In the digital marketing world, it’s never too early to plan for the holiday season. Think with Google Canada recently examined online activity from this year’s Mother’s Day, Easter, and back-to-school periods in order to predict how consumers will navigate this year’s unprecedented, COVID-affected end-of-year festivities.

Mother’s Day is one of the most active gift-giving periods of the year. This May, with tens of thousands of Canadians still under restrictive lockdown orders, searches for “mothers day gifts’ and “last minute mothers day gifts” surged. At Easter, when lockdowns prevented most Canadians from gathering with their families, searches for “online Easter” and “online Easter shopping” accelerated rapidly. In other words, Canadians are still eager to recognize and celebrate important religious and cultural events – the holiday season is expected to be no different.

Businesses that cater to holiday consumers should attempt to reach customers early and often. They should also be prepared to be flexible, as it’s almost impossible to predict how the ongoing pandemic will affect purchasing trends.

According to Think with Google, during this year’s back-to-school period ‘many marketers may have prepared for the usual spikes in product categories like backpacks.’ What they didn’t prepare for were drastic increases in searches for home office setups; searches for “kids desks” and “desk chair” grew more than 600 per cent and 300 percent year-over-year (YoY) respectively.

Think with Google advises digital marketing experts to think about ‘how the pandemic could impact holiday shopping and the range of potential scenarios that could impact which product trend.’ They should also think about how to remain flexible in order to shift budget to unforeseen areas of importance.

As a Google Premier Partner digital marketing and search engine marketing agency with unique access to Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media is equipped to help your company prepare for a holiday shopping season like no other. Contact us today to discuss your strategy for the final two months of this unprecedented year.

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