Retailers Calendar of Events 2020

As every retailer knows only too well, you are constantly planning ahead for the next season, occasion or event. Consumers just expect to walk into your store or visit your website and as if by magic you are ready for Christmas, Mother’s Day, Halloween and everything else in between!

Of course, there is a lot of meticulous planning, buying and organisation which goes into making sure that your store is ready to make the most of the considerable seasonal opportunity that awaits. And it goes without saying that are the ‘big holidays’ that we all know but there are also plenty of other events which are great for business, from the Olympics to Wimbledon and Burns Night to back to school.

As we start a New Year, we thought it would be a great idea to provide you with a Retailers Calendar of Events for 2020. Not all of these events will be of interest to you or your customers but hopefully this will be helpful in planning ahead, it might even whet the appetite for introducing some new seasonal promotions! And don’t forget to plan for your own ‘local’ events and celebrations too.

January
• 20th Blue Monday – Labelled the “most depressing day of the year” – bring some positivity through a special offer or sale.
• 25th Burns Night – Give your social a Scottish theme for the day.
• 25th Chinese New Year – A 15 day festival, try running some sales with a Chinese theme.

February
• 6th Fashion Week Season begins
• 14th Valentine’s Day – A couple of weeks leading up to this date are vital if your products work well as gifts.
• 25th Shrove Tuesday – Great opportunity to run some social posts, send an email or create some content around having family fun with pancakes.

March
• 5th World Book Day – Got anything connected to reading, writing or literature?
• 8th International Women’s Day – a flash sale aimed at women?
• 17th St Patrick’s Day
• 22nd UK Mother’s Day

April
• 1st April Fool’s Day – A great opportunity to pull off a fun publicity and highly shareable stunt.
• 7th World Health Day – Run a flash sale if your products or brand can be given a healthy theme.
• 10th-13th Easter Weekend – People are potentially going to be at home for a four day weekend. How can you get their attention while they’re scrolling Facebook?
• 22nd Earth Day – The perfect opportunity to shout about all your environmentally-friendly practices.
• 26th London Marathon – Another opportunity to do something related to health if your brand aligns well with this.

May
• 1st Wedding Season begins – May marks the start of the traditional weddings season, huge if you sell anything remotely related to weddings.
• 9th May the Scottish Cup Final
• 23rd FA Cup Final

June
• Start of Summer Season – People will start feeling summery and thinking about holidays – how can you capitalise?
• 5th World Environment Day – Another opportunity to shout about your green practices and perhaps raise money for an environmental charity.
• 12th Start of Euro Football Championships – Many nations in Europe will be getting major football fever.
• 21st Father’s Day – Start thinking about this day a few weeks before if you sell anything that works well as a gift for men.
• 29th start of Wimbledon Tennis Championships – A highlight of the British summer – try giving your brand a strawberry theme if you have a tennis/sport/health related brand.

July
• 13th Amazon Prime Day – If you sell on Amazon, you need to get your discounts ready and approved for this 48-hour bonanza.
• 24th Start of Tokyo Olympics – A massive day in the worldwide sporting calendar – and a great marketing angle if you sell anything sports or health related or sport watching fan associated!

August
• 19th World Photography Day – Take some epic custom photographs of your best selling products and share on Instagram.
• 31st Summer Bank Holiday (UK) – A great opportunity if you sell anything summer, barbecue or alcohol related.
• 18th Many Scotland schools go back

September
• 3rd Back to School in England – Huge for stationery stores, office items and school supplies.

October
• 31st Halloween

November
• 5th Bonfire Night – Create some social posts and emails with a bonfire and fierworks theme.
• 11th Remembrance Day – Pay respect on social and offer a special military discount on your products.
• 26th-30th Thanksgiving Weekend – One of the biggest weekends in the retail calendar (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday). Be testing your offers and ads in the weeks earlier, ready to roll out your best performers in a huge way throughout this whole week.

December
• 5th Small Business Saturday
• 19th Super Saturday – Last Saturday before Christmas.
• 23rd Last Chance for One-Day Delivery – Have your warehouse organised and ready, then run some last-minute deals with a timer counting down to your Christmas cut-off point.
• 26th Boxing Day – People are bored and have money and vouchers – so get those post Christmas sales up and running!