Seasonal Dates in E-commerce: The Best Ones to Sell a Lot

Seasonal dates in e-commerce are great opportunities to boost sales, and entrepreneurs rarely let them slip by.

In fact, we rely heavily on these dates. Some e-commerce businesses even operate at a loss for certain months, banking on a significant sales increase during seasonal periods.

There are even e-commerce models that emerge specifically because of seasonal dates—such as sellers of Easter eggs and chocolates.

And we love these dates so much that we even create spin-offs. Black Friday started on its own, but now it’s accompanied by Black Month, Black Week, and Cyber Monday, with a little “hangover” in December for unsold products.

Today, we’re going to dive deeper into these seasonal dates in e-commerce. The article will be divided into three main sections:

What are the seasonal dates in e-commerce? A simple list;
How to prepare for seasonal dates in e-commerce?
A detailed list of seasonal dates in e-commerce, categorized by time of year.

All set? Let’s get started!

List of Seasonal Dates in E-commerce

Let’s keep it simple: here’s a quick list of the main seasonal dates in e-commerce.

E-commerce has always followed the traditional commercial calendar—meaning its seasonal dates are quite similar to those of the overall retail market.

So, it’s common to see overlapping promotions during these periods. What you see in physical retail stores is often reflected in e-commerce campaigns as well.

However, seasonal dates in e-commerce operate on different levels. I’ve categorized them into two main groups:

💰 Sales — When e-commerce creates specific campaigns featuring selected products for the season, aiming for a major boost in sales. Example: Black Friday and Christmas.
🍹 Branding — When e-commerce updates its website’s branding and offers general promotions related to the season. Example: Carnival.

Of course, there are more specific cases for each business, but these two categories are the most common for seasonal e-commerce strategies.

Here are the dates grouped by category:

🍹 January 1st: New Year’s Day;
💰 February 14th: Valentine’s Day;
💰 March 15th: Consumer Day;
🍹 Between March 22nd and April 24th (varies by year): Easter;
💰 Second Sunday of May: Mother’s Day;
💰 Second Sunday of August: Father’s Day;
🍹 October 31st: Halloween;
💰 Last Friday of November: Black Friday;
💰 Monday after Black Friday: Cyber Monday;
💰 December 25th: Christmas.

Don’t worry—we’ll go over each of these dates individually throughout the article. But for now, let’s quickly discuss the difference between branding dates and sales-driven dates.

And more importantly, how to determine which category a specific seasonal date falls into for your e-commerce business.

How to Determine if Seasonal Dates Are Best for Sales or Branding

As you’ve seen, our classification above is quite general and doesn’t necessarily apply to every e-commerce business.

For example, a clothing e-commerce store will focus 100% on sales campaigns for Christmas. A dental products e-commerce store probably won’t.

To determine which category applies to your business, consider these three key factors:

1️⃣ Who is your audience?
2️⃣ What products do you sell?
3️⃣ When does demand for your products increase?

It may sound basic, but that’s because it is basic!

This analysis is easy for those who conduct audience research, curate a relevant product portfolio, and stay informed about market trends.

That’s our main recommendation: deeply understand your business, your products, your market, and your audience.

If you consistently analyze these factors, answering the question “Which seasonal dates in e-commerce can I sell on?” will come naturally.

The Difference Between Branding and Sales in E-commerce

Everything in e-commerce should ultimately lead to sales—that’s the primary goal.

However, there are some dates when high sales volume isn’t realistic. In these cases, focus on branding instead.

But what does e-commerce branding mean? It’s simple: updating your site’s design to match the seasonal theme and offering some related promotions.

Take Valentine’s Day for a clothing e-commerce store—it’s a crucial date for sales.

Meanwhile, Halloween may not drive massive sales, but the date can’t be ignored.

Most retail stores decorate for Halloween. Even if big promotions aren’t viable, adjusting your website’s branding for Halloween and offering small themed discounts is a great idea.

Working with seasonal e-commerce dates is about understanding your audience and anticipating their needs.

If all your competitors are using Halloween-themed branding, it’s worth doing the same to “ride the wave” and capture extra sales.

How to Prepare for Seasonal Dates in E-commerce?

Now that you know the seasonal dates and their purpose for your e-commerce business, it’s time to talk about preparation.

If the date isn’t a major sales opportunity for your store, the branding work is fairly simple:

Designers and front-end developers create the new layout;
The updated layout is deployed;
Selected products receive discounts;
Discounts are announced via newsletter;
Google Ads or Meta Ads campaigns are created based on the new site theme.

Typically, these campaigns focus more on lead generation rather than direct sales—unless it’s a key sales-driven season.

That is, of course, assuming your e-commerce business incorporates inbound marketing in some way.

But for high-priority dates, when maximizing sales is the main goal, more extensive preparation is required.

Think back to the clothing e-commerce store example. For Valentine’s Day, it must be fully prepared to maximize revenue.

So, what does that preparation look like in practice? Let’s go step by step.

Selecting Products for Promotions

The first step in preparing for seasonal dates in e-commerce is selecting which products will go on sale.

This step is crucial because product selection can influence the entire promotion strategy.

With the right products, you can create strong promotional hooks. For example, a “Printed Shirt Festival” for the clothing store.

The best way to select products is by considering the impact of the promotion first.

If it’s a major seasonal event, offer discounts on your best-selling products, new collections, or items that customers highly desire.

If it’s just a branding-driven campaign, you can promote slower-moving products or items with lower demand.

Choosing the right products for seasonal e-commerce promotions is a strategic move that defines the effectiveness of your campaign.

