Important dates to make effective Online purchases to avail "maximum" Offers! ~ bulls$treet

15th January - Blue Monday

The third Monday in January, nicknamed ‘Blue Monday’, is commonly known as the most depressing day of the year when many consumers seek solace in a bit of online retail therapy or go hunting for their summer holiday.

As an e-commerce merchant, you should utilise this day with marketing campaigns designed to spread cheer among despondent consumers. Fitness and well-being brands may also want to take advantage of those looking to fulfil their new year's resolution to get fit.

14th February - Valentine's Day

This is an easy one to remember, as it's on the same day every year. 14th February can be a big day for your sales if you sell items that could be considered in any way romantic (i.e. not lawnmowers).

Promote the perfect gift on your homepage, send out an email to your existing customers, and, most importantly, produce a sense of urgency. Those lucky enough to have a partner will need to get Valentine's Day right, otherwise, their Facebook profile could rapidly change from 'in a relationship' to 'single'.

Bear in mind that most shopping for Valentine's Day is done on the 5th and 6th of February, so ensure your marketing campaign begins well before then.

16th - 20th February London Fashion Week

Running twice a year in February and September, is London Fashion Week. It is increasingly one of the most important events on anyone’s fashion calendar and big news for anyone with an interest in the rag trade.

All things British and fashion-related are up on the catwalk this week. To make the most of all the wonderful creations found at Fashion Week, why not offer some ‘stylish’, ‘catwalk’ promotions of your own. Ensure your brand stands out this week and encourage your customers to step out of their comfort zones and join in the fashion fun.

11th March/13th May - Mother's Day

We all have mothers, and most of us love them. Fortunately, the vast majority of your customers will be mother-lovers, so you should notice a surge in sales in the time around Mother's Day. If you get your marketing right, that is.

In 2018, Mother's Day will fall on 11th March in the UK and 13th May everywhere else in the world. You'll have to choose one to focus on, so you should take a look at your customer analytics to see what country most of your business comes from and opt to market to their holiday.

To be sure you capitalise on this you need to promote your deals as much as you can. In addition to email marketing, utilise your social media accounts to make sure you're reaching the widest possible audience. Give your followers a good reason to promote your content with retweets/shares, such as a special deal for Mother's Day gifts.

Mother's Day is one of the most important shopping dates, so don't miss out.

30th March - 2nd April - Easter Weekend

Easter is all about celebrating winter’s end and the start of spring (besides the real meaning of course). An egg-cellent way to spread the Easter spirit is to offer sweet savings — especially on items for children and items that will help shoppers prepare for the warmer weather. In addition, consider updating your creatives with spring-like themes and pastel colour palettes.

One fitting idea that suits any type of business and organisation, no matter how big or small, is an Easter egg hunt.

A very popular Easter game and it can help to make your site more attractive to consumers. All you need to do is think of what kind of “eggs” you’ll hide on your website and which prize is up for grabs. The simplest way to do this is to place photos of eggs on some of the deep pages of your site. Maybe include some clues in a blog post to help out a little.

To make playing more appealing, always say how winners will benefit, do they get a discount, a gift, a promo code?

May to July - Wedding season

Ebay recently reported that searches for ‘wedding presents’ skyrocketed last June, as many guests turned to online shopping to help them find the perfect gift for upcoming nuptials.

While wedding presents are predicted to be in demand again this year, eBay has also seen an increase in online searches for all things wedding related. From lingerie and dresses to engagement rings and usher ensembles – it seems more and more customers are shunning the more traditional in-store or bespoke wedding services for an alternative online experience.

17th June - Father's Day

Father's Day will fall on June 17th in 2018. There are just as many fathers as there are mothers in the world, so you should expect similar traffic to what you received on Mother's Day. As ever, that is if you take the time to do some targeted marketing.

Here are a few ideas for promoting your business on Father's Day:

Discount codes: Use social media to push these out to customers around the beginning of June, possibly only making them compatible with selected products that you want to promote for the holiday.
Free gift wrapping: This entices a lot of people because it settles that constant dilemma that customers face: they don't want to spend time wrapping (or just can't wrap) but they also don't want to pay for gift wrapping when they can attempt to do it themselves. Do not underestimate the power of this small gesture!
Make your last order date clear: Don't just put a last order notice on your homepage and landing pages, but make this clear on your product pages too. If you say, for instance, that orders must be made before June 12th to guarantee delivery before Father's Day, this provides the sense of urgency that was mentioned in the section on Valentine's Day.

June to September - Festival season

The UK and summer festival season is a popular and often busy time of year for many music lovers. Take the world’s most famous music festival, Glastonbury, as an example; with a crowd of 153,000 people expected to attend, many will be stocking up on their camping equipment, festival wardrobe and wellingtons boots (thanks to the unpredictable British weather).

If you’re a fashion e-commerce merchant, why not invest in some festival lookbook style content? Or if your inventory is full of camping equipment and waterproofs, try putting together a festival bundle for a discounted price.

Early September - Back to School

Back to school is an important time of the year for many retail businesses – second only to the Christmas shopping season. Why not spend the time before the new school year reminding students (and their parents) what they need in preparation for a successful first day back. Competition is high during this period, so discount codes and free shipping is always a smart strategy.

26th - 27th September - E-commerce Expo

From the 26th-27th September, E-commerce Expo will be running its annual event for anyone connected to the industry. Note: this is for UK diaries only, unless you feel like taking a trip to London. If you do, pack a coat. And a scarf. Also gloves.

The exposition focuses on all areas of e-commerce, providing businesses with expert consultancy, and topical talks on areas such as marketing, platforms, payments, delivery, customer service and many other topics.

