July is coming to an end, and the arrival of August also means the official start of the second half of the year. In addition to the peak season, there are many marketing nodes in the second half of the year. Next, I will share with you 10 marketing hotspots in the second half of the year. I hope that sellers will seize the opportunity to sell.
1. Back-to-school Season
The back-to-school season from July to September each year is the peak e-commerce shopping season in the second half of the year, second only to Christmas. A report by Adobe Digital Insights and Internet Retailer pointed out that e-commerce sales during the 2018 back-to-school season reached $58.1 billion.
The main product categories that are hot during the back-to-school season include:
Clothing accessories, school and office supplies, student daily necessities, electronic consumer products, hardware products, etc. The main shopping groups can be divided into four categories: mothers, teenagers, college students and teachers. Brands and sellers selling related products should take advantage of this great marketing opportunity.
2. September 2: Labor Day in the United States and Canada
The first Monday of September every year is Labor Day in the United States and Canada, which is a one-day holiday. For many Americans, Labor Day marks the end of summer and a time for parties, gatherings and sporting events.
For e-commerce, this is also an opportunity to generate explosive sales that cannot be ignored. For some products with obvious seasonal changes, they can also use this time point to promote sales and recover payments, thereby reducing inventory.
3. Halloween
October 31st of every year is Americans’ “Ghost Festival”, which is Halloween. With the popularity of novels, films and TV shows on magic, science fiction and other related themes in the past two years, this festival has increasingly become a hot topic in mainstream American culture. It is one of the hottest festivals of the year, and the most popular and watched festivals among young people.
According to the survey, 69.1% of Americans said they celebrate Halloween. In terms of Halloween shopping, 70.9% said they would buy candy, 48.6% said they would decorate their homes or yards, 47.1% would buy costumes, 45.5% planned to carve pumpkin lanterns, and 34.1% planned or prepared to attend a party.
44.4% of consumers said they will start preparing in the first two weeks of October. Cosplay supplies, costumes and props, special effects cosmetics, party supplies, etc. are all hot-selling categories.
4. Thanksgiving Day
The fourth Thursday of November every year is Thanksgiving in the United States. On Thanksgiving Day, many physical stores in the United States tend to close or shorten their business hours, which is a rare opportunity for 24-hour online e-commerce shopping.
Since the day after Thanksgiving is the famous "Black Friday", more and more e-commerce companies are using Thanksgiving as the start of the year-end shopping season. In addition, with the holiday theme of Thanksgiving and gratitude and giving back, sellers of all types can take advantage of this opportunity to plan and design a wave of content marketing, discount promotions, theme activities, etc., to optimize brand image, enhance user stickiness, and serve as a prelude to the year-end shopping season.
5. Black Friday
The fourth Thursday of November every year is Thanksgiving, and its second day is also the first day of big shopping for Americans. On this day, major merchants in the United States will launch the biggest discounts and promotions of the year to carry out the last large-scale promotion at the end of the year.
6. Cyber Monday
The term "Cyber Monday" originated in 2005 and was first coined by the Shop website of the National Retail Federation. Because American merchants have found that people who have spent the Thanksgiving holiday have returned to work and will try to buy gifts online to give back to their family and friends during the holiday.
Online merchandise sales on Cyber Monday, the U.S. shopping festival in 2018, reached $7.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%, breaking the U.S. single-day merchandise sales record.
Cross-border companies and sellers that use online e-commerce as their main sales channel need to pay extra attention to the marketing time point of Cyber Monday while paying attention to traditional shopping trends such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Christmas shopping season, in order to gain more attention and consumption from young Americans for their brands and products.
7. Green Monday
The second Monday of December every year is called "Green Monday". "Green Monday" is also the product of "e-commerce festivals" in recent years. This term was originally coined by eBay and it is their biggest sales day in December.
Green Monday is a continuation of online promotions and shopping sprees following the Thanksgiving weekend and the Black Friday offline shopping boom. It takes advantage of the holiday season’s festive atmosphere and continued shopping enthusiasm, and launches more aggressive promotional activities on this day, so it is also called “Cyber Monday 2” by some businesses and consumers.
At the same time, this day also reminds consumers that there are only about 10 days of shipping time left before Christmas, which will prompt consumers to place orders to ensure that consumers can receive their gifts before Christmas based on the general express delivery time within the United States. Similar to Cyber Monday, cross-border businesses and sellers may consider holding special online exclusive promotions, limited-time flash sales and other activities on this day to continue to attract consumers.
