• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 24, 2020

Many hope this holiday season will be an anomaly, all except for one trend -- the amount of searches and purchases done online.

Brands and retailers walk a fine line when it comes to eco-friendly consumers. Related terms are attracting buyers, but may not to the extent that marketers think.

With so many purchases now being conducted online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year based on COVID-19, consumers want to know how all this online buying will affect the ecosystem and whether they are contributing to the destruction and changes that threaten Mother Earth, according to data from SEMrush.

In other words, consumers want to know what the impact of online shopping is on the environment.

Eco-related searches have risen by 2250%, followed by shop sustainably at 235%, sustainable consumerism at 76%, and is online shopping eco-friendly at 42%.  

Understanding the major 2020 Black Friday trends and shifts mean SEMrush analysts looked at the biggest ecommerce websites and most popular searches globally. The company also analyzed top products on Amazon.

The most expensive keywords were “samsung tablet black Friday,” with a CPC of $900. “Dyson” took the No. 1 spot on the list of the top ten as the most popular product. Others keyword CPCs, for instance, “yogibo black friday” came in at $515.42 CPC, “thermomix tm6 black friday” at $282.88 CPC, and “telus black friday deals” at $278.43 CPC suggests some sort of profit margin for Black Friday deals in 2020, according to SEMrush.

Each year shoppers query the traditional questions, such as “When is Black Friday?” and “Why is Black Friday called Black Friday?” 

This year the most frequently asked questions during these past few months about Black Friday are different. People want to know whether Black Friday has been canceled, whether there is a Black Friday, and if Walmart is having a Black Friday.  

While there is still a significant interest in Black Friday this year -- as re­tail­ers, health of­fi­cials and con­sumers try to nav­i­gate the pan­demic -- many major department stores and retail chains have chosen to close on Thanks­giv­ing and are post­ing their Black Fri­day deals on­line.

SEMrush has seen a 34% year-over-year (YoY) growth in online searches for the term "Black Friday." The data shows traffic to top retail websites grew by 30% globally YoY in October 2020, which accounts for billions of visitors.

When holiday shopping went into full swing in October, analysts already knew they were looking at a different Black Friday. The average traffic volume to the websites of Target, Lowe’s, and Walmart rose by 16% YoY in October, which accounts for millions of extra visitors, according to SEMrush.

The top three countries where consumers have interest in Black Friday surfaced as Brazil at 48%, Australia at 34%, and United States at 34%.

The data shows the Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy as the overall top three retailers searched for in combination with the term ‘’black Friday.’’ Rakuten, Groupon, and Slickdeals surfaced as the top three coupon websites.

Laptops top the list when it comes to product groups, with TVs attracting 55% fewer online searches as the second-most popular product group. Microsowave came in third.

Nintendo Switch is again the most popular Black Friday product globally based on searches — with 2.9 million global searches for ‘’nintendo switch + black friday’’ combined during the past 12 months.

Pandora and Vans have entered the top-10 most popular Black Friday products and brands list this year.

Searches for the term “shop sustainably” and related terms grew an average of more than 650% YoY.

Comparing the full year of 2020 with 2019, “buy online’’ searches rose 50%, almost doubling during the first wave of the pandemic. By the time we approached fall 2020, the ecommerce market had already experienced unprecedented spikes in interest from consumers.