item but they don’t want to spend full price. Something that we’re able to help people do if they’re looking to save a little bit of money is if they Google shop deals, they’ll be taken to a special landing page that will give them millions of items that are on sale right now. So they can search through the different categories and find things from their favorite brands like Target or Under Armor so that they can save.Some money.
2:17 – Mason: Now, would it be smarter to use broad terms instead of specific terms, such as if I wanted to get shoes, I would just type in shoe deals instead of specified Nike deals.
2:29 – Christina: So the great is that you can do whatever feels most comfortable. So the way that I think about it is if you’re looking for a specific thing, you can search for that specific item or that specific brand. Or if you’re looking for something to the starting place, you can type in something like shoes. Can I share one of my favorite hacks, though?
2:47 – Mason: Yeah, sure.
2:48 – Christina: Okay, so I don’t know if you’ve heard of Google Lens, but with Google Lens, if you open the Google app and you tap on the camera, you’re actually able to take pictures of things in real time or on your screen that you’re searching for. So the way that I think about that with holiday shopping season, let’s say you see a girl walking by and she has the cutest pair of shoes. You snap a quick picture of them. You can figure out what the brand is. You can find shoes to buy that are similar, and you can even type in maybe specific things. Let’s say you love that shoe, but you want it in a flat. And you can actually take a picture of that shoe, say, find it in a flat, and it’ll pull up different shoes based off of what you put in that meet your exact need. So lots of opportunity there for me.
3:30 – Mason: That is really cool. I like that a lot. Now in the shopping tab, there’s that compare button. How does that work? Because I noticed that sometimes they’ll give you an item and it’ll say, compare to nine other stores, but then you’ll see the same item and it’ll only compare to three stores. Why does it do that?
3:49 – Christina: Yeah. So what it does on our search tab, it’s really just trying to look out and see what’s available. But sometimes you’ll be able to find more stores that are carrying that product and maybe other stores or other products don’t have as much being carried. So in those instances or maybe you’re not seeing as much to compare, I would love to give an idea for folks. If they click on that product detail tab, what they can actually see is if that specific item is at a good price point to buy. So maybe you’re not seeing it at a bunch of places, but you can still dig a little bit deeper to make sure you’re getting the best price. On that Google shopping page, you click on the product details page and Price Insights will pop up on the right where you can look and see if this price high? Is it low? Should I buy? Should I wait? And for those that maybe are a little bit less comfortable, you’re not seeing as many options to choose from, one of my favorite hacks is to click the little bell icon next to the name of any product.
4:44 – Christina: So you can get a push notification or email to let you know if the price is changing. We have lots of options, even if it’s maybe for a niche item that you’re looking at.
4:52 – Mason: I’m curious, how far back does the price change go to? Is it like a year comparison or is it just a couple of months?
4:58 – Christina: So as of right now, I think just a couple of months. But depending on the item, maybe you can look a little bit further based off of the data that we have.
5:04 – Mason: That’s good to know. Have you noticed that people have been preferring to shop online versus in-stores during the holiday season?
5:12 – Christina: So I think we all love to be able to do a little bit of research beforehand. And I know that some people really love to go into stores and put their hands on items before they buy. But a lot of people are turning to Google and online view tellers to get an idea of what they’re looking for. So I like to think of online shopping maybe is the starting point for some folks doing research, really figuring out what they want, where other people still have the desire to go in to the store and buy that item. So I think it really just depends on a personal preference.
5:41 – Mason: And I’m not sure if you can answer this, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Okay, nice. Do you know if there’s inflation has been affecting sales?
5:50 – Christina: So I do know inflation definitely plays a role in the decisions that people make with their money. Depending on the individual, it may impact how and where they decide to spend their money. That’s why it’s really important for us to make sure that maybe folks that are trying to save money or get a great deal, they’re able to spend their money more wisely through things like deal destination or doing price tracking and insights.
6:11 – Mason: Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you being here. And for those listening, where can I find all these nifty tools at?
6:19 – Christina: Yeah. So if you’re really interested in doing the deals, go to Google search and just type in shop deals. If you’re interested in learning more about what’s on our Holiday 100, make sure to visit blog. Google. Com, and you’ll see all the fun stuff there.
6:34 – Announcer: This has been the Mason Vera Paine Show. Thanks for listening.
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