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Keeping track of trends in online retail can be overwhelming, especially for growing businesses. That’s why many sellers use retail calendars to help them plan their sales and promotions, keep up with industry trends and stay ahead of the competition.
Learn more about the value of a retail marketing calendar and how to create your own. We’ll also get you started with key dates and events that can inspire your business planning, marketing efforts and customer shopping trends.
A retail calendar is a comprehensive schedule that retailers use to plan for key sales events, holidays and other important dates throughout the year
It’s one way for sellers to coordinate inventory, staffing, marketing and promotional efforts ahead of each season, holiday or special occasion.
Retail calendars are a visual guide to planning for important sales and events.
When you know what key selling days or seasons are coming up, you can make accurate forecasts, meet seasonal staffing needs and execute promotional strategies.
Here are common benefits businesses realize from using retail calendars.
An ecommerce holiday calendar provides you with a comprehensive view of the retail cycle, including important sales and events, which can help you avoid stockouts.
By understanding the timing of these events, you can adjust your inventory levels accordingly. This ensures you always have stock on hand to meet customer needs, regardless of the season or event.
A retail calendar is a record of the key dates and events you can target for specialized marketing campaigns and promotional strategies. Historical sales data helps you predict future trends and create effective marketing campaigns around key dates to drive sales and increase brand visibility.
A retail marketing calendar informs your promotion strategy.
For example, when you know a holiday is coming up, you can plan a coinciding sale or discount. Calendars help you plan promotions so they don’t overlap, overwhelm your audience or offer excess discounting that threatens profitability.
Retail calendars inform your staffing needs, especially for seasonal businesses. Optimizing staffing levels helps improve the customer experience, reduce wait times and improve order processing and fulfillment.
Holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas are easy to plan for, but other major shopping events change dates each year, such as Easter. Your industry might have its own busy seasons or special events that you’ll need to account for, too, not just with inventory but with the right staffing.
A retail calendar is an incredibly valuable tool because it keeps you organized while planning sales events, managing inventory and stock levels, and mapping content and promotional strategies.
There are a few methods for creating a retail calendar, including templates, custom calendars and premade planners.
Find a solution that works best for your business and customize it to fit your needs. For example, a 4-5-4 calendar is a popular tool retailers use to compare sales between years. This includes dividing the year into four weeks, five weeks, then four weeks again.
You might have multiple retail calendars — for example, one to note key events and another to detail your social media content calendar.
These calendars should include key information such as sales or event dates, descriptions, themes, deadlines and which stakeholders need to be included.
Here are key dates and selling periods to keep in mind as you’re planning your year.
January is the month of beginnings. It's the perfect time to kick off the new year with deals that promote health and well-being, for example. After the holiday season, businesses have an opportunity to move leftover stock while offering great savings.
February is in the doldrums of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but it also contains festive holidays such as Valentine’s Day, as well as the biggest sporting event of the year, the Super Bowl.
Social media is a powerful way to promote your sales, create hashtags and polls, and encourage conversation.
As spring arrives, there are numerous notable dates and events, including International Women's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and the first day of spring
These present great opportunities for marketing and promotions. You might launch products, offer seasonal and special collections, and support important causes.
April has a range of standing holidays, including April Fool’s Day and World Book Day. And in many years, Easter falls into this month.
With wedding season, two bank holidays in the U.K., and Memorial Day and Mother’s Day in the U.S., online retailers need to make sure they're taking full advantage of increased consumer activity.
It's time to turn your attention to summer. Pre-summer sales and social media campaigns are essential for ecommerce retailers, while Father's Day is an opportunity for gift-giving and brand awareness.
While July continues the summer season and is highlighted by Independence Day in the U.S., it’s also become a key month for Amazon Prime Day in recent years. While Amazon often waits as long as possible to confirm the exact date, being prepared for Amazon Prime Day’s effects (and opportunities) can pay off.
As summer winds down, it is the perfect time to sell old stock and start planning your autumn marketing season. With most schools returning in early September, parents and students are already shopping in August to prepare.
The end of summer presents a great opportunity to center your sales and marketing initiatives, whether it's back-to-school shopping or promoting your new seasonal collection.
October is famous for Halloween, but it’s far from the only selling opportunity in this month.
November is a time for reflection and gratitude as the holiday season approaches, including Thanksgiving in the U.S..
December is packed with religious holidays that are also celebrated widely by nonbelievers, as well as the end of the year and the start of the next. This is the busiest shopping period of the year for many online retailers. The winter solstice also occurs in December.
November and December are great opportunities to tailor your marketing and advertising around the holidays, create helpful gift guides and take other steps to find customers and attract them to your website.
This list hits the high points of major holidays and selling seasons, but it’s far from complete.
Your important selling days and seasons will depend on your industry, your customers’ habits and the locations you sell in. Not every date will be relevant to your business — go where your customers are rather than trying to hit every holiday and occurrence.
Using a retail calendar is just one tool you can use to develop a strategy for ecommerce growth. Check out our top 10 tips for succeeding in online marketplaces.
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