These were searched for and loved during the holiday season: a little statistical gossip from our business analyst.

We know what you bought this winter! This is not the title of a B-grade horror comedy, we were simply very curious about what were the hit products for Santa Claus and Christmas shopping in 2022. Our black belt business analyst, Sárközi Péter, mined the data from the gigantic database cave of Kifli with such enthusiasm that it's a joy to read – we hope it is for you too.

From the beginning of the holiday preparation – traditionally from November 1st in retail – until mid-December, 71% of shoppers added some kind of Christmas-related product to their cart, covering nearly half (48%) of purchases.
 

Favorite Categories

Since the holiday preparation period is very long, we prefer long-lasting foods in case of a good deal – our expert began the analysis. – Therefore, the category with the largest number of sales in our Christmas product list is frozen foods (French fries, green peas, and frozen raspberries topped the list), followed by non-perishable foods. The second most popular category is home baking and cooking, especially considering the gingerbread ingredients (the podium finishers here were the flours, spice mixes, and decorating pens for this). Next are dairy products: lactose-free milks dominate the shopping carts, followed by cooking cream.
 

Top Treats

As for sweets: although we have great candy and cookie offers for the holidays, chocolate far dominates the field. Specifically, every 6th Christmas product comes from this category. The purple cow is our favorite, as we sold the most chocolate Santas with it, but it also holds the 2nd and 3rd places with a Christmas tree-shaped chocolate and the szaloncukor. If we step out of the purple haze, the best-performing szaloncukor is a domestic, classic jelly szaloncukor in lemon and orange flavors. And now comes a shocking statistic: we sold nearly 6 tons of szaloncukor 10 days before Christmas, which means nearly 20,000 boxes of sweets. From the sales, we conclude that we like to buy multiple boxes of szaloncukor, as an average szaloncukor purchase means nearly 1.5 boxes of szaloncukor.
We sold a total of 18,915 Santa figures by mid-December – in this category, it is clear that we bought more Santa figures, averaging 3 per order. The 3rd strongest competitor in the Santa league was a vegan version following two crowd favorites.
 

Most Popular Drinks

In terms of drinks, we are experiencing the tea high season with the onset of cold weather, and we happily gift special flavors or assortments to our loved ones. In terms of alcohol, mulled wine, beer specialties, and the pursuit of special taste experiences are more characteristic in the winter season. However, for those who want something non-alcoholic – which is not tea – they typically seek extravagant flavors, whether it's coffee or fruit drinks.
 

Winners in the Meat-Fish Category

According to a previous study, Hungarians time a significant portion of their fish consumption for Christmas. This is also evident in Kifli's purchases, as in the meat and fish category, a salmon fillet swam into the 2nd and 3rd places, but in first place – and this is not a duck – the roast duck finished.
 

Popular Toys

In terms of toys, the more symbolic small items have performed better so far – the reason being that when examining the statistics, Santa was already here, but Christmas had not yet arrived –, therefore, Kifli shoppers chose surprise boxes (surprise ball, train, or growing dinosaur in an egg) and simple classics (e.g., stair-walking spring).
 

Sought-after Packaging and Decorations

Finally, the holiday is complete when everything is decorated: Santa packed nearly 3000 red bags with our help, and roughly half a thousand decorative bags also found owners. Among the Christmas tree decorations, a paper ball set and a decorative stick were the most chosen.

Kifli's creed is as evergreen (see our Green Friday campaign statistics praising shoppers) as the Christmas trees. So far, we have made the holidays more beautiful and cozy with more than 200 trees, but by the time the blog is published, many more happy families will have found new homes for Hungarian Nordmann firs.

We wish all our dear customers a pleasant holiday season and thank you for choosing us again this year!