It is never too early to start planning for your business’s ventures for the next year. This is especially true for e-commerce, where promotional campaigns are expected to transition seamlessly between events in the year. In fact, an e-commerce business’s success depends on these promotional events to help increase sales and generate a positive revenue stream.
So to help you on your path to sales success for the year, here is your e-commerce promotional calendar that you need to follow the major events for all e-commerce stores out there to get the best out for quarterly sales!
What Is An E-commerce Promotional Calendar? – Definition In Short
You know when Christmas and Thanksgiving are. They are towards the end of the year. But what about all the promotional events of the year that you aren’t aware of? That is where the e-commerce promotional calendar comes into play. It highlights all the important dates and events of the year that your e-commerce business should be focusing on for the year.
For e-commerce, it is doubly important that you know when these events are. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, finding an online store is much harder. Therefore, you need to execute the perfect e-commerce marketing strategies. With a promotional calendar at hand, you know exactly what events to be marketing for.
E-commerce Promotional Calendar – Monthly Overviews
January
Right off the bat, you have the New Year. That means continuing from last year, you would have year-end sales still running. It is also a great time to run a renewed promotional campaign for new years where you would celebrate some sort of discount for last year’s products as you also begin to introduce new products into your catalog.
For the entire month of January, you want to get your promotional campaign running right. That means an increased presence on social media to help customers know what type of sales you are running and teasers for future products. You can also take advantage of popular New Year’s resolutions to connect better with customers to create an effective marketing campaign.
Notable events:
- New Year’s Day (January 1)
February
In the United States, February has multiple month long campaigns that you utilize for your marketing. It is the start of Black History month where you can promote Black-owned businesses and themes surrounding equality to help you sell products. Think of it as a time of giving back to the community through your sales and helping out businesses.
February also holds Valentine’s Day which is a great marketing opportunity for greeting cards, flowers, and other items lovers usually gift each other. For your business, take advantage of couples’ gifts to really get the best out of the promotional campaign and deliver a time where couples will not forget an experience buying from your e-commerce store.
Notable events:
- Black History Month
- Valentine’s Day (February 14)
- Presidents’ Day (February 17)
March
Coming into March, you can launch a month-wide campaign on Women’s day, that will culminate on the first week of March. You could celebrate it on your online store by putting women’s products on sale or promoting women-owned brands for the month. A large demographic of online shoppers are women so you can definitely take advantage of this on your ecommerce site.
Right after is St. Patrick’s Day on 17th March. This is a celebration of Ireland and the people of Irish descent where you can do a green theme on products and help sell products surrounding the theme. It is also a great time for the service industry as restaurants and bars are actively looking for suppliers to supply them products to help accommodate an increased traffic. So overall, it is a win-win situation for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce stores.
Notable events:
- Women’s History Month
- International Women’s Day (March 8)
- St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)
April
April is all about sustainability with Earth Day and the start of the spring cleaning season taking place at the same time. That means you can easily start a marketing campaign related to eco-friendly products and products that will help customers end winter on a high note and begin spring.
April is also the month when Easter Sunday takes place. For this event, you can run a site-wide e-commerce sale for your store to help promote increased traffic to your website and clear out your stocks for inventory expansion for the rest of the year.
Notable events:
- Easter (April 20)
- Earth Day (April 22)
- Spring Cleaning
May
May is Mental Health awareness month where you can promote wellness products and self-care for your customers. It is an increasingly important time for customers so if you can accommodate a marketing campaign around it, it will be beneficial for your business. It does not have to be just sales. You can include wellness campaigns for those that worked in your online store to connect with customers. It helps create a better brand perception of your business and how you not only care for your customers but also those that work in the business.
May also has two key events in Mother’s Day and Memorial Day in the US. A Mother’s Day campaign starting from the beginning of the month alongside mental health awareness is a great way to kickstart the summer. So align these events accordingly to get the best from both of them for your online store.
Notable events:
- Mental Health Awareness Month
- Mother’s Day (May 11)
- Memorial Day (May 26)
June
June is when summer is about to begin so you can start off the month with a summer sale for products that are frequently bought in the summer. Summer Wear will be the most popular this time of year and the summer sale can help you increase sales in no time.
There is also Father’s Day coming up in June. For this, you can take popular items that are usually bought for fathers and put them on sale to attract customers. Think DIY items and tech gadgets as the best father’s day present to be giving out this time of the year.
