Why holiday shoppers are giving Walmart and Gemini a bigger place on their lists

Amazon has some company on the holiday shopping list, at least if you look at the latest research by Omnisend.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans surveyed said they plan to buy holiday gifts at Walmart, compared with 62% who said the same of Amazon. Last year, Walmart trailed Amazon by 14 percentage points.

Greg Zakowicz, e-commerce and retail advisor for Omnisend, told Retail Brew that convenience could be part of this shift while pointing to the possibility that Walmart+ subscribers are merging purchases at one retailer, especially if they can find the same sellers at both.

But if you’re wondering how shoppers are actually making purchasing decisions, of course there’s AI. And among those using AI, 53% reported using Google’s Gemini, compared with 46% for ChatGPT, flipping last year’s rankings. Overall AI use for shopping tasks was essentially flat at 58%, down from 59% last year.

“Some of that novelty is worn off a little bit, but it’s just another way to do research now on a specific product,” Zakowicz said, adding that shoppers on tight budgets may be comfortable asking AI to point out a price drop but still want to decide for themselves when the deal is good enough to buy.

Meanwhile, 14% of Americans surveyed plan to buy gifts on TikTok Shop, rising to 24% among shoppers under 35. That age group is also more likely to put itself on the gift list. More than half of consumers under 35 plan to buy themselves a gift, compared with 34% overall.

Zakowicz said tiered discounts can give shoppers a reason to add something for themselves while they’re buying for others. And there’s an emotional reason, too. As he put it, “People don’t want to feel bad during the holidays, right? They might feel bad, but they don’t want to feel bad.”