Seasonal Event Scheduling

Most people think a sale starts when customers begin shopping. For us, it starts weeks earlier. With our EOSS this month, and Q3 and Q4 being our biggest quarters, we're already deep in planning mode. Here are my biggest learnings from running sale events at House of Chikankari over the last 5 years. 1. Put your bestsellers on discount. Customers come to a sale looking for products they already love. The key is planning inventory early enough so you don't run out midway. Unicommerce gives us the visibility to make those calls with confidence. 2. Creative fatigue happens faster than you think. What works on Day 1 often stops working by Day 5. We usually go into a sale with 25 to 30 creative variations ready. Fresh hooks matter as much as bigger budgets. 3. Retargeting drives more revenue than most brands realise. The first few hours and the last few hours of a sale are usually our biggest spikes. Kwikchat helps us reach customers on WhatsApp and email: expiring offers, abandoned carts, last minute deals. Merito gives us real time ROAS visibility so we know exactly where to double down. 4. Operations can make or break the event. When orders spike, dispatches, support, warehouse, and logistics all get stretched at once. We plan rotational shifts and tighter workflows well before the sale begins. Unicommerce keeps us on top of order flow and bottlenecks in real time. 5. Payment failures are expensive. A lot of effort goes into driving traffic. During peak demand, even small checkout issues add up fast. Razorpay has been a constant for us here: we've tried other gateways and kept coming back to it. The success rates are definitely better compared to other gateways in the market. This is our playbook heading into the season. Five years and dozens of sale events later, we’ve learned that growth isn’t usually limited by demand. It’s limited by preparation. What are some of your top learnings from your past sales? Would love to hear from fellow founders.

The biggest seasonal campaign mistake I see brands make (and it’s not the one you think)… 👀 Every year, from mid-November onwards,  Hospitality and event brands go all-in on Christmas campaigns. ↳ Festive menus. ↳ Christmas party bookings. ↳ Seasonal events. ↳ Winter offers. All great. All necessary. But here’s the problem… They forget what happens after Christmas. And that’s where the real damage shows up. Because while everyone is busy squeezing out every last bit of December revenue… January gets ignored. And it’s wild because: 👉🏽 January spending does happen 👉🏽 Valentine's Day is only 6-7 weeks away 👉🏽 People still go out - they’re just more selective 👉🏽 Competitors who planned ahead scoop the bookings Most brands launch their January incentives way too late. By the time they push out their mid-week offers or winter discounts, customers have already chosen where they’re going. If you want seasonal campaigns that actually convert: 🔥 Plan your January push alongside your Christmas campaigns 🔥 Launch incentives early (20% off midweek, limited specials, early V-Day teasers) 🔥 Capture the people who are already browsing during that quiet Christmas-to-New-Year lull 🔥 Segment your audience and re-target those that visited over Christmas and invite them back in Jan’ Seasonal marketing isn’t about shouting the loudest in December. It’s about staying visible when everyone else vanishes. 🙌🏼

A lot of sellers lose Prime Day, Black Friday, and every other seasonal event before it even starts. Not because their ads were bad. Because they waited too long to prepare. Here's what panic scaling actually looks like and how Amazon Ads can help you: budgets go up, a few keywords get added, and then you spend the most expensive week of the year figuring out what converts. By the time you know what's working, the event is over. In my experience, the sellers who win seasonal events consistently aren't smarter. They're just earlier. Here's the simple shift that can help improve your seasonal preparation: Test 2 weeks out. Scale during the event. That's it. Run your Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns before the spike hits. Learn what converts when clicks are cheaper. Fix what isn't working before you're paying peak prices to find out. And before you do any of that, pick one hero product and build your entire seasonal plan around it. Not five products. Not your whole catalog. Just pick one. Focus makes results easier to see, spend easier to control, and learning easier to apply. Once your hero product is dialed in and your Sponsored Products campaign is converting, then you layer in Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Product Videos to expand reach. Seasonal events reward preparation. If your approach every season is "we'll figure it out when it gets here" this is your sign to change that. Learn more about Amazon Ads and get the full how-to guide: https://lnkd.in/gdA9_kkp #Ad #AmazonAds #SponsoredProducts

Up to 40% of annual sales happen in Q4; but seasonal demand exists year-round. Right now it's summer sales, holiday travel, gifting periods, weddings; every season creates buying triggers. If you're not building full-funnel strategies to capture these seasonal shifts, you're losing sales and profit to competitors who are better prepared. Here’s a simple mind map to help you capture seasonal shopping demand; Capture Seasonal Shopping Demand: Full Funnel Approach TOFU (Top of Funnel): Awareness Start early to build attention before peak periods Seasonal creative themes tied to current events Educate buyers on product value & relevance MOFU (Middle of Funnel): Offers Limited-time bundles & promotions Seasonal collections & product drops Build confidence with social proof and UGC BOFU (Bottom of Funnel): Urgency Countdown offers & final call messaging Shipping cut-off reminders Retarget high-intent visitors with frictionless CTAs Maximise seasonal sales through full-funnel strategies. Every season brings new purchase intent, if you’re ready to meet it.

