Taking Advantage of Early Holiday Planning

If trends continue, we can expect that online holidays sales will commence early (e.g. now) and continue beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But to Justuno, there may not be a “holiday shopping season” anymore: “Consumers have been fundamentally changed by the past few years, and therefore we can’t truly say there’s an official start to the shopping season now. Before, it could’ve been said that Amazon Prime Day was the unofficial one in October, but with it moving to July…it’s anyone’s game.” According to a 2021 holiday trends study conducted by the site, 65% of US shoppers expressed their intention to complete their holiday purchases before Thanksgiving. Moreover, sales throughout November 2021 witnessed a 10% increase compared to the previous year, while sales on Black Friday itself experienced a 31% decline. 

As shoppers are starting their shopping earlier and considering the option of buying online or locally, it is essential to start your marketing efforts as soon as possible and extend them beyond BFCM. Online shopping and social commerce continue to drive the holiday season’s sales, but the promotions your brand implements before BFCM may surprise you with their conversions. The earlier your brand can start planning for holiday marketing, the better. Here’s how our D2C and B2B teams plan out the busy roadmap to the holiday season. 

It might seem obvious, but ensuring you have enough product to meet demand should always be step one. Analyze your sales data from previous years to identify popular products and promotions, then stock up to meet that demand for the holidays. If there are certain SKUs that are truly your best sellers, consider highlighting them in special bundles or deals for the holidays.

Determining the benchmarks for similar brands — based on location, gross merchandise value (GMV), or industry — allows you to better evaluate your success through the holiday season. Even a 1% increase in your ecommerce conversion rate can result in substantial sales growth for your brand, but exceeding benchmarks in itself is a great achievement.

Preparing for the best holiday season includes considering what it could be at its worst. With all kinds of issues that could arise, implementing contingency plans at a moment’s notice can keep your brand afloat during the holidays. Planning ahead now prevents you from having to haphazardly plan during the biggest sales period of the year.

We’re ready to play for your brand. Let’s see what we can do together. Visit frontrowgroup.com/contact/ for more information now.