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The Definitive 2021 eCommerce Holiday Marketing Calendar

Your Retail Holiday Calendar for Better Marketing in 2021

eCommerce holiday calendar with sticky notes

If there’s one common thread of how Americans spend their holidays, it’s through shopping. Gifts for others, gifts for themselves and non-gift purchases all increase around holidays—and nearly every holiday has become a marketing opportunity.

For eCommerce stores, every holiday represents an opportunity to drive sales and increase revenue. From Christmas to Pi Day, celebrations large and small lend themselves to creative digital marketing campaigns and driving sales.

 

📈 eCommerce continues to show steady growth:

Download the full Definitive eCommerce Marketing Calendar (1)

Table of Contents

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Start Your Advertising off With a Bang With These Q1 Holidays

Spring Into Great Sales in Q2 With These eCommerce Holidays

Summer eCommerce Ads You Should Run in Q3

Halloween, Black Friday, and Other eCommerce Holidays You Can't Miss in Q4

eCommerce Holiday Marketing Matters!

Holiday sales account for much of this growth, and there’s no shortage of holiday marketing opportunities. Here are some of the most promising ones that your eCommerce store might take advantage of.

Topic One

Start Your Advertising off With a Bang With These Q1 Holidays

eCommerce Holidays in Q1 (January - March)

Q1%20Holidays

🍾 New Year’s Day (January 1)

New Year's Day is one of the largest holidays of the year. It includes both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but the two celebrations are distinct and should be approached separately from a sales perspective. (New Year’s Eve is addressed in Q4.)

New Year’s Day represents new beginnings, and some of the most successful New Year’s Day promotions push resolution-related products or services. Health-related gym memberships, exercise equipment and weight-loss diets are obviously popular products at this time, but they’re far from the only things that consumers want. Books, self-help courses and financial services are also in demand. If you're looking to run a New Year's promotion, get creative!

Writing page with New Year's resolution lists

🏈 Super Bowl Sunday (February 7)

Super Bowl Sunday is dominated by feasting on greasy foods and watching the big game. Pizza places and grocery stores always have sales for appetizers, main courses and beers 🍺, but you don’t need to sell unhealthy foods to capitalize on the event. 

Even if you’re not in a football-related industry, your store can likely generate awareness through social media posts or a themed sale. Share what team you’re pulling for or send out a discount code based on who wins. As long as it’s football-themed in some way, people will likely interact and your brand will become more visible. That’s the main purpose of many television ads, and a social media post costs a lot less.

Touchdown! 

💝 Valentine’s Day (February 14)

Valentine’s Day is a time for giving chocolates, flowers and other romantic niceties. It’s not just a beloved that people shop for on this day, however. Family members and friends may also receive gifts, and many singles use the day as an excuse to buy themselves something special. These other relationships open up the holiday to all manner of potential sales. 

🎩 Presidents’ Day (February 15)

Presidents’ Day is a celebration that’s far removed from its historical roots in honoring the country’s leaders. It has become one of the nation’s favorite shopping days, however.

This three-day weekend features many sales, ranging from clothing to appliance sales. In particular, this is a holiday where businesses promote items that people buy for themselves. If you're adding Presidents' Day to your eCommerce marketing calendar, write a note to tell customers to treat themselves!

🍕 Pi Day (March 14)

In celebration of the number Pi (3.14159), March 14 has been recognized as Pi Day. Pies and math-related gifts are obvious products to promote, but almost any eCommerce store can get in on the action. Consider offering a Pi-themed discount, such as 31.4 or 3.14 percent off purchases. Cute and topical, right?

☘️ St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)

Saint Patrick’s Day is full of luck, leprechauns and Irish culture. It’s a time to celebrate (and sell) everything Irish, but also anything else that’s green could be put on sale, too. Even a promotion as basic as discounting all green T-shirts at a clothing eCommerce store could do well. Help your customers find the pot of discount gold at the end of the rainbow 😉.

