A week-long holiday in China, held to mark National Day on October 1. Other golden weeks occur around Chinese New Year in January or February and Labour Day in May.

Golden Week is a national holiday and a huge time for tourism – in 2023, 826 million Chinese people made domestic trips during the period.¹ This can drive retail sales opportunities, but the holiday period can also cause issues with shipping and supply chain operations so, for those affected, careful planning can be essential to avoid disruption.

With Golden Week a key time for travel, could you attract Chinese tourists to your business? It’s potentially a big opportunity – before COVID-19, Chinese tourists spent more than any other country’s, totalling $255 billion in 2019.² And during the first five days of last year’s holiday, a study showed that the average spending of overseas Chinese tourists was 16 times higher than 2019’s level.³

As with any consumers, it’s important to be as appealing to them as possible. To do this, you could consider translating marketing materials into Mandarin, or even advertising on Chinese social media platforms.⁴ Think carefully about payment platforms too. Digital payments such as Alipay and WeChat Pay are hugely popular among Chinese consumers – accepting them could help you to attract more of them. It’s also worth acknowledging that spending has been slow in China this year, with consumers becoming more cautious.⁵ Prioritising deals and value could be a winning strategy.

As well as the sales opportunities Golden Week could present, for some businesses it may be important to plan around the festivities to avoid potential disruption. Factories shut down and there are fewer employees working at ports and terminals, so it’s a good idea to plan shipments in advance to allow for longer lead times and to help avoid capacity limitations.⁶

Also known as the festival of lights, Diwali is a major Hindu festival and the biggest sales event of the year in India. Celebrated over a five-day period, the height of the festivities is on the third day, which in 2024 is on November 1.

Diwali drives sales across many categories, as people spend money on items ranging from gifts and clothing to consumer electronics and big-ticket items. Diwali sales in India hit a record in 2023⁷ but, with large Indian populations around the world, it’s not just there where businesses can find potential.

Ahead of last year’s festival, 84% of consumers expressed an interest in purchasing luxury goods and clothing, while 80% were interested in purchasing gold.⁸ With major international brands increasingly launching capsule collections and limited editions specifically for Diwali⁹, it’s a further indication that this period could be a great time to target luxury consumers in India.

Success with Indian consumers could come down to how well you manage to connect with them – and social media is a great tactic to use. A huge 94% of social media users in India have bought apparel through a social platform, while 6-in-10 consumers discover new products and brands through them.¹⁰ More specifically, employing user-generated content (UGC) could be a winning strategy. Research shows that 80% of Diwali consumers actively engage with UGC to shape purchase decisions.¹¹

There are Indian populations – and Diwali celebrations – all over the world, and the number of related retail events and launches in some markets, such as the UK, are increasing.¹² Yet there is still a sense of untapped potential, and with India having the world’s largest diaspora – UN data shows that there are almost 18 millions Indians living overseas¹³ – this could be a market you shouldn’t neglect.

Singles’ Day originated in the mid-1990s in China as an occasion where people celebrate being single. It became a retail phenomenon in the late 2000s when retailer Alibaba started offering Singles’ Day-related discounts and promotions. It is celebrated on November 11 each year.

It’s the world’s biggest sales event, with consumers in 2022 spending over four times the amount that U.S. shoppers spent during Cyber Week.¹⁴ The event is also now making its mark in European markets. For instance, recent figures show sales in France totalling almost €1 billion¹⁵ and Italy saw an 80% increase in Singles’ Day sales in 2021.¹⁶

Singles’ Day is still mainly a Chinese event and, if you want to fulfil your potential in that market, it’s vital that you maximise your exposure to consumers there. One way of doing that is to have a strong presence where people are shopping.

Alibaba’s Tmall accounted for over 60% of Singles’ Day Gross Merchandise Value in 2023¹⁷, and Tmall Global – a cross-border e-commerce platform that allows overseas businesses to sell to Chinese consumers without a business licence – accounted for 12% of that.¹⁸ Selling with Tmall may not be right for every business, but for those it suits it could be a great way to reach customers. For those it doesn’t, it’s worth noting that one in five Chinese consumers encounter new brands or products through social media comments or adverts.¹⁹

However you are selling to consumers in China, it could be important to take their preferences and demands around delivery into account. One aspect of this is speed. Chinese consumers are used to fast deliveries – with over 70% of ecommerce parcels delivered on the same day.²⁰ While expectations for deliveries from overseas retailers will naturally be lower, it’s worth making sure your shipping provider is able to offer fast and reliable services.

