Key Dates for Your 2024 Retail Calendar

What is a retail sales calendar and why should you use one? 

A retail calendar is a calendar used by the retail industry. It is designed to help with sales comparability between years and pinpoints important dates and events that can help to shape businesses’ product ranges, social media campaigns, discounting strategies and more.  

A retail calendar differs from the regular 12-month calendar because it breaks the year into four and five-week periods, instead of months. Primarily, 4-4-5 and 4-5-4 methods are used.  

Retail sales are heavily dependent on weekend days, and the number of weekend days in a specific month varies from year to year. To make it fair, a retail planning calendar separates the year, so each ‘month’ has the same number of weekend days.  

We’ll explore some of the key dates for your 2024 retail calendar. 

Key Dates for Your 2024 Retail Calendar 

From international holidays and awareness events to weird and wacky celebrations like No Socks Day and Dance Like a Chicken Day, in 2024, there really is a theme for every day of the year. 

As a retailer, you need to know what’s coming up so you can create impactful marketing campaigns around special dates to attract new customers, engage with existing ones and boost sales. 

Whether you’re focusing on brand awareness, product launches or a general seasonal push with content, discounts, events and giveaways, the possibilities are endless.  

Plan your promotions and initiatives in advance, starting with a retail calendar. To help, we’ve listed out some of the key dates month-on-month. 

January 

Many businesses find January to be one of the quietest months of the year, but for online retailers, it can be incredibly lucrative. Although the Christmas rush is over, lots of consumers will be looking to redeem their gift vouchers, spend Christmas money and find a bargain in the post-holiday sales.  

What’s more, most consumers spend on their New Year’s resolutions. Events like Veganuary and Dry January will be dominating the conversation. This is the perfect opportunity to roll out deals that promote health and wellbeing, before Chocolate Cake Day arrives at the end of the month. 

• 1st January: New Year’s Day 
• 6th January: National Shortbread Day 

• 15th January: Blue Monday 
• 25th January: Burns Night 
• 26th January: Australia Day 
• 27th January: Chocolate Cake Day 

February 

February is the month of love, and for retailers, it means the time for a sales boost. Plus, people have waited ages for January pay day so that they would have more free disposable income in February. The run-up to the 14th certainly deserves a creative, well-thought-out marketing campaign. Connect with your customers (lovers and sweet tooths) and promote commonly purchased products, gifts and experiences. 

• 5th February: World Nutella Day 
• 10th February: Chinese New Year (Year of the Dragon) 
• 13th February: Shrove Tuesday 
• 14th February: Valentine’s Day 

March 

Signifying the beginning of spring, March includes several important holidays to create compelling marketing campaigns around. International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day are some key campaigns to think about. And with St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, you can even bring some (green) colour to your ads. To finish the month, there’s an opportunity to amp up your marketing efforts for the Easter holiday. 

• 8th March: International Women’s Day 
• 14th March: Mother’s Day (UK) 
• 17th March: St Patrick’s Day 
• 20th March: First Day of Spring 
• 25th March: International Waffle Day 
• 29th March: Good Friday 
• 31st March: Easter Sunday 

April 

As a retailer, National Pet Day is a great opportunity to push gifts and accessories for your audience’s furry friends. You can also consider Earth Day the perfect time to promote eco-friendly and sustainable products. 

• 1st April: Easter Monday 
• 1st April: April Fool’s Day 
• 10th April: Siblings Day 
• 11th April: National Pet Day 
• 22nd April: Earth Day 

May 

From Cinco de Mayo to World Cocktail Day, May provides some exciting dates for the retail industry. It’s also the start of wedding season, so it’s a great time to focus on wedding gifts, clothing and accessories. 

• 1st May: May Day 
• 4th May: Star Wars Day 
• 5th May: Cinco de Mayo 
• 12th May: Mother’s Day (US) 
• 13th May: World Cocktail Day 
• 17th May: World Baking Day 

June 

Joyful June – you can look forward to Pride month, the festival season and the beginning of summer. World Gin Day, National Cheese Day and Father’s Day should give you and your marketing teams enough ideas to fire up social media campaigns. It’s a busy month when it comes to the retail marketing calendar. 

