Most In-Demand Product Ahead of Black Friday

Black Friday, which traditionally falls on the day after Thanksgiving, has evolved into a global shopping phenomenon. Retailers, both online and in-store, offer irresistible bargains on a range of items, creating a shopping frenzy like no other. Whether you’re purchasing items as presents for others or as a gift to yourself, Black Friday is a great day to get the products you’ve been eyeing.

One consideration when purchasing products on Black Friday is whether they will still be in stock when you go to buy them. If you’re after popular products, it’s worth finding the best deals before Black Friday to make the purchasing journey faster.

Researchers at US Packaging & Wrapping wanted to find out what the most in-demand products are in the lead-up to Black Friday to give you a head start on finding the best deal. We gathered the average number of monthly searches using Google Keyword Planner from the last three months to find the top products in four electronic categories: smartphones, smartwatches, consoles, laptops, and TVs.

Most Popular Products Overall in the USA

Our most popular product is the iPhone 15, Apple’s newest variation of the classic smartphone. Released on the 9^th of September, this product has an average of 6.12 million searches a month. Boasting a better camera and more color variants, we’d recommend shopping early to purchase this item.

In joint second place, the next most popular items are the PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch with an average of 1.83 million searches a month. Neither of these products are new releases, with the PlayStation 5 being released in 2021 and the Nintendo Switch originally released in 2017. Nintendo has released several variations of the Switch, the most recent being the OLED version.

Sony has also announced the release of the PlayStation 5 Slim and the PlayStation 5 Portable on November 15^th. The PlayStation 5 Slim is the most anticipated release with an average of 135k searches a month. This is 160% more searches than the 14.8k average monthly searches the PlayStation Portable receives.

Most Anticipated Products in Each Category

Smartphones

As we know, new iPhone releases are always highly anticipated, but which other phones are consumers eager to purchase? The phone with the second-highest volume of searches is the Samsung S23 Ultra. Released in February of this year, this model gets 246k searches a month. Other anticipated phones include the Pixel 8 and Motorola Razr+ with 135k searches and the Nothing Phone 2 with 110k searches a month.

Smartwatches

The most popular smartwatches are the Apple Watch SE8 with 450k searches a month and the Apple Watch Series 9 with 165k searches. Both of these smartwatches are designed to easily connect to Apple’s iPhone. If you have a Samsung mobile phone, the Galaxy Watch6 has 90.5k searches, the second highest of our smartwatches. The Pixel Watch 2, easily paired with Google’s Pixel mobile, has 33.1k searches a month.

Laptops

If you’re interested in more big-ticket items, such as a new laptop, the most popular one is the MacBook Air by Apple with 368k average searches a month. This is over 300k more than the Dell XPS 13 in second place with 60.5k searches and over 340k more than the Acer Spin5 in third with 27.1k searches.

TVs

Another big-ticket item often reduced during Black Friday is televisions. The most popular smart TV this year is the LG C2 with 40.5k searches on average a month. In joint second is the TCL QM8 and the Hisense U8K with 18.1k searches.

Tips for Preventing Porch Pirates

With more and more workers returning to the office, there is a higher chance of being victim to  porch piracy. There’s nothing worse than receiving the notification that your new phone has arrived only to find out it’s been stolen off your porch by the time you arrive home.

We’ve put together the following tips and tricks to help deter porch pirates:

Send deliveries to a pick-up location

Many delivery companies will have secure locations where their drivers can leave packages. Brick-and-mortar stores may also allow you to deliver products in-store to pick-up at a later date.

Have visible security measures

Sometimes deterring thieves is as simple as having a security camera pointing at your porch or having a porch light.

Include instructions to conceal packages

When placing your order, include instructions on where to put the package if no one is in. This should be somewhere out of sight of the street.

Deliver to your workplace

We would suggest getting your packages delivered to the address you’re at the majority of the time, so if you’re back in the office full-time this is where they should go.

Request signature confirmation

If you find yourself missing the arrival of packages due to  delivery drivers not waiting for you to answer the door, this can be a good way to make sure they deliver straight to your hands.