Adobe's annual holiday online forecast names the top gifts and retailers for the 2104 season, and reveals which stores and online outlets are receiving the most social media buzz, in addition to where that buzz is originating geographically.
We recently reported the surprising conclusion by the Adobe Digital Index that the top day to shop for holiday deals and discounts this year is Thanksgiving Day, which falls on Nov. 27, not Black Friday, Nov. 28, or Cyber Monday, Dec 1. Now, Adobe has also named the top retailers and gifts of the season, based on social media buzz.
Who is leading social media buzz as far as mobile phones this holiday season? Is it Apple, who recently released its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to record sales, or Samsung, whose flagship Galaxy S5 was released back in March but just introduced two new phablets, the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge. According to Adobe (PDF), the winner in social media mentions as Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
In the ongoing battle of the game consoles, it looks like PlayStation 4 is edging out Xbox in social media buzz, and Call of Duty is tops in game mentions. Fitbit remains the most-mentioned wearable device despite a slew of new activity tracker brands, and the venerable Sony and Samsung are the top-mentioned 4k TV brands. Nintendo DS is the top technology item for kids in social media mentions, and Roku is tops in "over-the-top" devices, which includes streaming players like Apple TV.
As far as the retailers themselves, in the battle of the big box stores, Wal-Mart tops Target in mentions. In the casual retail clothing department, Gap defeats H&M. And in the battle of the online giants, Amazon is topping eBay in social media buzz.
Interestingly, Amazon seems more popular in California, which accounts for 20 percent of mentions for the online retailer, while a full 35 percent of eBay mentions come from New York. Not surprisingly, the younger generation is more likely to use social media to help decide on their holiday purchases, with 40 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds turning to social media for advice as opposed to only 25 percent of the general population.
And just in case you wonder how accurate these predictions are, the ADI report notes it made 20 billion visits to web sites in October and that its Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday predictions in previous years were within 1 percent.
