In the dynamic landscape of e-commerce, meticulous planning is paramount to success—especially when it comes to navigating ecommerce seasonality.
The seasonality of sales is undeniably tricky; something working in one quarter is no guarantee that it will work in the next. However, rather than running from seasonal variations as an ecommerce business owner, you should look to embrace them. But how?
In this blog, we’ll teach you how to navigate ecommerce sales seasonality by applying the four peaks theory to your campaign planning and production selection.
Ready? Let’s get into it!
Why You Need to Leverage Ecommerce Seasonality
Seasonality doesn’t just affect retail sales; it also plays a pivotal role in the competitive world of online sales. If you want to stay ahead in the digital selling game, you need to embrace seasonal factors proactively.
Adopting a forward-thinking approach empowers businesses to leverage key dates, the holiday season, and time-based trends. It allows for the creation of targeted and impactful marketing campaigns that are attuned to ecommerce seasonality.
Anticipating consumer behavior and aligning marketing strategies with an ecommerce calendar positions brands ahead of the curve, enabling them to capitalize on peak shopping periods and more easily navigate ebbs and flows.
Proactivity not only maximizes sales opportunities, but also opens up more room to focus on other aspects of a holistic digital marketing strategy such as creating compelling content and refining social media advertising strategies.
Ultimately, customers behave differently at different times of the year—it’s time to accept that every business is a seasonal business!
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Understanding the Four Peaks Theory
For marketers looking to get proactive, the “four peaks theory” presents a dynamic approach to fueling growth by better leveraging ecommerce seasonality. It breaks the sales year down into four “peaks” during which consumer behaviour is distinct.
This differs from a two peaks approach to planning for seasonal trends in which buying behaviour—and therefore the need for marketing campaigns—spikes twice throughout the year: around the holiday season in Q4 and during another gifting moment such as Valentine’s Day in February, or Mother’s Day/Father’s Day in the summer months.
So, rather than planning around two major events every year, the four peaks approach suggests marketers plan around four to better navigate the seasonality of sales. Here’s an example of some key ecommerce dates in 2024:
- Valentine’s Day in Q1
- Mother’s Day in Q2
- Back to School in Q3
- Christmas in Q4
While the dates or events you choose are up to you, the benefit of planning around four peaks rather than two is in how it helps manage the valleys. Rather than have your efforts stall out during the long gap between peaks one and two, you can keep the momentum going and better manage the realities of ecommerce seasonality.
The Power of Product Marketing Selection
The four peaks theory doesn’t just apply to planning your marketing efforts—it should also inform which products you choose to market. Careful selection is imperative for ecommerce businesses seeking to thrive during sales seasonality.
As businesses traverse their peaks, whether they be the critical period of Q4 sales or festive seasons driven by holiday offers, they should be considering:
- Inventory levels
- Average Order Value (AOV)
- Content availability
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Other relevant sales data
By aligning product selection with the seasonality of sales inherent in each peak, businesses can ensure optimal inventory management during heightened demand. This will allow them to craft compelling content that resonates with festive themes, and strategically select products based on their potential impact on AOV and LTV metrics.
This nuanced approach not only maximizes revenue during peak sales periods but also lays the groundwork for long-term customer loyalty. The four peaks theory, thus, emerges as a guiding framework for businesses to fine-tune their product strategy and ecommerce store to fit the time of the year and how people tend to shop.
The long and the short of it is aligning your production selection with the seasonality of sales unlocks opportunities for both immediate and sustained success!
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Crush Seasonal Trends With an Ecommerce Strategy That Delivers All Year Round
By harmonizing inventory levels, content availability, and key metrics like AOV and LTV with the unique characteristics of each peak and the seasonality of sales, ecommerce businesses can turn sales seasonality trends into opportunities.
At The Influence Agency, we embrace the four peaks theory to deliver ecommerce strategies that deliver year-round. From holiday campaigns to unconventional peak seasons, we’ll help you connect with your target audience to do more business.
Struggling to navigate ecommerce seasonality? Contact us today for a solution!