Key dates for your 2024 retail calendar
Written by Ka Wai Yan on 11 minute read
Explore some of the key holidays and events that you might want to add to your retail sales calendar for 2024.
What is a retail sales calendar and why should you use one?
A retail calendar is a calendar used by the retail industry. It is designed to help with sales comparability between years and pinpoints important dates and events that can help to shape businesses’ product ranges, social media campaigns, discounting strategies and more.
A retail calendar differs from the regular 12-month calendar because it breaks the year into four and five-week periods, instead of months. Primarily, 4-4-5 and 4-5-4 methods are used.
Retail sales are heavily dependent on weekends, and the number of weekend days in a specific month varies from year to year. To make it fair, a retail planning calendar separates the year, so each ‘month’ has the same number of weekend days.
We’ll explore some of the key dates for your 2024 retail calendar.
Key Dates for Your 2024 Retail Calendar
From international holidays and awareness events to weird and wacky celebrations like No Socks Day and Dance Like a Chicken Day, in 2024, there really is a theme for every day of the year.
As a retailer, you need to know what’s coming up so you can create impactful marketing campaigns around special dates to attract new customers, engage with existing ones and boost sales.
Whether you’re focusing on brand awareness, product launches or a general seasonal push with content, discounts, events and giveaways, the possibilities are endless.
Plan your promotions and initiatives in advance, starting with a retail calendar. To help, we’ve listed out some of the key dates month-on-month.
January
Many businesses find January to be one of the quietest months of the year, but for online retailers, it can be incredibly lucrative. Although the Christmas rush is over, lots of consumers will be looking to redeem their giftcards, spend Christmas money and find a bargain in the post-holiday sales.
What’s more, most consumers spend on their New Year’s resolutions. Events like Veganuary and Dry January will be dominating the conversation. This is the perfect opportunity to roll out deals that promote health and wellbeing, before Chocolate Cake Day arrives at the end of the month.
- January 1st: New Year’s Day
- January 15th: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- January 27th: Chocolate Cake Day
February
February is the month of love, and for retailers, it means the time for a sales boost. Plus, people have waited ages for January pay day so that they would have more free disposable income in February. The run-up to the 14th certainly deserves a creative, well-thought-out marketing campaign. Connect with your customers (lovers and sweet tooths) and promote commonly purchased products, gifts and experiences.
- February 5th: World Nutella Day
- February 10th: Chinese New Year (Year of the Dragon)
- February 13th: Shrove Tuesday
- February 14th: Valentine’s Day
March
Signifying the beginning of spring, March includes several important holidays to create compelling marketing campaigns around. International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day are some key campaigns to think about. And with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, you can even bring some (green) color to your ads. To finish the month, there’s an opportunity to amp up your marketing efforts for the Easter holiday.
- March 8th: International Women’s Day
- March 17th: St Patrick’s Day
- March 20th: First Day of Spring
- March 25th: International Waffle Day
- March 29th: Good Friday
- March 31st: Easter Sunday
April
As a retailer, National Pet Day is a great opportunity to push gifts and accessories for your audience’s furry friends. You can also consider Earth Day the perfect time to promote eco-friendly and sustainable products.
- April 1st: Easter Monday
- April 1st: April Fool’s Day
- April 10th: Siblings Day
- April 11th: National Pet Day
- April 22nd: Earth Day
May
From Cinco de Mayo to World Cocktail Day, May provides some exciting dates for the retail industry. It’s also the start of wedding season, so it’s a great time to focus on wedding gifts, clothing and accessories.
- May 1st: May Day
- May 4th: Star Wars Day
- May 5th: Cinco de Mayo
- May 12th: Mother’s Day
- May 13th: World Cocktail Day
- May 17th: World Baking Day
- May 26th: Memorial Day
June
Joyful June – you can look forward to Pride month, the festival season and the beginning of summer. World Gin Day and National Cheese Day and should give you and your marketing teams enough ideas to fire up social media campaigns. It’s a busy month when it comes to the retail marketing calendar.
- June 4th: National Cheese Day
- June 8th: Best Friends Day
- June 16th: Father's Day
- June 24th: Midsummer’s Day
July
Although July is seen as one of the slower months, there are still many events to consider capitalizing on. School summer holidays commencing is the ideal time to promote products and activities for families and children, and Independence Day has become an internationally recognized holiday, so there are plenty of opportunities for new and exciting campaigns.
- July 4th: Independence Day
- July 7th: World Chocolate Day
August
Summer may be coming to an end, but the back-to-school season is a great reason to focus your marketing efforts. There are also some interesting, lesser-known dates to get creative with. For example, for World Photography Day, you could ask customers to create user generated content and share images of the products they’ve bought from you, or perhaps you could offer beer-themed promotions for International Beer Day.
- August 2nd: International Beer Day
- August 9th: Book Lovers Day
- August 13th: National Prosecco Day
- August 16th: National Rum Day
- August 19th: World Photography Day
September
September marks the end of summer holidays with Labor Day weekend. During this time, you should be preparing your retail business for the hectic final quarter. However, that’s not to say you need to put campaigns on hold. Think of creative promotions relating to Oktoberfest and World Tourism Day.
- September 2nd: Labor Day
- September 13th: International Chocolate Day
- September 21st – October 6th: Oktoberfest
- September 27th: World Tourism Day
October
As October beckons the start of fall and the clocks go back, many people seek a distraction from the cold weather ahead. In 2020, the US spent over $8 billion on Halloween, making it impossible to ignore on your calendar. Every retailer should make an effort to get involved, even if it’s just by posting spooky memes on social media.
- October 1st: International Coffee Day
- October 1st: World Vegetarian Day
- October 31st: Halloween
November
During November and December, retail sales see the highest activity. The countdown to Christmas begins, and Q4 can be the most important period of the year for many retailers. There are huge opportunities, but also extreme competition. How can you make your brand and products stand out through seasonal campaigns? Make sure your inventory levels and sales plans are up-to-date. Consumers will be searching for the best deals, so you must be prepared and know your marketing strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, whatever that may be. Increasingly we see retailers marketing their offers across the month of November.
With World Vegan Day at the beginning of the month, it’s also a perfect time to launch and promote any vegan offerings you may have.
- November 1st: World Vegan Day
- November 5th: Bonfire Night
- November 11th: Veterans Day
- November 11th: Singles Day
- November 19th: International Men’s Day
- November 28th: Thanksgiving
- November 29th: Black Friday
December
Here comes December and everything is intensifying and becoming more urgent as we approach the last few weeks towards Christmas. It’s also important to be aware of the last postage and delivery dates and perhaps incorporate these into your marketing strategy.
Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, is one of the most profitable dates of the year for retailers, and let’s not forget about the Boxing Day sales. Post-Christmas sales have been starting earlier and earlier in recent years, often on Christmas Eve now.
- December 2nd: Cyber Monday
- December 21st: Super Saturday
- December 24th: Christmas Eve
- December 25th: Christmas Day
- December 26th: Boxing Day
- December 31st: New Year’s Eve
Awareness Months
In addition to the above celebrations, there are also a number of month-long observances throughout the year that you should be aware of. While these aren’t necessarily marketing opportunities, it is important to be familiar with them.
- Black History Month: February
- Women’s History Month: March
- LGBT Pride Month: June
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month: October
- Movember (Men’s Health Awareness Month): November
Staying Up to Date
Keeping these dates in mind and planning promotions around them can ensure your business is relevant and competitive all year round. You can even go one step further by having affiliates spread the word of these seasonal campaigns on your behalf. With Awin’s new platform features, businesses will have several methods of effectively promoting their affiliate programs and getting their brand reach their target audience.