Singles’ Day still has a long way to go before western consumers (and retailers) attach the same importance to it as those in China do, but there is still scope to find success. As well as Italy’s 80% sales increase in 2021, Spain and France also saw sales grow by 68% and 57%, respectively.²¹ And while almost 1 in 5 consumers in the UK have heard of Singles’ Day, that figure rises to 41% in Germany and 56% in Poland.²²

Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving in the US (November 29), which is historically a major retail sales event. Cyber Monday is the Monday after, and traditionally a day for big promotions online. Both events are now fully embraced internationally.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday – along with the days around them – are hugely important in the retail calendar with many businesses offering compelling discounts to capture attention and drive sales. On a global bases, sales made in Cyber Week (the period from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) grew by 6% in 2023 to $298 billion.²³

Competition is fierce during the Black Friday period. To help navigate this it’s important to find ways to make your own promotions stand out from the crowd. Focusing on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) could be a good place to start. Make sure the technical performance of your website is up to scratch and identify and implement relevant keywords. Those with high search volumes, low competition and a strong relevance to your particular niche could be a winning strategy.²⁴

You could also think carefully about what promotions would work for your audience, how to craft compelling offers – examples include time-limited sales, product bundles and free gifts²⁵ – and pay attention to the creativity of your marketing to help capture attention.

Launching your promotional campaigns at the right time could be an important part of your overall success. And that time may be earlier than you think, as the sales season has been spreading out in recent years and many retailers are now launching their promotions in October.²⁶

Being first to market can have a big impact on whether people buy from you, while the earlier you start advertising the earlier you have data that can help you to understand what’s driving sales and what demand is looking like – which could help make your planning for the full peak season more effective. But be cautious, as going too early could mean cannibalising sales that would otherwise been made at full price.

And don’t just think about the date your campaigns begin. Figures from the U.S. show that a quarter of shoppers were expected to hit stores between 5am and 10am on Black Friday in 2023, while the previous year almost a third of consumers started Black Friday spending on the Thursday and 15% planned to shop for gifts between midnight and 5am on the Friday.²⁷ Timing elements of your promotional activities around key spikes in interest such as these could give a big boost to your performance.

Another key aspect of Black Friday timing is in stock replenishment, and having an accurate reorder point for products and materials. By looking at historical sales data for the period, checking delivery lead times, and calculating your safety stock levels, you can reduce the likelihood of being out of stock when customers come to buy.

Consumers have huge choice during the Black Friday period, so it’s worth considering how to make your offer work best for them. One aspect to think about is how they are shopping. Over half of all Cyber Week sales are made via mobile devices, for example, so being optimised for mobile is essential.²⁸

And with financial pressures weighing heavily on many consumers, it’s worth thinking about payment strategies. Figures from Adobe Analytics show that UK consumers spent £475 million through buy now, pay later services from November 24-27 last year, almost 14% of the total online spend.²⁹ Offering flexible payments such as this could give you an edge.

One of the most important religious and cultural festivals in the calendar, celebrated by over 2 billion people around the world.

Put simply, Christmas is the most important time of the year for many businesses. In the UK, over two in five small businesses expect to generate more than a quarter of their yearly revenue during the period.³⁰ The UK also has the highest level of Christmas-related consumer spending in Europe at an expected £85 billion in 2023, coming in ahead of Germany at £74 billion and France at £62.8 billion.³¹

Having a successful Christmas period – and peak season in general – can come down to how well prepared you are. Some good ideas include planning and creating your marketing early, making sure your logistics are running smoothly, and forecasting demand as accurately as you can to ensure you have enough inventory to sell and the staff you need to cope.

You could also consider how efficient your operations are and whether software integration could help you to handle a surge in order volumes, for example in areas such as inventory management, customs clearance or shipping.

Clear and accurate communication is essential in the Christmas season to help avoid unforeseen disruption and unhappy customers. For instance, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re having regular communication with suppliers in case of production or shipping issues, while internal teams should be fully aligned so stock levels can be accurately monitored.

It’s also essential to be aware of shipping deadlines – both for supplies into your business and deliveries to customers. Clearly communicating the latter – and potentially offering a range of shipping options that balance speed with costs – can help give buyers confidence, avoid disappointment and reduce the number of returns to your business.

It’s a no-brainer that consumers are going to shop at Christmas, but paying attention to how they shop could make a difference in how well your business wins part of that spending. Mobile devices, for example, accounted for over half of all 2023 Christmas season sales in the U.S.³² and UK³³, so making sure your website is optimised for mobile is vital.

It could also be worth doing your homework in areas such as consumer delivery preferences and social media marketing strategies, while getting your promotional timings right may be crucial. Consumers around Europe tend to start Christmas shopping at different times – 85% of UK consumers will have started by October, for instance, compared to 63% of Germans not starting until November or later³⁴ – so making sure your marketing hits the right audience at the right time could make a big difference.