Topic Two

Spring Into Great Sales in Q2 With These eCommerce Holidays

eCommerce Holidays in Q2

Q2 Holidays

🐣 Easter (April 4)

Easter wasn’t a traditional gift-giving celebration, but now sales encompass much more than chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. The entire week leading up to Easter (Holy Week) is a natural time to sell religious goods, but many stores have also had success promoting all varieties of wares at this time. Smaller purchases, such as books and home decor, can sell especially well.

🌳 Earth Day (April 22)

Earth Day is becoming more widely celebrated as an increasing number of people go green. Its the perfect day to promote environmentally friendly products, or to share how your eCommerce store is eco-friendly.

💐 Mother’s Day (May 9)

Mother’s Day is a time to honor Mom, and it’s not just homemade meals and presents that Mom receives. Many kids and spouses want to purchase gifts for her, ranging from small mementos to big-ticket items. Outside of the Christmas/Hanukkah holiday season, this is the United States’ biggest-spending holiday of the year.

👔 Father’s Day (June 20)

Father’s Day is when Dad is celebrated, and it frequently involves outdoor cooking and gift-giving. The gifts range from the age-old tie to the latest smartphone or camera. Clothing and tech gadgets are especially good products to promote at this time. Consider practical items over sentimental ones and offer promotions leading up to Father's Day to get traffic.

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Topic Three

Summer eCommerce Ads You Should Run in Q3

eCommerce Holidays in Q3 (July - September)

Q3 Holidays

🗽 Independence Day (July 4)

The United States’ Independence Day is a time when friends and family get together, and many people make a long week or a full week-long vacation of the holiday. Foods, beverages, outdoor activities and travel deals are all sought-after items at this time. Any eCommerce store that sells “made in U.S.A.” products should showcase those, too.

🍂 Labor Day (September 6)

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and with that comes a transition to fall. School supplies, fall outfits and seasonal decor are all good items to sell at this time. Of course, the standard foods and beverages for barbecues are in demand as well.

Topic Four

Halloween, Black Friday, and Other eCommerce Holidays You Can't Miss in Q4

eCommerce Holidays in Q4

Q4 Holidays

🎃 Halloween (October 31)

Halloween has become a major spending holiday, but it’s not gifts that people are buying at this time. eCommerce stores that sell candies, Halloween costumes and Halloween decorations should promote these products heavily at this time.

🦃 Thanksgiving (November 25)

The entire Thanksgiving week has become a promotional period, especially for eCommerce businesses that don’t have to wait until Black Friday for customers to enter stores. Be sure to thank customers at this time, but a thank-you can always be shown via a discount code or sale.

⛄ Christmas/Hanukkah (December 25; November 28 - December 6)

The Christmas and Hanukkah shopping seasons traditionally start on Black Friday after Thanksgiving and continue until December 24. It’s the biggest retail shopping season of the year, and everything goes on sale now. Your customers will likely expect at least some discount during this month-long spree.

🎇 New Year’s Eve (December 31)

New Year’s Even sales normally focus on products that people want when hosting midnight vigils to watch the ball drop. Foods and beverages are natural items to push, but so are party favors, themed decor and fancy outfits. Everyone likes to dress up and have a good time on this night.

Topic Five

eCommerce Holiday Marketing Matters!

eCommerce startups face stiff opposition not only from other online retailers but also brick and mortar stores pivoting to include online revenues in their revenue streams. Are you one of the D2C stores that are already tapped into how eCommerce advertising is an integral part of your holiday sales? 

In a new trend to watch, consumers spent more mobile shopping than ever before. Smartphone user purchases made up $2.9 billion of Black Friday profits and Cyber Monday broke eCommerce records in sales with an impressive $9.4 billion profit in 2019! In recent years, shoppers have become savvier about when they buy their gifts because it's not just one or two days that count anymore: It's all 12 weeks leading up until Christmas Day.

Don't miss the opportunity—prepare your digital marketing strategy for every holiday season by incorporating advertising strategies into your plan now so you can dominate this year's retail game!

Or are you finding that it can be a challenge to keep up with this ever-changing landscape, and wondering why all these new online channels we have at our disposal during holidays seem to make things more complicated than they need to be? Are you struggling to keep up with digital marketing trends?

If that's the case, let's talk! Our team will prepare & implement an eCommerce holiday marketing strategy to help you grow and reach new heights in Q4!

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