Determining Discounts and Profit Margins

We have an article focused on pricing digital products that, while not exactly your case here, will help you with some formulas, especially the markup formula, commonly associated with profit margins.

Your second step in taking advantage of seasonal dates in e-commerce is determining how much discount you will offer.

For this, you need to analyze the base price of a product and how much you can reduce your profit margin to offer a good discount.

Important: Discounts are only given on profit margins, never on operational costs!

This is worth mentioning because, during Black Friday, many businesses get caught up in a frenzy of discounts, which can be detrimental, driven by competition that also lowers prices.

Make a list of your best-selling products and your newest launches. Check the profit margin for each—or if they all have the same margin.

From there, determine how much you can lower the price. If you reduce 50% of the profit margin, how does that reflect on the product’s price?

Many people will say, “50% off the product’s price!”—but that’s not quite how it works. Sharp margin reductions will have much smaller direct impacts on the final price.

Speaking of which:

Seeking Partnerships to Lower Prices Even More

This is a more specific action and is related to how you conduct business.

Partnerships with suppliers during events like Black Friday are very common. In fact, many wholesalers run promotions during this time to help retailers offer bigger discounts.

Reach out to your supplier, shipping company, and everyone involved in your logistics chain. See what discounts you can secure to lower your prices even further.

Determining Promotional Materials

Since you’re working with e-commerce, most of your graphic materials will be digital.

In fact, all your graphic materials will be digital.

To implement a successful seasonal sales strategy, you’ll need to produce:

A key visual for the campaign: This will define the overall design of all materials, from the website to advertisements.
All related content: Social media posts, newsletters, launch videos (if applicable), purchase confirmation messages (with upsell opportunities), ads, discount codes, influencer collaborations (if applicable), and any other content required by your brand.
Ad campaigns: Set up new ads targeting your audience (or segmenting to reach new ones) and determine your budget, along with the exact campaign start date.
Logistics: Coordinate with your logistics provider to handle the increased volume of orders during the promotion period.
Server capacity: A crucial aspect that many brands tend to overlook. When you run amazing promotions, people will visit your site—lots of people. If your server’s capacity isn’t strong enough, your site may crash repeatedly, leading to lost sales.

These are the main points you need to consider when preparing your team for seasonal e-commerce dates.

Of course, additional specific factors may arise, but they will generally complement these main areas.

On Promotion Day

On the day of the promotion (or during the promotion days), it’s essential to set up schedules so your team is available at all times.

This is especially important for major events like Black Friday, but not only for those. Remember, what makes a promotion successful isn’t just the date—it’s the prices!

So, if you’re running a New Year’s promotion with special prices available only on December 31st and January 1st, ensure your team is on rotation for the full 48 hours of the sale.

E-commerce businesses that overlook this often lose sales due to simple customer inquiries that go unanswered due to lack of support.

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What Sales Opportunities Does Each Seasonal Date Offer in E-Commerce?

So far, we’ve discussed the operational aspects of seasonal e-commerce dates.

But we also need to talk about the opportunities each of these dates presents—and their unique characteristics.

Selling during Christmas is vastly different from selling during Black Friday.

Sales arguments change, delivery deadlines shift, promotion start dates vary—everything changes.

Of course, in some cases, the changes are minor between one campaign and another. But in many others, the differences are substantial.

We’ve grouped some key seasonal periods together, considering these factors. Below, you’ll find what to do and the most significant particularities of these seasonal opportunities in e-commerce:

Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Father’s Day

These three are the most important dates for e-commerce throughout the year—more important than Black Friday itself when combined.

According to Webshoppers 2024 statistics (which we have also analyzed here on the blog), e-commerce generates most of its annual revenue from these three dates.

Of course, in terms of gross revenue volume, Black Friday remains the champion. But when we add up these three dates, they easily surpass BF.

The e-commerce businesses that achieve the best results during these occasions are those that sell products suitable as gifts.

The ideal strategy for these dates is to focus on this aspect. Create gift kits and identify individual products that align with this gifting characteristic. Double down on branding and invest heavily in paid media.

Mother’s Day is particularly crucial and is likely the most important of the three. If you need to prioritize one, make it Mother’s Day.

All these dates require advance planning. The minimum preparation period should be based on the time it takes for your product to reach your most distant delivery point.

Keep this in mind—it will be an essential factor for all other seasonal dates in e-commerce.

Black Friday and Christmas

These dates are the celebrities of the e-commerce world.

The strategies for succeeding during these periods vary widely and, in many cases, are quite specific.

We’ve already covered the basics throughout this article. However, for Black Friday, there’s an extra element you need to consider: Black Fraud.

It’s very easy to attract customers on Black Friday—just offer real discounts in percentages that you have never provided before.

If, throughout the year, your maximum discount reaches 15%, then for Black Friday, you’ll need to offer at least 30% off.

This is the key appeal of Black Friday. Those who offer genuine discounts will always have an advantage.

At the same time, businesses that manipulate prices to create misleading discounts will be seen as part of the Black Fraud trend.

Christmas, on the other hand, comes with an additional concern: logistics. This is the most critical period of the year for deliveries. Every logistics system in the country, from postal services to private carriers, becomes overloaded with requests.

So, it’s wise to start Christmas promotions as early as possible to prevent dissatisfied customers due to delayed deliveries.

In this list of seasonal events, you may have noticed that we excluded Children’s Day and Halloween.

These dates are important but don’t bring anything particularly new beyond what we’ve already discussed.

At the end of the day, selling on seasonal dates in e-commerce is a continuous process—as soon as one promotion ends, the next one is already being planned.

And among all the strategies, good customer service remains the most effective way to achieve better results and retain the new customers coming in.

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