Seemingly out of nowhere, the holidays are upon us yet again, marking the arrival of sweater season, PSLs (love ‘em or hate ‘em), and all things cozy. But just when many are feeling the urge to go into hibernation mode, the biggest e-commerce sales weekend all year is just around the corner. The 2021 U.S. holiday shopping season saw the strongest retail growth in 20+ years, bringing in over $1.2 trillion with the lion’s share coming in over Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and Thanksgiving. 2022 is expected to be another strong holiday season for spending – especially for e-commerce, which is forecasted to climb 15.5% over last year.
While creators tend to approach the holiday sales season differently than big box retailers and brands, orienting around content creation and community engagement, they’re no exception to seasonal trends: In Q4 2021, Fourthwall creators sold almost 2x as much as they did in Q3 2021, with over half of all sales taking place in the month of November.
With so much to do, where to begin? First, take a deep breath 🧘Then, start by asking yourself these questions:
Staying organized and working backwards from key dates and deadlines is more important than ever this time of year. Make a calendar and set reminders to help yourself stay on track. If you have the time, getting an early head start on tasks (i.e. drafting social media posts so you can copy and paste when the time comes to publish, setting up promo codes, etc) can help keep stress levels in check.
Keep these dates in mind when putting together your game plan:
Now that you have clarity on your bandwidth, goals, and timeline, it’s time to decide what holiday strategy is right for you and your shop.
Use this checklist to help guide you:
☐ Add new products or designs to your shop
☐ Choose your store type (evergreen, drop, or hybrid)
☐ Decide what promotions you want to offer (and when)
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these elements:
Whether you’re just starting out or you already have a shop, offering new products is a great way to build hype around the holidays. The Fourthwall Catalog makes it easy to keep things fresh by applying your existing designs to new items. Is your launch coming together last minute? Select instantly available products to get your shop ready for showtime in minutes.
We recommend focusing your shop’s offerings for optimal results – 4-8 products is ideal. Some of the top selling items this time of year include beanies, socks, long-sleeve shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, leggings, mugs, stickers, blankets, and pillows.
There are two kinds of stores: evergreen and drop-style. The right choice depends on your unique brand, community, and goals.
The evergreen or “always on” approach makes the most sense if you’re selling on-demand products – supporters can purchase at any time and receive their orders quickly without much risk of selling out. Evergreen shops are a great choice for creators selling merchandise for the first time because they’re simple to manage, can bring in consistent revenue throughout the holidays and beyond, and don’t require a ton of time and effort to launch. With a steady drumbeat of promotion and regular refreshes, your shop can generate solid demand and community love!
Drop-style shops are available for a limited time or until a certain amount of inventory is sold. Items are “dropped” at a certain date and time for maximum hype. Because they’re timed releases, drops are great if you want to generate a lot of hype around your products while limiting the promotion you’ll have to do to a specific window.
But drops come with some risk, too. They tend to rely heavily on minimum order quantity (MOQ) products and have upfront costs. Enter the hybrid drop strategy – the best of both worlds and perfect for the holiday season. Hybrid shops let you dial up a sense of urgency, exclusivity, and FOMO while ensuring an adequate and continuous stock of in-demand items. What’s more, the demand created around drops is a high tide that can lift all boats: the lift generated from a single drop can increase sales of always-on products by 20 percent 🤯
This could be the perfect time to add one or two limited-edition items to your shop to offer your community something special to close out the year. What a great segway to the next section…
Once you’ve landed on what products you plan to offer and how you’ll approach your launch, it’s time to decide how you want to reward and incentivize your supporters. Data show that deep discounts are key to holiday sales – people expect incredible, limited-time only deals, so the offer needs to be compelling.
Here are our tips for creating promotions that strike a balance between smart and hype:
The final piece to the holiday promotion puzzle is deciding which holidays you want to focus on. Are you going to run a big sale or unveil a mystery item on Black Friday, or is Small Business Saturday more your vibe? Maybe you want to opt for a Cyber Monday-only deal. Whatever you choose, make sure your supporters know when to expect it so they can show up and show love!
You’ve put in the work to make your shop dope, now it’s time to share it with the world! Here are our top tips for promoting your shop in the run up to the holiday weekend:
Finally, beware of burnout! Your health and happiness comes first, always. So be sure to check in with yourself and see if you need to slow down, switch gears, or take a break.
Check out all the ways you can connect with us and our creator community this season
Ready for a challenge? Join other creators on a quest to unlock massive rewards this November. Whether you’re still deciding if we’re the right fit for you, or you’re a Fourthwall pro, you can jump in and join the fun.
Share your progress in #fourthwall-battlepass, or just come to connect with our team and fellow creators on everything from design help to pet pics 🐶
Tune in to twitch.tv/fourthwallhq on Monday, November 7 at 5pm PT for the first edition of our brand new Office Hours series. Fourthwall team members and partners will explore what’s possible on the platform, answer questions, share ideas, and hang with chat.
Check out help.fourthwall.com for resources, how-to guides, and troubleshooting tips anytime.