Holiday Gift Guide Trends: What to Expect in 2023
Each year, media outlets of all types and sizes publish holiday season gift guides. The most well-known and respected – like Oprah and the New York Times – work on their gift guides all year long. But each year, the trends change slightly. Here are the holiday gift guide trends we anticipate for 2023.
Earlier Publication Dates
The holiday shopping season used to fall between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That’s why media outlets previously published their holiday season gift guides around Black Friday. That trend has changed over the last few years. Nowadays, we see gift guides being published earlier in the year with some editors opting to update their gift guides year-round.
The earlier publication dates come with changes in the way media outlets make money, social media, and search algorithms, and with changes in shopper behavior. For instance, the rise of e-commerce and increased online shopping means consumers are starting their shopping earlier than before. By publishing gift guides earlier, media outlets can capture the attention of early shoppers and provide them with timely recommendations.
The media outlets are also in competition with each other – the one who publishes their guide earliest can capture readers’ attention and drive more traffic to their sites and social media channels.
Well-curated gift guides take time to build. Editorial teams start the planning and research process early in the year and often start narrowing down their product selections by mid-summer. This is why we say it’s best to get in front of gift guide editors months before we anticipate the gift guides to publish.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing plays an increasingly important role in public relations. We anticipate brands that offer affiliate links via the major affiliate platforms and/or those that are available on major retail websites like Amazon or Walmart will have a better chance of being chosen for certain gift guides.
Traditional publications assign gift guides to the editorial staff, but nowadays gift guide curation is often a joint effort between the editorial teams, commerce editors, and advertising departments. You may even see paid partnerships, or pay for play, crop up in more gift guides this year. The reason? Revenue. Media outlets, bloggers, and other publishers often use affiliate marketing as a way to generate revenue from their content. When a reader clicks and purchases through an affiliate link within a gift guide, the publisher earns a commission on the sale. This is why brands that offer affiliate links could do better during the holiday gift guide season in 2023.
Social Media Creator Gift Guides
Social media creators and influencers have also picked up on the gift guide trend. Many influencers curate their own gift guides to share with their audience during the holiday season. These guides are generally products the influencer has tested or used personally. Some influencers may even collaborate with other creators to generate a more robust gift guide that reaches as many followers as possible.
What’s great about these creator lists is that they are often more niche and personalized, which means they can have a great ROI. Instead of a simple list, they include visual content and storytelling to better connect with their audience. Influencers may also partner with the brands they’re recommending through exclusive deals and discounts. You’ll notice them use #sponsored to let the reader or viewer know that they may be compensated.
Types of Gifts
Editors want to share products that excite their audience. They’re looking for uniqueness – the types of gifts people don’t think of on their own. We anticipate products that can be personalized to do really well in gift guides this year. And personalization can go far beyond stitching someone’s name onto a product.
Gift guide curators also like products that give back to society, are sustainable, and are eco-conscious. We predict they will also be weaving small businesses into their guides this year, especially handmade or artisanal items – as this is a trend that seems to have ticked up recently with consumers.
There’s also a focus on trading tangible items for experiences. Consumer trends show that purchases of travel vouchers, gift cards, subscriptions, and other “experience gifts” are on the rise, so we can expect to see those included in 2023 holiday season gift guides as well.
Shipping/Availability
The last gift guide trend for 2023 that we want to touch on is shipping. The shipping industry is in chaos over the holidays. We hear stories all the time of products not being delivered as promised. Editors want to include products they know their customers can purchase and have delivered in time for the Christmas holiday. We can even include a brand’s shipping deadline in our PR pitches. If your product cannot be guaranteed by Christmas, you can bet it will probably not be included in the holiday season gift guides.
These are just a few gift guide trends we anticipate for the 2023 holiday season. Of course, every media outlet is different. We start our holiday season pitching during the spring and continue right up until the week before Christmas! There are always opportunities out there. The key is knowing how to pitch them, when to pitch them, and who to pitch them to.
At Orca Communications, we’ve been pitching holiday season gift guides for 21 years. We’d love to help your brand out this season.