2024 Gifting Calendar
Whilst the festive period is the ‘golden quarter’ in terms of gift voucher sales, there are many opportunities throughout the year to optimise sales, helping you thrive all year long.
Your goal should be to communicate with your customers on a regular basis to raise awareness of your gift vouchers as lovely gifts for any occasion (remember that ‘birthday gift’ remains the most popular reason for purchase throughout the year).
With that in mind, we have created a key dates gifting calendar and a marketing ‘what to do when’ diary, helping you stay on track all year long.
Planning 2024
To help you plan the year ahead we’ve created a key dates gifting calendar, which outlines gifting dates, events and seasons to include in your gift voucher marketing strategy, such as:
Festive period
Black Friday weekend
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day
Valentine’s Day
But remember – every day is a gifting day!
And your gift sales can thrive all year long.
‘Celebration’ gifts are the most popular gifting types throughout the year. Think birthday, new parents, graduation, thank you, retirement, anniversary and wedding gifts, to name a few.
Whilst other gifting dates work towards one peak day, most of these occasions fall every single day, accounting for around 60% of yearly sales.
We recommend including ‘gift vouchers’ in your overall Sales and Marketing plan throughout the year. allocating resource to promote gift vouchers outside of key dates too.
Packages for each occasion
Wedding, thank you and Valentine’s Day gift types are the most expensive type of gifts purchased.
Do you have luxury couple experiences on offer? Popular couple gifts include: weekend spa breaks with dinner, dinner with champagne, spa treatments and experiences for two and overnight stays with romantic touches, such as rose petals and champagne.
Appeal to all gift budgets by also having some simpler packages for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, as buyers tend to go for less pricey gifts on these occasions.
Gift marketing diary
Follow our gift voucher marketing diary, which shares what to do when. Paired with our key dates resource pages (you’ll find these in the Gift App – log on and click onto ‘Marketing Resources’), it will help you plan throughout the year.
With the exception of Christmas, we’d recommend customising your gift shop and building awareness 6-8 weeks prior to a gifting event, followed by regular reminders (via email and social media) with a ‘last minute’ communications 1-2 days before and on the day of the occasion.
JANUARY
- ‘Blue Monday’ promo via social/email
- Create Valentine’s gift campaign & add to gift shop
- Create Mother’s Day gift campaign & add to gift shop
- Diarise regular ‘Birthday‘ gifts emails & social posts throughout the year. A great time of the month to do so is around traditional ‘pay-days’
FEBRUARY
- Promote Valentine’s gift vouchers, including last minute message
- Promote Mother’s Day gift vouchers
MARCH
- Promote Mother’s Day gift vouchers, including last minute message
- Promote Easter gifts
Mother’s Day is celebrated on different days around the world, most commonly in the months of March or May
APRIL
- Planning your festive brochures? Remember to add copy/images about gift vouchers
- Create wedding & anniversary gift campaign & add to gift shop
- Raise awareness of Mother’s Day (International) gift vouchers in marketing campaigns
MAY
- Create Father’s Day gift campaign & add to gift shop
- Promote Mother’s Day (Int) gift vouchers, including last minute message
- Promote Wedding & anniversary gifts in marketing campaigns
Father’s Day falls in June for the majority of our clients, with the exception of Australia and NZ, where it falls in September
JUNE
- Promote Father’s Day gift vouchers, including last minute message
- Promote gift vouchers as unique gifts for teachers
- Promote gift vouchers as alternative & unique graduation gifts
- Raise awareness of wedding & anniversary gifts in marketing campaigns
JULY
- Promote golfing gift vouchers
- Raise awareness of wedding & anniversary gifts in marketing campaigns
AUGUST
- Raise awareness of wedding & anniversary gifts in marketing campaigns
- Check your stationery levels both ‘in house’ and with SK Chase Fulfilment in preparation for your Christmas sales
SEPTEMBER
- September and October are the most popular birthday months! Create a birthday gifts campaign
- Create Christmas gift campaign
OCTOBER
- Create Black Friday gift campaign
- Promote gift vouchers as Christmas gifts
NOVEMBER
- Launch Black Friday gift voucher offers
- Promote gift vouchers as Christmas gifts
- 40% of all engagements happen between the last week in November and Valentine’s Day on February 14th. Promote gift vouchers as ‘engagement’ presents
DECEMBER
- Promote gift vouchers as Christmas gifts
- Communicate last delivery dates for orders to arrive in time for Christmas
- If you offer collect &/or email delivery, promote to capture last-minute shoppers
- Create a Boxing day / January sale