Notable events:
- Father’s Day (June 15)
- Summer Solstice (June 21)
July
Not much happening in July. The US has their independence day on the 4th of July where you can start selling American-themed products and have a discount until the day. However, July can be the perfect time to prepare for the busy rest of the year as you are about to be swamped with events and holiday events coming up in the next 5 months of the year.
Notable events:
- Independence Day (July 4)
- Friendship Day (July 30)
August
With September right around the corner, August is the perfect time to start a back-to-school sales event as students are returning back to school after a long summer break. School items and stationeries, alongside clothing and shoes, will be especially in high demand during this time of the year. So make sure to cater to this specific customer segment so you don’t lose out on an important promotional campaign for the year.
Notable events:
- Back to School (late August)
- End of Summer Clearance Sales.
September
With the start of fall, September begins one of the busiest times of the year for e-commerce. A change of seasons means you have to start stocking on new products and could also release new products to match the seasonal trends. You immediately start off with Labor Day in the States and continue on a month-long campaign to begin thinking of the upcoming holiday seasons.
Notable events:
- Labor Day (September 1)
- Grandparents’ Day (September 7)
- Fall Preview
October
October is the start of the festive season with Halloween coming up at the end of the month. That means you can start introducing Halloween-themed products for your store and run a month-long promotional campaign to bolster sales for the month.
It is also Breast Cancer Awareness month and you can start promoting pink-themed products to raise awareness for the month. Additionally, you can also pair up with a suitable charitable organization to donate a part of your revenue to cancer research to raise your brand perception and help connect better with your customers.
Notable events:
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Promote pink-themed products and support breast cancer research.
- Halloween (October 31): Spooky Savings on costumes, decorations, and candy.
November
In e-commerce, probably the most stressful time of the year is November, particularly towards the end. You have Thanksgiving weekend which you can promote food products and celebrations. Right after, you have the one of the biggest sales events of the year in Black Friday when all stores give heavy discounts on products to promote sales.
But the event that defines e-commerce is Cyber Monday. Much like Black Friday is for brick-and-mortar stores, Cyber Monday is a similar sales offer from online stores. It is the peak holiday marketing time that you don’t want to miss out on as customers will be looking for the best deals and you want to ensure that they shop from your stores instead of your competitors.
Notable events:
- Thanksgiving (November 27): Pre-Black Friday deals.
- Black Friday (November 28): Major discounts across all categories.
- Cyber Monday (December 1): Focus on online deals and promotions.
December
If November was crucial, then December is just as vital for the e-commerce promotional calendar. This is the start of the holiday season so you have the year-end sales, Christmas, Hanukkah all coming at once. So better be geared to leave your customer satisfied with superior inventory management because this month will be just as busy as November.
December is also the time for you to see the year-end sales report and figure out what worked and what did not. Think of it as a good indicator for each quarterly report. With this, you can tackle next year’s e-commerce promotional calendar a bit better than the year prior.
Notable events:
- Hanukkah (December 22-30): Hanukkah Specials on gifts and related products.
- Christmas (December 25): Countdown to Christmas sales on gifts, decorations, and winter products.
- Boxing Day (December 26): Post-Christmas Clearance sales.
- End of Year Clearance
Gain Superior E-commerce Sales On Shopify With A Bulk Order App
For the whole calendar year, the strategies for sales will be different. But one thing has to remain consistent: how your customers interact with your online store. That is where the customer experience in your store has to be on point to leave a lasting impression so that you have repeat customers over the course of the year.
On Shopify, you can improve the customer experience on your store with the help of third-party apps from the Shopify app store. Here, one app that you can use is a bulk order app with mix-&-match style selection to create a unique experience. Here is an example:
You can see here there is only one product type that has different variants. Shopify native options does have variant options but it is limited to only 3 different variants. But here, you can see that this app helps to exceed that limitation of Shopify and help you sell all variants in one page. Your customers spend less time browsing the catalog and more time on their quantity selection instead.
You can also see that some variants are priced differently. So for your e-commerce store, you can set up different prices for each variant to help promote some seasonal sale or holiday sales for such a product type.
When the customer is happy with their selection, you make their lives much easier with the one-click add to cart button below. This allows customers who are selecting quantities on each variant to smoothly add the products to the cart without the need to add them individually. It removes the hassle for the customers and you have more chances of sales because of how easy you made it for them.
Bottom Line
Whether you are selling through Shopify or any other e-commerce platform, an e-commerce promotional calendar helps you massively. It takes away the pain of uncertainty and makes planning for events and holiday promoting much easier. You know exactly what to expect in each month and then can execute the right strategy for your business. I hope that this e-commerce calendar helps you on your business journey.