Seasonal campaigns require year-round planning. Black Friday success gets decided in July, not October. Christmas campaign performance depends on August preparation. Summer campaigns need spring audience building. Most brands start seasonal planning 6-8 weeks before the event. That's too late. Your competitors are already booking premium ad placements. Influencers are booked solid. Creative agencies are at capacity. High-performing brands plan seasonal campaigns 6 months ahead. They pre-book advertising inventory when rates are lower. They secure talent partnerships before everyone else is competing. They test creative concepts during off-peak periods when data is cheaper. But planning ahead isn't just about logistics. It's about audience preparation. Your Black Friday campaign performs better when people already know your brand. Your holiday messaging resonates more when you've built relationships throughout the year. Your summer launch succeeds because you spent the winter educating your market. Seasonal spikes require year-round foundation building. Think of seasonal campaigns as the harvest. The real work happens during the planting and growing seasons when no one is watching.

📘 Demand Planning Masterclass Chapter 6: Demand Planning in E-commerce E-commerce demand planning is a completely different game. Unlike traditional retail, demand can change overnight. A flash sale, influencer campaign, price drop, or festive event can multiply demand within hours. That's why successful e-commerce planning is about being proactive, not reactive. Some of the biggest demand drivers in e-commerce include: 🎯 Promotions & Discounts – Limited-time offers can create sudden demand spikes. 🎉 Festivals & Sale Events – Events like Big Billion Days, Diwali Sale, or Brand Days require weeks of planning. 📈 Marketing & Traffic – Digital campaigns, push notifications, and influencer collaborations directly impact customer demand. 🏷️ Price Changes – Even a small discount can significantly improve conversion rates. ⚔️ Competition – New launches, aggressive pricing, and competitor campaigns can quickly shift customer demand. Planning for a major sale isn't just about forecasting demand. It requires coordination across inventory, procurement, warehousing, logistics, and marketing. A successful planning cycle typically looks like this: 📅 Analyze past events and historical trends. 📊 Build an event-adjusted demand forecast. 📦 Align inventory with expected demand. 🚚 Ensure supplier and logistics readiness. 📍 Track performance during the event and reforecast if required. The biggest mistakes during large sale events are waiting too long to plan, ignoring demand drivers, underestimating logistics capacity, and failing to update forecasts as new data becomes available. 💡 Insight: The success of a sale event is decided long before the first customer places an order. Great demand planners anticipate demand, prepare the supply chain, and continuously adapt as the event unfolds. Key Takeaway: Understand the event → Forecast accurately → Align inventory & supply → Execute flawlessly → Learn and improve. Tomorrow, we'll cover Chapter 7: Inventory Planning & Reorder Points and understand how accurate demand forecasts translate into smarter inventory decisions. #DemandPlanning #Ecommerce #Forecasting #SupplyChain #InventoryManagement #Planning #Retail #Operations #BigBillionDays #LinkedInLearning

Most teams start event marketing when they land at the airport. By then you've already lost. The companies generating real pipeline from events aren't doing anything fancy at the booth. They're winning in the 2-3 weeks before anyone shows up. Here's the pre-event playbook that actually moves deals. Step 1: Build your hit list early Pull your target accounts attending the event. Cross-reference with open opportunities, churned accounts worth revisiting, and prospects who've engaged with your content recently. You're not trying to meet everyone. You're trying to meet the right 15-20 people. Step 2: Earn the meeting before you ask for it Cold outreach saying let's grab coffee at the conference gets ignored. Everyone sends that. Instead: → Reference something specific. Their recent funding round. A post they wrote. A challenge their company is likely facing. → Offer something useful upfront. A relevant resource. An intro to someone they should meet. A coffee voucher with no strings attached. → Make it easy. Suggest a specific time and place. Remove friction. The goal is to feel like a warm intro not a cold pitch. Step 3: Create a reason to be remembered Most booths blend together. Same swag. Same pitch. Same forgettable experience. Think about what would make someone talk about your booth at dinner that night. → Interactive elements that require participation → Giveaways tied to engagement not just badge scans → Conversations that feel like advice not demos Step 4: Coordinate your team Nothing kills event ROI faster than three reps talking to the same prospect while missing a decision maker two booths away. → Assign target accounts to specific people → Share context on each account before the event → Daily syncs to adjust based on who you've actually talked to The event itself is just the middle of the funnel. The work before is what determines whether you leave with pipeline or just a pile of badge scans. What's your pre-event outreach look like?