The Importance of an E-Commerce Retail Calendar

An e-commerce retail calendar is essentially a promotional roadmap for your products. Many retailers and e-commerce businesses follow one closely.

So why is a retail calendar necessary, and what should you keep in mind when building one?

Why Do You Need an E-Commerce Retail Calendar?

1. It Lets You Turn Special Occasions and Seasons Into Sales: There are many key dates throughout the year when shopping activity spikes, New Year's, religious holidays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and more. A calendar helps you make the most of traffic during these periods by getting the right products in front of customers at the right time, driving up conversion.

   
   

2. It Builds a Cohesive, Consistent Brand Image and Strengthens Your Positioning: Running campaigns within a structured calendar shows customers that you're not always discounting, but rather offering deals during specific, defined periods. This lets you sell at full price, or with minimal promotion, the rest of the time.

   
   

3. It Gives You a Competitive Edge: Customers typically compare prices and promotions across different sites before making a purchase decision. A calendar helps ensure you're not falling behind competitors around key seasonal transitions and important dates.

   
   

4. It Helps You Make the Most of Marketplaces and Manage Those Relationships: You can proactively plan around marketplace campaigns, allowing you to take fuller advantage of the traffic marketplaces bring in.

   
   

5. It Helps You Plan for Sales Growth: By looking at when sales peaked the previous year, you can align campaigns and budget planning around those same periods.

What Should You Keep in Mind When Building an E-Commerce Retail Calendar?

• Key dates and holidays

• Season starts, and season ends that require clearance discounts

• Major marketplace campaign weeks

• Months or weeks that need extra growth focus, based on last year's sales data

• Your competitors' campaign periods

• Take note of these key weeks and periods, and use them to plan out your entire year in advance.