• 4th June: National Cheese Day 

• 8th June: Best Friends Day 
• 10th June: World Gin Day 
• 16th June: Father’s Day (UK) 
• 24th June: Midsummer’s Day 

July 

Although July is seen as one of the slower months, there are still many events to consider capitalising on. School summer holidays commencing is the ideal time to promote products and activities for families and children, and American Independence Day has become an internationally recognised holiday, so there are plenty of opportunities for new and exciting campaigns. 

• 4th July: American Independence Day 
• 7th July: World Chocolate Day 

August 

Summer may be coming to an end, but the back-to-school season is a great reason to focus your marketing efforts. There are also some interesting, lesser-known dates to get creative with. For example, for World Photography Day, you could ask customers to create user generated content and share images of the products they’ve bought from you, or perhaps you could offer beer-themed promotions for International Beer Day. 

• 2nd August: International Beer Day 
• 9th August: Book Lovers Day 
• 13th August: National Prosecco Day 
• 16th August: National Rum Day 
• 19th August: World Photography Day 

September 

September marks the end of summer holidays with Labour Day weekend in America. During this time, you should be preparing your retail business for the hectic final quarter. However, that’s not to say you need to put campaigns on hold. Think of creative promotions relating to Oktoberfest and World Tourism Day. 

• 2nd September: Labour Day (US) 

• 13th September: International Chocolate Day 
• 21st September – 6th October: Oktoberfest 
• 27th September: World Tourism Day 

October 

As October beckons the start of autumn and the clocks go back, many people seek a distraction from the cold weather ahead. In 2020, the UK spent over $8 billion on Halloween, making it impossible to ignore on your calendar. Every retailer should make an effort to get involved, even if it’s just by posting spooky memes on social media. 

• 1st October: International Coffee Day  
• 1st October: World Vegetarian Day 
• 19th October: International Gin & Tonic Day 
• 31st October: Halloween 

November 

During November and December, retail sales see the highest activity. The countdown to Christmas begins, and Q4 can be the most important period of the year for many retailers. There are huge opportunities, but also extreme competition. How can you make your brand and products stand out through seasonal campaigns? Make sure your inventory levels and sales plans are up-to-date. Consumers will be searching for the best deals, so you must be prepared and know your marketing strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, whatever that may be. Increasingly we see retailers marketing their offers across the month of November. 

With World Vegan Day at the beginning of the month, it’s also a perfect time to launch and promote any vegan offerings you may have.  

• 1st November: World Vegan Day 
• 5th November: Bonfire Night 
• 11th November: Veterans Day  
• 11th November: Singles Day 
• 19th November: International Men’s Day 
• 28th November: Thanksgiving Day 

• 29th November: Black Friday

December 

Here comes December and everything is intensifying and becoming more urgent as we approach the last few weeks towards Christmas. It’s also important to be aware of the last postage and delivery dates and perhaps incorporate these into your marketing strategy. 

Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, is one of the most profitable dates of the year for retailers, and let’s not forget about the Boxing Day sales. Post-Christmas sales have been starting earlier and earlier in recent years, often on Christmas Eve now in the UK. 

• 2nd December: Cyber Monday 
• 20th December: Christmas Jumper Day 
• 21st December: Super Saturday 
• 24th December: Christmas Eve 
• 25th December: Christmas Day  
• 26th December: Boxing Day  
• 31st December: New Year’s Eve 

Awareness Months 

In addition to the above celebrations, there are also a number of month-long observances throughout the year that you should be aware of. While these aren’t necessarily marketing opportunities, it is important to be familiar with them. 

• Black History Month: February (US and Canada), October (UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands) 
• Women’s History Month: March 
• LGBT Pride Month: June 
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month: October 
• Movember (Men’s Health Awareness Month): November 

Staying Up to Date 

Keeping these dates in mind and planning promotions around them can ensure your business is relevant and competitive all year round. You can even go one step further by having affiliates spread the word of these seasonal campaigns on your behalf. With Awin’s new platform features, businesses will have several methods of effectively promoting their affiliate programmes and getting their brand reach their target audience.