Holiday shopping in Indonesia: how consumers find what to buy & how early most start their shopping

From Mobile Shopping Day on 10.10, Singles Day on 11.11, to Harbolnas on 12.12, the last quarter of every calendar year is an e-commerce extravaganza in Indonesia – rivalled perhaps only by holiday shopping during the Ramadan and Hari Raya season.

But how do consumers in Indonesia find holiday shopping ideas, perfect holiday gifts for freiends – and how far in advance do they start their holiday shopping?

How early do consumers in Indonesia typically start holiday shopping?

Latest YouGov Surveys research shows that most consumers (79%) say they generally begin shopping for holidays they celebrate during the month of the event.

• About a fifth (21%) do so 3-4 weeks in advance, a third (34%) 1-2 weeks before, and a quarter (24%) on the week of itself.
• Among early shoppers who begin their festive purchases more than a month in advance, just 7% do so 2-3 months ahead and 2% more than a quarter prior.

Meanwhile, 8% of consumers say they do not engage in holiday shopping around specific celebrations.

How do consumers in Indonesia discover what to buy during holiday seasons?

Over half (52%) of consumers say they use social media platforms – the most popular source of holiday shopping ideas – to identify products to buy for the festive celebrations.

• Other social-based sources like online reviews and recommendations (42%) and family/friends/colleagues (41%) are the next most popular sources.
• Around a third rely on search engines (35%) and TV ads (33%), rounding out the top five most popular sources of festive purchase ideas.

Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 510 and 2,044 for each market. All surveys were conducted online during September 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.

_{Cover photo by Pekic}