52 percent consumers more open to online ads during holiday season: IAS report

Holiday shopping has evolved as online shopping has evolved. Retailers can utilise the digital space to reach more consumers than ever before. Using their devices, consumers can easily find gift ideas, deals and promotions, and easy checkout methods without even walking inside of a store. With the holiday season around the corner, consumers are thinking about their plan for buying gifts for their loved ones. This includes budgeting and looking at where they are going to shop.

Considering the above, Integral Ad Science has created the Holiday Buying India Report 2024 with the following revelations.

89% of consumers have planned/plan to start holiday shopping before November. 88% of consumers will increase their holiday shopping budget from last year.

59% of consumers plan to start their holiday shopping earlier this year to avoid high prices. 58% of consumers plan to pay more attention to sales and discounts for their holiday shopping plans this year.

32% of consumers to reduce the amount of gifts/products they buy this year to account for higher prices. 80% online shopping by consumers this holiday season will be done on their mobile devices.

85% are browsing through eCommerce and retail sites (Amazon, Flipkart, etc.). 55% are leveraging social platforms (Facebook Marketplace, etc.)

39% are using specialty gift sites (Websites centered around food baskets, curated boxes, etc.). 36% are using retail sites (Nike.com, etc.) and 27% are using local business / boutique sites.

52% of consumers are more open to online ads during the holiday season. 49% are purchasing more online than offline while 30% are only purchasing offline. 93% of consumers say online advertising will be important in discovering new products and promotions. 95% of consumers say online advertising is helpful in making it easy to find products / promotions that match your holiday shopping needs and budget online this year.

54% of consumers believe that online ads help reduce the stress in finding products online this holiday shopping season. 55% of consumers believe that online ads help save them time researching for gifts.

54% of consumers say online advertising that is relevant to the content they are consuming is helpful. 52% of consumers say online advertising that recommends products/promotion based on what they have previously purchased online is helpful. 49% of consumers say online advertising on sites they consider to be safe and reputable are helpful.