Retail Calendar
The promotional calendar that governs all human commerce.
Brands started Black Friday six weeks early.
The first Early Black Friday Preview email went out on October 3.
In effect 10-01 to 10-15
CPMs can smell Q4 approaching.
They begin climbing in early October as a courtesy warning.
In effect 10-01 to 10-15
Every retail brand's Q4 budget unlocked on October 1.
In effect 10-01 to 10-15
Retail advertisers woke up from their September nap at the same time.
In effect 10-01 to 10-15
The holiday season now starts before Halloween.
In effect 10-01 to 10-15
Everyone knows a bigger discount is coming.
They have seen your November emails before.
In effect 10-16 to 10-31
Cart abandonment is now a savings strategy.
They are not abandoning the cart. They are parking it until November.
In effect 10-16 to 10-31
The last two weeks of October are a national spending pause.
The pause ends the moment something is 40 percent off.
In effect 10-16 to 10-31
Black Friday started on November 1, apparently.
Nobody agreed to this. It is happening anyway.
In effect 11-01 to 11-15
Every brand is running early access to a sale that has not started.
Early access to the early access begins next week.
In effect 11-01 to 11-15
CPMs entered their November growth phase.
Your budget did not.
In effect 11-01 to 11-15
Inboxes are already full of Black Friday previews.
Your subject line is number 41 in a stack of 60.
In effect 11-01 to 11-15
Shoppers are screenshotting your prices and building a case file.
In effect 11-01 to 11-15
Nobody is buying because everyone knows you're going to email them 25% off in two weeks.
In effect Thanksgiving (10d before)
Full price is temporarily a fictional concept.
It returns in January, briefly.
In effect Thanksgiving (10d before)
Conversion is on hold until your sale officially starts.
Your customers have your promo calendar memorized better than your email team does.
In effect Thanksgiving (10d before)
The teaser emails worked. Everyone is waiting.
You successfully trained demand to arrive next Friday.
In effect Thanksgiving (10d before)
Anything sold at full price this week is a data error.
In effect Thanksgiving (10d before)
Every brand on Earth is advertising today.
Several brands that no longer exist are also advertising today.
In effect Black Friday
Your 20% off offer is fighting 700 other 20% off offers.
Somewhere, a mattress brand is doing 60 and ruining it for everyone.
In effect Black Friday
CPMs set a new personal best today.
They train all year for this.
In effect Black Friday
Every brand you have ever purchased from is emailing you today.
Including the one you bought a single candle from in 2019.
In effect Black Friday
Cyber Monday is competing with everyone who extended Black Friday.
Which is everyone.
In effect Cyber Monday
The national credit card limit was reached on Saturday.
Cyber Monday runs on remorse and remaining balance.
In effect Cyber Monday
Black Friday has been extended through Monday, like every year.
The word Friday is now decorative.
In effect Black Friday (3d after)
You are bidding against every retailer in the hemisphere.
In effect Black Friday (3d after)
Everyone already spent their money on Black Friday.
Your December customers are November customers who finished early.
In effect 12-01 to 12-10
The country is in a brief post-BFCM remorse window.
In effect 12-01 to 12-10
Your full-price December looks bad next to your discounted November.
In effect 12-01 to 12-10
Shoppers who wanted a deal already got one.
In effect 12-01 to 12-10
Ad fatigue from November is collecting interest.
Your audience has seen your creative 34 times and can draw it from memory.
In effect 12-01 to 12-10
The shipping deadline is killing conversion for anything that ships.
Which is everything you sell.
In effect 12-11 to 12-19
Standard shipping can no longer promise Christmas.
Your checkout is now a countdown clock that only goes down.
In effect 12-11 to 12-19
Everyone who missed the shipping cutoff is buying gift cards instead.
In effect 12-11 to 12-19
Expedited shipping costs more than the product.
In effect 12-11 to 12-19
Arrives by December 24 is the only ad copy that works this week.
Everything else is a donation to the algorithm.
In effect 12-11 to 12-19
Everyone is returning what marketing convinced them to buy.
Revenue is moving in a direction the dashboard was not built for.
In effect 12-26 to 12-31
A nation is holding gift cards and deciding what it actually wanted.
In effect 12-26 to 12-31
Your site traffic is up because the returns portal is on it.
In effect 12-26 to 12-31
Purchases this week are exchanges wearing a trench coat.
Net revenue knows the truth.
In effect 12-26 to 12-31
Every retailer went to clearance on December 26.
Your margin was not consulted.
In effect 12-26 to 12-31
Gift card redemptions are distorting everything.
The revenue is real. The attribution is a group project.
In effect 01-01 to 01-15
Your audience saw two months of ads and would like to be left alone.
Frequency capped itself, emotionally.
In effect 01-01 to 01-15
January customers are exchanging, not shopping.
The AOV agrees.
In effect 01-01 to 01-15
Post-BFCM ad fatigue is a recognized condition through mid-January.
Every Q4 impression was a small loan against this month.
In effect 01-01 to 01-15
Shoppers watched prices drop for 60 days and remember everything.
In effect 01-01 to 01-15
Amazon temporarily owns ecommerce.
Everyone else is renting attention by the hour.
In effect Prime Day (5d before through 2d after)
Consumers have decided the only valid CTA is Prime Delivery Tomorrow.
In effect Prime Day (5d before through 2d after)
Your checkout is being compared to one-click and losing.
In effect Prime Day (5d before through 2d after)
Prime Day absorbed this week's discretionary spending.
In effect Prime Day (5d before through 2d after)
Everything you sell has a lightning deal equivalent right now.
It is 31 percent off and it ships tonight.
In effect Prime Day (5d before through 2d after)