JUST INOur 2024 Holiday Insights Report! 🎁
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Traditional, Practical & Digital
Holiday Inspiration
Will AI play a role in this year’s holiday season?
In a word: nope. While tech employees and those perpetually online hear a lot about AI, shoppers do not want AI creeping into their holiday traditions. At all. However, for the small segment willing to experiment with AI tools this holiday season, their interests reflect a blend of practical assistance and creative inspiration. Here's what these tech-forward shoppers are most likely to use AI for:
Even though you can’t spell “holiday” without “AI,” our respondents did not seem to be jumping on the AI bandwagon just yet! Nearly half indicated that AI would have no role in their holiday. We’ll see how this changes next year, as AI is predicted to become more pervasive in our everyday lives.
“If I can help it, I would never use AI for anything ever.”
“I have no idea how to use it and don't know exactly why I would need to use it.”
“Will never utilize AI to make it normal.”
“AI is stolen garbage.”
Friends & Family Remain Top Choices for Gift Inspiration
Instead, even though much of the purchasing may be digital, people rely on family and friends to source ideas and inspiration for what to buy. Social media and influencers play a role in the responses below as well, showing overall that “word of mouth” from trusted sources are how consumers are planning to figure out what to buy.
Digging Deeper: Gift Inspiration Across Generations
When it comes to consumers of ALL age groups, our survey reveals that 65% of shoppers use friends and family as their top source for holiday gift ideas and 33% use store websites for holiday gift inspiration, but the use of other sources varies considerably by age.
During the holidays, inspiration is the name of the game, and that’s what our new Explore Tab feature was made for. You can feature a recipe that incorporates an item you’re advertising. Give consumers a deeper dive on high-ticket items to increase conversion. Or create bundles to feature more of your product offerings. See how it all works.
Methodology: SmartCommerce conducted a quantitative survey between August 14-15, 2024 with a national sample and collected 600 responses (n=600). Respondents were required to be between the ages of 18-99. The respondents identified as 389 women and 211 men. Fifty-percent of respondents live in suburban areas, while 25% live in rural areas, and 25% live in urban areas. Responses were collected via a polling software that offers non-cash incentives to survey participants.
Want to know more? Want to add questions for our next survey? Contact us at sales@smartcommerce.com.