Grooming, Travel, & Experience Gifts are ‘Most In-Demand’ for Christmas 2021

• Search Volume Data Reveals Christmas Gift Demand by Category and Recipient
• LEGO, Oculus, & Hot Wheels Amongst Brands with the Biggest Y-o-Y Increases
• Self-Gifting – ‘Christmas Gifts for Myself’ Increased 150% Y-o-Y

Grooming, travel, and experience gifts, as well as self-gifting, have seen the biggest Y-o-Y increase in search volume, new research has revealed.

To discover which gifts might be most popular for Christmas 2021 in the UK, new research – conducted by Rogers & Rogers eCommerce Consultants – analysed search trend data for 98 relevant gift-related keywords and phrases.

The research included data across multiple categories (including toys, jewellery, technology, etc.) for different recipients (family, friends, pets, colleagues, etc.), and looked at various data points, including search volume in October 2021 and Y-o-Y change.

October 2021 search volume

Based on October 2021 search volume, technology and toys made up the majority of the ‘top 20’:

RANK	CATEGORY	KEYWORD / PHRASE	OCTOBER 2021 SEARCH VOLUME
1	Technology	apple	1,830,000
2	Toys	LEGO	673,000
3	Technology	samsung	550,000
=4	Toys	star wars	201,000
Toys	paw patrol
=6	Technology	nintendo	165,000
Generic	christmas gifts
=8	Generic	mens gifts	135,000
Toys	barbie
=10	Generic	personalised gifts	110,000
Technology	oculus
=12	Technology	sony	90,500
Toys	playmobil
=14	Technology	sonos	74,000
Toys	hot wheels
16	Toys	polly pocket	60,500
=17	Technology	google nest	49,500
Generic	stocking filler
=19	Family	dad gifts	40,500
Generic	womens gifts
Toys	LOL surprise

When it comes to the top keyword or phrase by gift category, the findings revealed that ‘food hamper’ (14,800) beat ‘baking gifts’ (5,400), ‘cooking gifts’ (2,900), ‘alcohol gifts’ (2,900), and ‘confectionary gifts’ (90). Looking at pet owners, ‘dog gifts’ (8,100) almost tripled the search volume of ‘cat gifts’ (3,600).

Y-o-Y change

To get another view on changing demand, the research also analysed the YoY (year-on-year) change, focusing on the most recent available monthly data (October). The findings highlighted that, of the 98 phrases in the analysis, 18 saw Y-o-Y increases from 2020 to 2021:

RANK	CATEGORY	KEYWORD / PHRASE	YoY GROWTH
1	Beauty and Grooming	grooming gifts	+179%
2	Generic	christmas gifts for myself	+150%
3	Generic	christmas gifts for friends	+52%
Other	travel gifts
5	Other	experience gifts	+50%
6	Generic	womens gifts	+49%
7	Generic	festive gifts	+24%
Jewellery	ring gifts
Jewellery	watch gifts
10	Jewellery	necklace gifts	+23%
Children	newborn gifts
12	Jewellery	bracelet gifts	+22%
Generic	christmas gifts for boyfriend
Generic	christmas gifts for him
Toys	hot wheels
Toys	LEGO
Technology	oculus
Generic	secret santa

The findings show that grooming, travel, and experience gifts saw the biggest Y-o-Y increase in search volume, indicating that these may be popular ideas for 2021.

By recipient, this year there has been an increases in searches for gifts for ‘myself’, showing that more people are self-gifting and treating themselves this festive period. Searches for gifts specifically for ‘women’, for ‘newborn’ babies, for ‘boyfriend’, for ‘him’, and for ‘secret santa’ recipients also increased since 2020.

Looking at product categories, jewellery (‘watches’, ‘rings’, ‘necklaces’, ‘bracelets’), toys (‘LEGO’, ‘hot wheels’) and technology (‘Oculus’) were specific key growth areas.

Andrew Rogers, eCommerce Consultant and co-founder of Rogers & Rogers, commented:

“With an increasingly elongated Black Friday ‘weekend’ now out of the way, Christmas is the next big focus for eCommerce retailers. Online retail spending during the Christmas period continues to rise year-on-year in the United Kingdom – according to recent Statistica data, online Christmas spending amounted to approximately 25 billion British pounds in 2016.

“It’s the most festive time of the year! Looking to the last few years, COVID caused consumer shopping habits to change, with eCommerce particularly experiencing a worldwide surge. As eCommerce consultants we wanted to delve into the data on how this is impacting Christmas shopping, so we analysed search trend data for 98 relevant gift-related keywords and phrases to discover which gifts might be most popular for Christmas 2021 in the UK.

“We hope this research has given you inspiration for what to sell (or buy) this festive period! We support online retail businesses to grow online, helping them to make more online sales and improving the lifetime value of an eCommerce customer – the next few weeks is the optimal time for U.K. retailers to capitalise on the demand, as consumers search for suitable gifts for their loved ones”.

For more information on the research, visit: https://www.rogersrogers.co.uk/most-in-demand-christmas-gifts-2021/