eCommerce Holiday Marketing Calendar

By: Jacklyn Deans, Flash + Color

Is your fashion eCommerce business prepared for the holidays? If not, now is the time to start planning for the upcoming holiday season.

For the past five years, eCommerce holiday sales have grown an average of 14.6% year-over-year. This year, eCommerce holiday shopping is projected to increase by 15.3%! To have a profitable holiday season, it is crucial that you create a holiday eCommerce marketing calendar for your business. eCommerce marketing calendars are the secret to steadily growing your online business.

These calendars provide you with several benefits including better sales forecasting, better inventory management, smarter ad budget allocation, and more thoughtful buying and merchandising. Additionally, you can develop and automate much of your marketing (including content, design, posts, and promotions) in advance, so that you never miss important dates and sales opportunities. Most importantly, having an eCommerce marketing calendar gives you more opportunities to engage with your customers. This increases your sales and customer loyalty.

When creating your calendar and promotions, it is essential to consider the following:

Your target market/buyer persona, your company's goals, the voice of your brand, your budget for marketing communications, and your company's bandwidth to produce content and promotions. You will also want to think about your company’s upcoming events and special dates such as pop-ups, trunk shows, product launches, product drop dates etc.

Finally, consider your logistical and promotional cutoff dates, and your companies logistical capabilities and limitations. These will affect when your customer receives the product. If your customer does not get their products in their desired timeline, it could hurt your business’ reputation, so consider this carefully. 
 

Here are some important dates to include when creating your calendar for the 2018 holiday season.
 

November 22
Thanksgiving

November 23
Black Friday

November 24
Cyber Monday

November 25
Cyber Tuesday

December 10
Green Monday (One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days For Many Retailers)

December 14
Free Shipping Day

December 18
Last Day for UPS 3 Day Select packages to be delivered by Christmas. Last Day for USPS First Class Mail to be delivered by Christmas.

December 19
Last Day for UPS 2nd Day Air packages to be delivered by Christmas. Last Day for USPS Priority Mail to be delivered by Christmas.

December 21
Last Day for UPS Next Day Air packages to be delivered by Christmas. Last Day for USPS Priority Express Mail to be delivered by Christmas.

December 31
New Year's Eve

January 1
New Year's Day

After you have put these dates on your calendar, you can start to build content and promotions around each date.

While creating marketing calendars and promotions for the first time may seem daunting and time-consuming, it pays dividends for years to come.  Start creating your calendar today to maximize your sales for this holiday season.
 

About Jacklyn Deans:

Jacklyn Deans is the Founder & Principal eCommerce Consultant for Flash + Color, an eCommerce consulting firm that helps Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle brands establish and expand their business online. Over her 15-year career in eCommerce and Digital Marketing, Jacklyn has helped hundreds of business owners increase their sales, customer loyalty, and customer engagement through actionable, marketing techniques and strategies. Jacklyn is passionate about demystifying direct-to-consumer eCommerce to help Small to Mid-size brands thrive.

Want to connect with Jacklyn Deans to learn more about eCommerce?

Website: www.flashandcolor.com
Email: [email protected]