1st October - Buy British Day

In 2014, Buy British Day was launched for the first time on 3rd October by Best of Britannia. The idea was to create an event in which customers are encouraged to shop from businesses that are based in Britain and manufacture their items in Britain.

Buy British Day naturally had backing from the British Government and was launched in the House of Commons. The event then took place in Farmiloe Building in Clerkenwell, and functioned as the UK’s biggest pop-up department store, with over 200 British businesses selling their products.

If you're a British business, even if you sell online, it's worth signing up to be a seller next year and setting up a pop-up shop. You'll be helping to contribute towards the British economy, be part of a great event, and attract many more customers to your website in the future.

Halloween - 31st October

October’s arrival signifies cooler weather, leaves falling from the trees, and of course, Halloween.

Halloween has been increasingly growing in financial importance year on year and even more so in the UK. In 2016 it was estimated to be worth £466m, thanks to the purchasing of costumes, food and decorations. Mintel recently reported that Halloween did, in fact, overtake the spend for Valentine’s Day.

Even if your business doesn’t have a direct link to the day it could be worth adding some Halloween-themed offers to your shop. If all else fails, encourage your team to dress up and load up your social media with some snaps.

23rd November - Black Friday

Black Friday was originally an American shopping holiday, though as practice of e-commerce has risen in recent years, the phenomenon has spread to become an international event. It is typically seen as the start of the Christmas shopping season and so is a good benchmark for you to ensure that your website is fully prepared for Christmas shoppers.

In 2018, Black Friday falls on November 23rd, so put that in your diary.

Here are a few good ideas that you can use to boost your traffic and conversions on Black Friday:

Write Black Friday-related content for your blog. If you run a blog alongside your e-commerce business, you should begin to write posts at least two to three weeks before Black Friday. Aim for about one a week; you don't want to overwhelm your readers with information about it, but you also don't want them to forget the date. Find a balance that you think works for your blog.
Send out topical emails a few weeks before. If you don't have a blog, then you should use email marketing to your advantage here. Amazon is a good example for this. Year on year, they completely monopolise Black Friday because of how effective their marketing is. If you've shopped from Amazon in the past, you will have likely received emails from them detailing various Black Friday promotions. Use these techniques yourself and you could share in their success.
Run a countdown. Do you remember how, in the Valentine's Day and Father's Day sections, a lot of emphasis was put on creating a feeling of urgency? Chances are you do. Having a countdown on your homepage that tells visitors how long until Black Friday sales start will create a sense of anticipation and drive them back to your site on the day.

26th November - Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday, like Black Friday, was born as a by-product of America's Thanksgiving holiday. While Black Friday was originally intended for retail businesses to capitalise off of the consumer rush after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday came about after it was observed that millions of Americans took a weekend off after the holiday, and proceeded with their sales-hunting on the Monday.

A couple of tactics you can use to maximise sales on Cyber Monday are:

Implement a Cyber Monday landing page. If you have got customers to your site because of promised Cyber Monday deals, this needs to be confirmed as soon as they land on your page. They should be immediately reminded why they are there - to get good deals - and an effective promotional landing page will get customers shopping much quicker. The customer probably won't be visiting your shop alone, with a long list of online retailers taking part in the event, so your landing page is effectively a pitch - make it bold, make it clear, and make it enticing.
Offer free shipping. In addition to the Cyber Monday sale, set your shop apart by offering free shipping. This is a day where you can afford to put a maximum threshold on your shipping, too, (i.e. Free shipping for orders over £40) as your customers will likely be buying more than they normally do. Plus, online shoppers naturally lean towards a shipping threshold, purchasing more so they can reach the cap.

2nd December - Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday occurs on the first Saturday of December. The event's organisers look for all kinds of small businesses to get involved every year - including e-commerce retailers - and support you the whole way, including marketing and promotional assistance.

Here are some statistics about the tremendous success of Small Business Saturday 2014 taken from their website:

16.5 million People shopped in a small independent business on the day, representing a 20% increase in footfall in 2013 or 2.7 million more shoppers.
64% of UK consumers were aware of the day, a 33% increase on 2013.
Over 3.5 million Facebook views and #SmallBizSatUK trending at number one all day on 6th December 2014.
55% of Local Authorities and hundreds of MPs supported the campaign.

These statistics are expected to rise drastically in 2018, so don't miss out!

To find out everything you need to know about Small Business Saturday click here and for 5 ways to get your business ready for Small Business Saturday click here.

15th December - Free Shipping Day

Buying Christmas presents late has become part of the festive tradition. Gone are the days where people had finished buying presents before they had flipped their calendar to December - your customers will still be shopping for their gifts about 10 days before Christmas.

A few years ago, Luke Knowles and his wife noticed the shift towards this trend and launched Free Shipping Day. The idea behind the event, aside from being another way to attract customers during the busiest e-commerce season of the year, is to guarantee free shipping before Christmas Eve.

25th December - Christmas

Consumers spent 91 billion in the run to Christmas in 2016 and e-commerce sales grew by 11% compared to last year. It might be an obvious one but be organised and prepare yourself and your business for one of the busiest times of year for commerce.

Be sure to maximise your sales with compelling PPC campaigns and combine Christmas themed ads with strong CTA’s that will really draw in your customers. You should be doing this at least 6 weeks before the 25th December. For more advice on how to get your store ready in time for Christmas.

26th December - Boxing Day Sales

Sales are starting earlier and earlier, however, Boxing Day is still a big deal, especially for those who received vouchers on Christmas Day. Boxing Day online sales surpassed the £1 billion mark for the first time this year, however, they are still dwarfed by Black Friday Cyber Monday revenue totals. It's still a good opportunity to update your graphics and offer new products and lines for extra revenue ahead of the January slump.

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