10 Holidays Left in December for Shopping

Giving Tuesday is traditionally the day following Cyber Monday and is a day dedicated to giving back during the holiday season. If your company has established philanthropic efforts, such as Patagonia with environmental conservation, this is a great chance to share those efforts with your customers and highlight their involvement in making them possible. 

Corporate values are an important consideration for many consumers, and in an increasingly socially conscious culture, this presents brands with the opportunity to align their values with those of their target audience. One consideration to make is that if this effort wasn’t a part of your brand before, don’t force it now just because of the special day. Customers see through empty gestures, often rejecting brands with marketing efforts they perceive as inauthentic.

After the year 2020 has been, shoppers, especially Gen Z and Millenials, are pushing more than ever for brands to step up. Giving Tuesday presents yet another opportunity this year for brands to take a step in a socially conscious direction, signaling to younger shoppers they’re listening to them and the current social climate.

Hanukkah is an eight-day festival of lights centered on family and tradition. With multiple days available for marketing, this allows for some creativity when structuring your promotions. If you have the time, you could even consider putting together an interactive calendar with a special offer or treat for each day. 

Don’t forget, as with any religious holiday or festival, it’s important to be considerate in your messaging. Brands are more compelling and marketing more powerful when it’s real and relevant. Keep that in mind during the holiday season to avoid any marketing gaffes.

Green Monday is a holiday created by eBay in 2007 that falls on the second Monday of December. It’s traditionally a high volume shopping day for December, and as the e-commerce lore goes, is the result of panic that holiday gift shopping isn’t done yet. 

Use this almost as a second Cyber Monday by running deep discounts. Don’t forget to capitalize on urgency by emphasizing the time left for shoppers to get their orders in before shipping deadlines.

In the age of Amazon Prime, free shipping is a powerful motivator, and shoppers are increasingly coming to expect it when browsing. If you already offer free shipping on your orders, don’t fret. You can still use this day to run a promotion for free accelerated shipping, same-day delivery if possible, or free gift wrapping.

If you don’t typically offer free shipping, there are ways to recover these costs using some strategic offer structuring. Instead of dismissing free shipping entirely, try running threshold promotions offering free shipping only on orders over a certain amount, ideally when the order value increase overtakes your shipping costs.

With the increasingly strained shipping industry during 2020 though, this may be too late for orders to make it to customers in time for certain holidays. If that’s the case, make sure to clearly communicate delays, or better yet, use this time to offer digital products to be gifted instantly! This helps your procrastinating shoppers out and means you can still close the sale.

This is another one of the less “official” days in December, but still, a great holiday to have fun with and show a little brand personality. If you sell Christmas sweaters…or any holiday-themed products, this is the perfect day to take advantage of when competition for attention will be light.

PS: If ugly sweaters won’t resonate with your customers, don’t forget to check the National Day of Calendar to find a day that works for your niche. There are ‘National Days’ for everything from ‘National Pie Day’ (December 1), to ‘National Bacon Day’ (December 30). The options are endless, and who doesn’t love a special offer just because?

A day for the rest of us! Festivus is a day for those who don’t celebrate any of the holidays that fall in December but still want to participate in the season! Festivus involves food, friends, and a traditional airing of grievances. 

This is a great day to use for engaging with your brand’s audience beyond selling to them. Seinfeld references and social media go hand in hand for a bit of marketing fun on this day.

Christmas Eve is the ultimate day for last-minute gift shopping. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, there’s no better opportunity for promoting buy online, pick up in-store orders using geo-targeting rules. While this won’t be a huge sales day for retailers by any means, there are a few last-minute sales to be made for some. Do you offer gift cards or digital delivery products? Let shoppers know it’s not too late! Consider creating a “buy X get one free” deal for those less-prepared shoppers to cross off the last of their gifting vacancies.

Christmas Day isn’t a busy shopping day, especially in countries where it’s a public holiday, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared for some stragglers. Consumers are often hunting for post-Christmas bargains, information on the gifts they’ve received, or products they’d like to keep an eye on in the coming days. Whether it’s a last-minute holiday gifts, something for themselves, or just a good old-fashioned deal–someone’s looking!

Boxing Day is a UK holiday that’s become The Commonwealth’s version of Black Friday in a sense. For many retailers, this day represents the largest shopping days of the year, so it’s important to pull out all the stops in your promotion strategy. Some other countries in Eastern and Northern Europe have adopted a similar holiday known as “Second Christmas Day” that has equally substantial shopping traffic.

Since these are regionally celebrated holidays, make sure to use geo-targeting rules to show promotions only to visitors they will resonate with AKA live in those countries.

The last day of the year (coincidentally it’s also National Champagne Day) is a day for celebrating new beginnings with friends and family. Flash sales to clear out inventory and prepare for 2021 are a great way to appeal to shoppers using gift cards or buying what they really wanted.

New Year’s brings with it resolutions so self-improvement, organization, and fitness are all popular purchases to make around this time of year. If you’re a retailer in these industries, make sure to use this time to convert and retain the numerous first-time purchasers you’ll get. 

2020 was….a year. So don’t fret if your Black Friday, Cyber Monday was different from the years past or if this whole quarter has a series of ups and downs. There are still all of these great December holidays you can use as an opportunity for promotion. Not to mention, starting to build out your 2021 re-marketing plans to start connecting with your newly attained customers.

Check out our holiday corner for more inspiration to round out the season strong, and let’s get this year done!