It’s that time of year again where retailers prepare themselves for the busiest shopping period of the year. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”, is a good motto to follow at this time of year, and now is the time to get prepared. To lend a helping hand we’ve put together some key dates for your calendar.
Key dates for your calendar
- November 7 – Deadline to ship inventory to Amazon FBA for Black Friday
Ensure you have your goods in Amazon’s warehouse in good time for the holiday season. November 7 is the final day but we’d advise you get them in before then.
- November 11 – Singles’ Day (China)
Singles’ Day started out as a shopping day in China for single people and has grown into a huge online shopping event for ecommerce giants such as Jack Ma’s Alibaba.
- November 24 – Thanksgiving (US)
Thanksgiving in Canada took place in October, but Americans like to kick off the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving weekend. There is just 28 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day this year.
- November 25 – Black Friday
Online retailers as well as bricks and mortar stores offer huge discounts on Black Friday to early shoppers and bargain hunters. Last year, UK shoppers experienced Black Friday fever with a number of altercations breaking out between bargain hunters.
- November 28 – Cyber Monday
In the US, Cyber Monday online sales grew 16% compared to 2014, topping $3 billion for the first time and making it the biggest day in US online shopping history.
- December 24 – Christmas Eve
For the last minute Christmas shopper.
- December 25 – Christmas Day
In 2015, UK ecommerce sites experienced 147 million visits resulting in £636 million spent, a 25% increase in transactions compared to 2014.
- December 26 – Boxing Day
For the first time in seven years, Boxing Day was the not the busiest online retail day, beaten by Black Friday.
- December 31 – New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is your last chance to grab a sale in 2016. This may be a good time to reprice your seasonal or old inventory.
Holiday Season in the US
The graph below shows the increase in retail ecommerce sales in the US during the holiday shopping season from 2005 to 2015. In 2015, retail ecommerce sales during November and December amounted to $56.43 billion during holiday season, up from $53.3 billion in 2015.
Find more statistics at Statista
- US retail ecommerce holiday season sales, $79.4bn
- Amount of Cyber Monday shopper, 131m
- Retail industry sales, $3.19tn
- Holiday retail sales, $619.9bn
- Christmas holiday retail growth, 4.1%
- Percentage of retailers beginning holiday promotions on October 1st, 15.4%
- Average Christmas expenditure on gifts, $781bn
- Percentage of U.S. consumers buying gifts online, 45%
Source: Statista, http://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/
UK Shipping Dates
It’s important for you to know the last dates for guaranteed Christmas deliveries. You may want to consider free shipping for orders over a certain value, in order to help you stay ahead of your competition this holiday season.
Here’s the Royal Mail list of last posting dates for 2016.
- Tuesday 20 December – 2nd Class and Royal Mail Signed For
- Wednesday 21 December – 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For
- Thursday 22 December – Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed
5 Tips for Marketplace Success This Holiday Season
- Reprice dynamically with RepricerExpress.
- Consider Fulfilment by Amazon.
- Stock up your best sellers.
- Ship free and ship fast.
- Don’t forget Black Friday – November 25!
With Christmas just 96 days away, it’s time to get ready for the rush. While you fine-tune your plan for this holiday season on Amazon, let RepricerExpress take care of keeping your prices competitive and your Buy Box percentage high.
Sign up for your 15-day free trial and give yourself one less thing to worry about. As a early present from us, use promo code “REX10” and receive 10% off your first month’s bill.
Here’s hoping this holiday season, is your best one yet!
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