Dive Brief:
- Holiday shopping dominated social media over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with over 2.3 million posts from Friday through Sunday mentioning holiday shopping, Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
- Half of postings during that time expressed a positive sentiment about the Black Friday and holiday shopping period, a Sprout Social analysis of X, YouTube, Reddit and Tumblr found. Eighteen percent of social media users expressed negative sentiments, while nearly a third (32%) were neutral.
- Among the top items Black Friday shoppers discussed on social media were televisions, PS5s, Airpods, iPhones and Xbox.
Dive Insight:
Sprout Social’s report builds upon previous research indicating that consumers are turning to social media for holiday shopping inspiration.
According to a Shopify and Gallup survey released in October, 48% of Gen Z shoppers plan to buy some of their gifts via social media, a greater share than the third of all U.S. consumers that plan to do the same. Similarly, a JLL report released that same month found that 35.8% of shoppers planned to use Facebook for gift inspiration, followed by Instagram (32.7%), YouTube (24.1%), TikTok (23.4%) and Pinterest (16.2%).
JLL also found a generational divide between shoppers’ ideal social media platforms for holiday gift inspiration. For shoppers aged 18 to 29, 46.5% said they are turning to Instagram, and 38.5% are relying on TikTok. Millennials and Gen Xers, on the other hand, cited Facebook and Instagram as their go-to platforms for gift ideas.
Besides using social media to discuss their holiday shopping opinions and search for gifts, consumers are also using their mobile devices to shop this year. An Adobe Analytics report predicts that 51.2% of online shopping will occur via mobile devices, marking the first time mobile shopping will overtake desktop buying. The report also noted that smartphones comprised $5.3 billion worth of online Black Friday transactions, a 10.4% increase from last year.
