2021 Special Calendar Dates for eCommerce Promotion

Each year has some great shopping days and 2021 is no different. If you plan well, you can profit nicely from the special calendar dates that lend themselves well to shopping.

Many of these shopping days linked to strong emotions. Many shoppers associate certain days throughout the year with happy memories of friends and loved ones. Use this to your advantage, try a little emotional marketing.

Emotional marketing can help to boost sales and could mean the difference between having just another year or racking in the best sales figures yet!

Another great way to invoke these feelings of emotions towards your products is to make use of marketing slogans. Marketing slogans are another great strategy to grab your customers' attention and increase your conversion rates.

In this post we'll cover:

• Calendar dates to take note of
• Types of Promotions for 2019 Special Calendar Dates
• Engaging Promotions
• Special Calendar Dates Create Urgency
• Words to Create Urgency

Calendar dates to take note of

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January

• 1 January 2021 - New Year’s Day
• 18 January 2021 - Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday - U.S. holiday

February

• 12 February 2021 – Vietnamese New Year
• 12 February 2021 – Korean New Year
• 12 February 2021 - Chinese New Year
• 14 February 2021 - Valentine’s Day
• 15 February  2021 - President’s Day - U.S. holiday
• 16 February 2021 - Mardi Gras Carnival - U.S. holiday

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March

• 17 March 2021 St. Patrick’s Day

April

• 1 April  2021 - April Fool’s Day
• 4 April 2021 - Easter - Christian religious holiday
• 22 April 2021 - Earth Day

May

• 1 May 2021 - Labour Day - Singapore
• 5 May 2021 - Cinco De Mayo
• 9 May 2021 - Mother’s Day
• 31 May 2021 - Memorial Day - U.S. holiday

June

• 31 May 2021 - 1 June 2021 - Pentecost - religious holiday
• 14 June 2021 – Dragon Boat Festival - China
• 14 June 2021 - Flag Day - U.S. holiday
• 20 June 2021 - Father’s Day

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July

• 1 July 2021 – Canada Day
• 4 July 2021 - Independence Day - U.S. holiday
• 14 July 2021– Bastille Day - France

August

• 9 August 2021 – Islamic New Year - U.A.E. holiday

September

• 6 September 2021 - Labor Day - U.S. holiday

October

• 11 October 2021 – Thanksgiving Day - Canada
• 31 October  2021 - Halloween

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November

• 1 November 2021 – All Saints’ Day - France
• 11 November  2021 - Veteran’s Day - U.S. holiday
• 25 November 2021 - Thanksgiving - U.S. holiday
• 26 November 2021 - Black Friday
• 29 November 2021 - Cyber Monday

December

• 14 December 2021 - Free Shipping Day
• 18 December 2021 - Super Saturday - The last Saturday before Christmas.
• 25 December 2021 - Christmas Sales
• 26 December 2021 – Boxing Day

Types of Promotions for 2021 Special Calendar Dates

Each holiday can have its own sale. To promote it, you can use themes from the holidays. For example, Valentine’s Day can have heart-shaped announcements. St. Patrick’s Day can feature four-leafed clovers. Halloween can make use of pumpkins to announce the seasonal specials.

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For the summer months, you can use the themes of barbeques and picnics. The fall holidays can go along with harvest and back-to-school themes. Snowflakes are always a hit in the winter and will easily help to promote Hannukkah, Christmas and New Year.

Some sales are a simple percentage off. Twenty-five percent off the entire store! While other sales can get more creative. Some companies involve the customer with fun online social media campaigns that help them earn a few dollars off their purchase.

Is there a sports team in town that you want to win? You can gamify the marketing. If they score a certain number of points, you can have giveaways. While it may be too expensive to run a Superbowl advertisement, this can be a way to piggy-back off the popularity of the Superbowl.

Engaging Promotions

Drawing customers back in for yet another sale can seem dull unless you find a creative way to promote it. However, if there is a way to engage the customer, they’ll feel more inclined to check out your products and see if there is anything new.

Promote your next sale through social media and email. Ask subscribers to “retweet this snippet” in an email. You can also launch creative incentives for shopping at your sale. Post some highly shareable content and add humor and entertainment to your social media posts.

Loyalty and referral campaigns can be worked into these promotion dates. This can invigorate your base of customers and help to expand your reach. Offering rewards for referring friends during the holidays can make the deal seem that much sweeter.

Special Calendar Dates Create Urgency

Keep the promotions focused around the theme of the holiday. This will naturally let customers know that their time to save is limited. It creates a sense of urgency.

In addition to selecting visuals that are related to a holiday or special calendar date, you can also use a countdown timer. This will be an additional reminder that time is running out.

Countdown timers have proven effective at increasing conversion rates. De Nieuwe Zaak, a full-service ecommerce agency in the Netherlands ran a test to determine the effectiveness of countdown timers. Their test discovered that the timer works the best when placed at the bottom of the page.

The presence of the timer created an 8.6% lift in conversions. This is likely due to the urgency that visitors feel as they see that the time for the deal is running out.

Words to Create Urgency

A holiday sale will generate more interest and customers will likely feel more inclined to make purchases. However, using the right words to generate the fear of missing out can help improve your special promotions.

The following words tend to generate urgency with customers and increase sales:

• limited time
• today only
• act now
• hurry
• deadline
• final close-out
• one day only
• clearance
• don't delay
• now or never
• don't miss out
• once in a lifetime

As you plan out your 2021 promotions, make sure that you are using some of these marketing techniques. The more that you engage customers, the greater their loyalty to you becomes. With the right words and a countdown timer, you'll create fear of missing out on the promotion. Your customers won't want to miss your sales.