8. Free Shipping Day
Free shipping day is usually in mid-December every year, and December 14th of each year is designated as free shipping day. The festival was first launched in 2008 by Luke and Maisie Knowles, founders of Coupon Sherpa and FreeShipping.org. That year, they created more than 350,000 additional e-commerce orders for more than 750 participating retailers through their official website www.FreeShippingDay.com. Relevant surveys show that more than half of American online shoppers consider whether the retailer offers free shipping as the most important factor when purchasing goods. The promotion on "Free Shipping Day" may not make a significant difference to Amazon, which offers free shipping to Prime members all year round.
For brands that usually have a high threshold for free shipping, or whose shipping costs are higher than those of their products’ official websites, independent website sales are a promotional opportunity that cannot be ignored. Cross-border sellers can consider offering relevant promotional discounts on this day based on actual conditions. If free shipping is not possible for all orders, they can also consider offering free shipping for the entire order of the main featured product or setting a certain number of products for free shipping, etc., to give back to consumers and stimulate order conversions.
9. Super Saturday
The last Saturday before Christmas every year is called “Super Saturday”. "Super Saturday" is also known as "Panic Saturday" because Christmas is just around the corner and the last weekend will be the last chance for shoppers to buy gifts before Christmas.
More and more young consumers choose to buy "last minute gifts" just before the holidays. By seizing this time point and consumer psychology to plan a wave of marketing, and combining it with reasonable delivery methods such as free 2-day Express Shipping, we can ensure that consumers can receive the ordered goods in time before Christmas, and also create a new climax for product sales during the Holiday Shopping Season.
10. Boxing Day
The day after Christmas every year is Boxing Day. As for the origin of this holiday, a widely accepted theory is that employees will have an extra day off on the first working day after Christmas to spend time with their families. They will also receive Christmas gifts from their employers. These gifts are usually called "Christmas Boxes", so this day is called Boxing Day. It is a traditional holiday in many Commonwealth countries.
On this day, many businesses will start to sell off the unsold products during the Christmas season. Originally, Boxing Day was the main discount season in the British, Australian and other Commonwealth countries. However, in recent years, more and more American businesses have also regarded it as another big discount shopping carnival day at the end of Thanksgiving and Christmas Shopping Season, and launched clearance sales on e-commerce channels on this day.
Some holiday items may even be cleared at a better price on this day than on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Cross-border e-commerce companies and sellers can also pay more attention to the "Boxing Day" activities. On the one hand, they can clear out out-of-season goods, and on the other hand, they can seize the remaining heat of the Holiday Shopping Season and delay the rapid decline in sales after Christmas.
August
August 1: Amazon will begin charging a monthly long-term storage fee, whichever is greater between the monthly storage fee and the minimum long-term storage fee.
August 13: International Lefthanders Day
August 19: National Aviation Day
August 19-22: eTail East, an e-commerce conference in Boston, Massachusetts
September
September 2: Labor Day in the United States
September 8: International Literacy Day
September 11: Patriot Day
September 13-14: ROI Revolution Summit, an e-commerce conference in Raleigh, North Carolina
September 29: Rosh Hashana
September 30: IPI evaluation period begins (must maintain IPI score above 350)
October
October 1: New stock limits start (if IPI is low) and International Coffee Day
October 5: World Teachers' Day
October 6: National Grandparents Day in the UK
October 7-9: Manhattan Exchange, an e-commerce conference held in Barcelona, Spain
October 8: Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day
October 16: Bosses Day
October 19: Sweetest Day in the United States
October 27: Diwali, India
October 31: Halloween
November
November 4: May be the FBA inventory cut-off date for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
November 5: Bonfire Night in the UK
November 11: Veterans Day
November 28: Thanksgiving Day
November 29: Black Friday
November 30: Small Business Saturday
December
December 2: Cyber Monday
December 4: Likely FBA inventory cut-off date for Christmas shopping season
December 14: Free Shipping Day
December 16: Amazon FBA inventory cut-off date
December 22: Beginning of Chanukah
December 25: Christmas
December 26: Boxing Day and the start of Kwanza
December 31: New IPI assessment period begins (IPI score must be maintained above 350)
