Good afternoon! Hello everyone! I am Masha Kaganovich, a marketer at Western Bid. Today’s article will be dedicated to seasonal niches — quite a relevant topic before the holidays. But it will concern not only the Christmas period but all seasonal directions in general. I will talk about three types of seasonal goods — when to use them and when not to include them in your assortment.
When to display seasonal products?
Also, I will answer your questions — or rather, several questions that you often ask. You asked: how far in advance is it best to display products before the holiday? I’ll say right away — it all depends on the holiday itself. For example, before Christmas, people start preparing very early — say, as early as October. The season begins sometime in early or mid-October, even before Halloween or Thanksgiving. So the Christmas season — probably the longest — can last 10–12 weeks.
Other holidays I would call shorter in duration — approximately one or two months before the event. For example, Halloween starts around mid or late August. Thanksgiving — roughly from the beginning or middle of October, so to speak. And so on. For most other holidays, the season lasts about 4–8 weeks. Christmas is longer. So, this is a rather short period before each holiday.
Should seasonal listings be deactivated?
Second question: should you turn off these listings when the holidays are over? Yes, you should. And now we will discuss three different types of seasonal products. If it’s about the first type, then there’s no point in leaving a product displayed in January — for next Christmas. Unless you’re offering a huge discount — 80–90%, a clearance sale that can interest buyers to purchase your product “ahead” for the next season. That makes sense. Such products are temporary — they need to be deactivated, then reactivated, possibly slightly changed for the new season.
Three types of seasonal products
So, the most important thing — let’s understand the topic of seasonal products. As far as I understand, there are three types.
The first type — items for holidays that are created specifically for a particular holiday and cannot be applied to any other. That is, they are unique to that holiday.
The second type — the so-called evergreen listings — “evergreen” listings. These are products that can be adapted or their sales can be boosted during the holiday season. They are not created specifically for holidays, but can be beautifully “packaged” with holiday marketing to boost sales during the holidays.
The third type — simply seasonal products unrelated to specific holidays. For example, beer — everyone knows it sells better in summer. Or, for instance, “I’m bored jar” — “boredom-busting jar” — sells better during or before summer holidays when kids are bored. Or black cats, which can be purchased any time but mostly before Halloween or in autumn. So, there are niches that are not focused on a holiday, but we know that demand for them increases during a certain season.
The importance of identifying the product type
You must clearly determine what kind of product you have and which of the three types it belongs to. Practically all products can be attributed to one of these three types. So, when it comes to seasonal niches — don’t rush.
Type 1: Specific holiday products (detailed)
Let’s start with the first type and analyze it. So, the most vivid example of seasonal products are holiday items.
What distinguishes them from other seasonal products? The fact that they cannot — and no one will — buy them outside of the holiday period. They are created solely for a certain holiday. For example, Christmas pajamas or sweaters. Christmas tree decorations. Or the same socks hanging near a fireplace to put gifts in. You understand, it’s everything related to the Christmas period.
For example, a Christmas ornament that cannot be used anywhere else. Obviously, it is intended only for the Christmas tree. Everything is done in green, red, white colors — this is a classic holiday product that does not suit any other holiday.
Or gift wrapping with Santa. Or a bag made specifically for Christmas. Again, it’s usually either a Christmas tree or colors associated with Christmas: red, green, white, gold. Any product can, in principle, be stylized for a specific holiday.
The same applies to Thanksgiving — pumpkins, ghosts for Halloween, black and orange colors, autumn atmosphere. Or Valentine’s Day — pink, red hearts, immediately indicating which holiday the product is meant for.
These are examples of products that, for unknown reasons, people love very much. Not only in physical handmade products but also in digital goods. And many stores fill their shop with similar seasonal listings created solely for certain holidays. I want to tell you this: if your shop has fewer than a hundred sales — I do not recommend doing this. Close these listings, stop displaying them. Don’t display holiday products if you have very few sales.
The thing is, a new shop develops through stable conversion and a constant flow of customers. When one or two products become Etsy Pick or bestsellers. When regular reviews start appearing — gradually, step by step. That’s how a shop gains stability and builds its target audience.
The concept I explained in the previous article — matching the product to the market — is very important to maintain consistency exactly in this. Especially at the initial stage, when you are receiving reviews, improving your product, delving deeper into your niche, so that your product increasingly meets your audience’s needs. Then, stable sales will begin.
And seasonal products simply do not allow this to happen. Even in the best case, for example, at Christmas — even if you find your niche — the season will only last 6, 8, 10, at most 12 weeks, and that’s it. And there’s no guarantee that a customer who bought a Christmas product from you will buy something for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Valentine’s Day. Because these can be entirely different audiences, different products, with different colors and shapes, created specifically for separate holidays.
