New Research on Peak Season Holiday Shopping Behavior Reveals How Product Content Influences Purchases

The survey offers insights into key drivers behind shopper decision-making

ATLANTA, Jan. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Syndigo, a leading SaaS commerce data management provider, today released a new holiday shopper survey report, "Unwrapped 2024: Product Content Performance in Peak Holiday Periods," about customer purchasing behavior during the height of the holiday shopping season. A survey of over 1,500 Black Friday/Cyber Monday week shoppers uncovered that high-quality, readily available, and consistent product messaging was key in driving both planned and spontaneous purchase decisions. The survey was conducted by YouGov immediately after Cyber Monday and asked holiday shoppers about their product experiences from November 25 through December 2.

"Brands and retailers are under pressure to address multiple customer experience demands by savvy shoppers, especially throughout the holiday season," said Benny Blum, SVP of Product at Syndigo. "Keys to success include Enhanced Content experiences that help shoppers get to know product features and differentiators, and a strong content syndication network for consistent product information and experiences across channels to build buyer trust and win sales."

Key Report Findings

• More than half of shoppers found discrepancies in product descriptions: 57% of shoppers surveyed during Black Friday/Cyber Monday week encountered situations where a product appeared differently in promotions, advertisements, or marketing materials vs. what they saw in-store or online. Discrepancies lead to confusion and uncertainty —deterring shoppers from making purchases.
• Product images rule the holidays: Basic product images were sought by 49% of these shoppers. Additionally, buyers looked for Enhanced Content, including graphics and photography displaying a product's use (25%), videos highlighting product features (22%), and 360-degree views (21%) when researching holiday purchases. Rich content and interactive experiences play a pivotal role in shaping shopping decisions and boosting conversion rates.
• What Are People Saying? A whopping 60% of these shoppers were "Very" and "Somewhat" influenced by recommendations and reviews from other shoppers. With larger product assortments available online, it's impossible for brands to track shopper sentiment manually. Brands often adopt automated digital shelf analytics to monitor scores, comments, and concerns at scale so they can respond quickly.
• The Green Generation: Interest in ESG (Environmental, Sustainability, and Governance) information and claims when conducting their holiday shopping showed that more than one third (39%) indicated such claims influenced their decision whether or not to purchase a product. To meet this growing demand for transparency, companies are turning to Master Data Management (MDM) solutions to track products through the supply chain so they can accurately share "green" information with consumers at the shelf.

For more insights into Unwrapped 2024: Product Content Performance in Peak Holiday Periods download the research report.

About Syndigo 

Syndigo is the leading provider of MDM, PIM, and PXM, delivering data mastery and exceptional customer experiences across departments, organizations, and commerce platforms. With the largest integrated network for content distribution, Syndigo is the end-to-end solution on the journey to data confidence and success. Whether an enterprise needs to achieve a "single source of data truth" inside the organization or distribute it to an external network in pursuit of faster, more efficient commerce, Syndigo makes it happen. 

Syndigo serves more than 14,000 leading enterprises worldwide across key industries including grocery, foodservice, hardlines, home improvement/DIY, pet, health and beauty, automotive, apparel, energy, and healthcare.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2429 adults of whom 1510 shopped during Black Friday/Cyber Monday week sales. Fieldwork was undertaken between 3rd - 5th December 2024. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).

Survey Methodology

This survey has been conducted using an online interview administered to members of the YouGov Plc panel of individuals who have agreed to take part in surveys. Emails are sent to panelists selected at random from the base sample. The e-mail invites them to take part in a survey and provides a generic survey link. Once a panel member clicks on the link, they are sent to the survey that they are most required for, according to the sample definition and quotas. (The sample definition could be "US adult population" or a subset such as "US adult females"). Invitations to surveys don't expire and respondents can be sent to any available survey. The responding sample is weighted to the profile of the sample definition to provide a representative reporting sample. The profile is normally derived from census data or, if not available from the census, from industry accepted data.

SOURCE Syndigo