The problem of jumping between holidays
Therefore, even if a person fills their shop with various holiday products and thinks: “When Christmas is over, then New Year, then Valentine’s Day, then Easter, then Mother’s Day — I will jump from one holiday to another,” — it’s extremely difficult! Because they are entirely different assortments. They can target different audiences. With such an approach, it’s very hard to achieve stability — to get a steady flow of reviews, sales, or Etsy Pick.
Who are holiday products suitable for?
So, who is recommended to create such listings? For those who already have a well-established shop, a good product-market fit, thousands of sales, familiar bestsellers, Etsy Pick badges, and a large number of reviews. That is, when you already have a stable base, you can afford experiments — adding holiday products to expand the target audience or diversify the assortment. You already know your niche, your customer, their taste and preferences — you have room for experimentation. And even if you deactivate this listing after a few months, it won’t harm your business because it is already stable, and sales are ongoing. Such a product will simply be the “cherry on top,” so to speak.
Type 2: Evergreen products (seasonal adaptation)
The second type of seasonal products is non-seasonal, “evergreen,” as we call them, evergreen. That is, almost any product that can be adapted or “dressed up” with a new marketing shell to increase sales during holidays. During the fourth quarter, Etsy itself increases traffic and spending on advertising. That is October, November, December — a period when even if you do nothing in your shop, sales are likely to grow anyway. Simply because Etsy funds advertising and drives traffic. You will sell better in this fourth quarter — the so-called high season, when retail activity increases.
How to adapt ordinary products?
Now, let’s discuss in more detail. What you can do to adapt your regular products for the holiday season, make them more attractive, without creating new listings? Because we want to maintain stability — we want listings to become bestsellers and stay that way. You can change a few details in your listing or throughout your shop to update it, attract buyers’ attention, and only slightly, inconspicuously, adjust individual elements. This way, you can avoid deactivating old listings and creating new ones — keep your bestsellers and Etsy Pick in their places.
Examples of adaptation
So, first. For example, a candle. Obviously, this candle can be sold with a flower, or something else. It’s just an ordinary candle. There’s nothing indicating that it would sell better at Christmas. The only thing — here, they just changed a detail: made a Christmas tree with taste, placed it on fabric, on the background, thus creating a winter or Christmas look.
For example, these are simple mugs, just painted. They will be purchased throughout the year. This is a constant listing. Look — what do we see? Santa Claus, Christmas tree decorations in the background. It says Merry Christmas. So, they just changed the marketing design.
Look carefully at this listing — all photos are ordinary, they sell throughout the year. They just added a few with Merry Christmas. And gift wrapping — the same. Just added “Happy Holidays” inscription, an additional element. Other photos remained the same, and they can sell these mugs all year round. They just slightly changed SEO, the title, tweaked the listing to boost sales during the holidays.
By the way, you might not realize how few people on Etsy do this. Either they create separate listings specifically for holidays or leave everything as is. The only thing I’d say is — these colors, red and green, are, of course, Christmas, it’s understandable, but they slightly cheapen the product. Everyone is tired of the orange-black for Halloween and red-green for Christmas. And we see that listings of this type — with a traditional background — are also “evergreen” listings, just with a new background added. It subtly conveys a festive mood: a warm sweater, fairy lights in the background. That’s better — not as cliché as red and green.
But this concerns the background and mockups. Some other things can be changed as well. For example, they show how to add gifts up to $10. You can create new categories: gifts up to $10, up to $20, up to $40, for example. So that each customer within their price range can navigate your shop and buy a gift that suits their budget.
In short, by changing a few words in the titles, adding something to tags — you can update a regular listing. For example, it’s just a decoration, just a mug, but with a winter motif — sweater, warmth, coziness, fairy lights — all associated with Christmas. The same can be done very subtly for Valentine’s Day: just change the background and show that it can be a gift for a guy, girl, wife, husband. In short, adapt your evergreen listing for a specific season.
Type 3: Seasonal products (not holiday related)
The third category of seasonal products are those unrelated to holidays, but we simply know they sell better during certain seasons.
The first thing you need to understand — do you have such a product? For example, someone created a digital product — goal planner, a goal planner. But they don’t even realize that this product sells best in December, before New Year, when people set goals for the upcoming year. Do you understand? So, you need to be aware of this and know, because these things actually also have a significant downside: sales drop during certain periods. But that doesn’t mean you should deactivate such products.
For example, the same boredom buster — when will it sell better? Likely in May, June, July. Travel products — naturally, they sell better during winter holidays or summer vacations when people travel more. We also know that in August, for example, demand for school-related products increases. These are all examples of such seasonal products.
Conclusion
I hope this information was useful and interesting for you. A little tip — everything related to seasonal products and how to increase sales during holiday periods. Bye-bye!
