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When is the best time to begin buying inventory for a particular season or holiday? This is a common question we at Faire hear from independent retailers. To help keep retailers informed on when to begin stocking up for key consumer shopping moments, we dug into Faire’s 2023 global marketplace search data to see when interest in each occasion heats up and ultimately peaks.
It’s important to note that no two years are identical, and it’s impossible to predict with 100% accuracy what buying behavior will lie ahead. However, our hope is that retailers can use this data to plan their buying for holidays like Mother’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas, or seasonal moments like back-to-school shopping.
Run your own brand? This calendar can give you insight into when retailers begin purchasing for major occasions, which can in turn help you plan your production calendar.
About the calendar:
In our 2024 buying calendar, we’ve grouped each major holiday by when searches hit their highest of the year. We’ve also provided information on when searches rise above 1,000 per month—a good baseline for retailer interest based on the number of buyers on our platform—and when they start to decline. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it does represent the top buying holidays on Faire from the past several years.
Valentine’s Day shopping: January
Taking place on February 14 each year, Valentine’s Day was one of the top search terms of the year in both 2021 and 2023 on Faire. In total, there were over 94,000 searches for Valentine’s Day in 2023 globally. In 2023, almost 55% of search queries including “valentine” took place in January.
Searches begin: Valentine’s searches begin taking off as early as November, totaling more than 5,000 searches during the month in 2023. In addition, December saw about 33,000 total monthly searches.
Searches peak: In 2023, searches peaked in early January, totaling over 51,500 during the month.
Searches slow down: Searches began dropping sharply in late January of 2023, with February seeing just 1,800 searches.
Easter and spring shopping: February
Easter
Though Easter doesn’t take place until early April, searches for Easter, “Easter decor,” and “Easter gifts” are historically at their highest on Faire in February and March. Easter was also a top search term in 2023, with almost 72,000 total searches for the word.
Searches begin: Retailers began searching for Easter as early as the last week of December in 2022. In January 2023, monthly searches totaled over 17,000.
Searches peak: Searches accelerated sharply in February 2023. February historically sees the highest search volume for Easter, totaling about 26,500 in the month. High search volume continued through March, which saw 18,000 total searches.
Searches slow down: Searches began tapering off in early April, with just 1,400 total searches during the month.
Spring
Searches begin: The official first day of spring in 2024 is March 19, but searches for the season start taking off at the beginning of winter—reaching over 3,400 in December of 2022.
Searches peak: In 2023, searches hit their highest around mid-February. Both January and February saw more than 9,600 searches, and spring-related queries were still high in March, totaling about 7,700 that month.
Searches slow down: Searches decreased in April, totaling about 3,000. By May, searches dipped back down to below 1,500 total monthly searches.
Mother’s Day shopping: April
Mother’s Day takes place yearly on the second Sunday in May, but retailers start thinking about the holiday well before then.
Searches begin: The very first searches for Mother’s Day trickled in during January, but they started steadily rising in February. In March, there were over 5,500 searches for Mother’s Day.
Searches peak: Searches peaked smack dab in the middle of April, with monthly searches hitting a high of about 13,000 per month in April of 2023.
Searches slow down: Come May, searches for Mother’s Day died down to 3,600 for the month—with more than 60% of those searches coming in the first week of the month.
Father’s Day and summer shopping: May
Summer
Searches begin: In 2023, searches for summer began as early as February, totaling about 5,200 searches in February and 7,500 in March.
Searches peak: April and May saw the highest search volume for summer in 2023, with about 9,400 searches taking place in April and 11,700 taking place in May.
Searches slow down: By June of 2023, summer searches were down to about 6,500 per month and continued to decrease through July, which saw 3,300 searches total, and August, when searches dipped below 1,000 per month.
Father’s Day
Father’s Day takes place on the third Sunday of June each year, and in 2023, retailers began searching for the occasion in April.
Searches begin: In 2023, searches for Father’s Day gained momentum toward the end of April, reaching over 1,000 total monthly searches.
Searches peak: Father’s Day searches are highly concentrated in May, totaling about 6,400—over 60% of the full year’s worth of queries.
Searches slow down: At the beginning of June, searches for Father’s Day decelerated just as quickly as they began, coming to a near halt as the holiday passed and totaling about 1,700 searches during the month.
Back-to-school shopping: July
Searches begin: Searches for “back to school” began to rise in mid-June of 2023, with about 2,800 total monthly searches.
Searches peak: “Back to school” searches peaked in mid-July, totaling 7,500 during the month.
Searches slow down: Searches slowed during the final week of July, and as of August 2023, searches decreased to less than 1,100 total monthly searches.
Halloween and fall shopping: August
Fall
Searches begin: Retailers had the fall season on their minds as early as May in 2023, with 2,000 searches for “fall” and “fall decor” taking place that month. By June, searches totaled nearly 5,500 monthly, and in July, they hit 23,000 total monthly.
Searches peak: By mid-August, searches for “fall” and “fall decor” hit their highest, with 35,000 total searches that month. In September, search volume was still high, with 26,000 total monthly searches.
Searches slow down: Fall searches began dropping quickly by late September, and the decline continued through October. By November, searches were back to below 2,000 per month.
Halloween
Halloween takes place on October 31 each year, but searches begin long before the fall season.
Searches begin: In May of 2023, searches for Halloween began to rise, totaling roughly 2,000 searches that month. June saw about 4,200 Halloween searches, and by July, searches hit 19,300.
Searches peak: Searches for Halloween reached their peak in August of 2023, totaling nearly 28,000 searches that month. September search volume was also high, with 26,000 total monthly searches. (Interestingly, searches for “candy” didn’t peak until early November.)
Searches slow down: By mid-October, searches really started to slow down, and by the end of the month, they were almost nonexistent. October searches totaled 8,700 in 2023.
Christmas and holiday shopping: July through November
As perhaps the biggest retail holiday of the year, it’s no surprise that the holiday season saw the highest search volume on Faire in the past several years. In fact, Christmas—taking place December 25 each year—is the only seasonal search term that saw a search volume of over 1,000 per month in every single month of 2023, showing that the major buying moment is never too far from retailers’ minds.
Christmas
Even in January, searches for Christmas totaled about 2,600 per month. February proved to be the slowest month in terms of Christmas searches, with 1,400 total monthly searches. Christmas has been the top-searched holiday of the year for the past several years on Faire, with searches totaling over 368,000 in 2023.
Searches begin: Because searches for Christmas see a high volume year-round, there’s no real “beginning” date—last year, monthly searches reached over 3,800 by May, and over 7,000 monthly searches by June. However, July saw searches really gain momentum, with searches reaching 19,000 total during the month.
Searches peak: Search volume remained above 37,000 searches per month from August through November, peaking at the beginning of October. In September, there were 60,000 total searches, and in October, 125,600. November searches totaled nearly 88,000.
Searches slow down: While search volume was still high in November, it started to slowly decline toward the end of the month, and after the first week of December, searches really started to fall. In December of 2023, there were a total of 20,000 searches for Christmas.
Holiday
Similar to Christmas, searches for “holiday” were high throughout most of 2023 and reached above 1,000 per month by June.
Searches begin: In 2023, searches for “holiday” totaled about 3,300 in July, more than doubling since the previous month.
Searches peak: As with Christmas searches, “holiday” searches continued to rise after July, reaching 27,700 total in September, nearly 60,000 total searches in October, and over 41,000 total searches in November.
Searches slow down: By early December, searches for “holiday” totaled about 9,500 for the month, the lowest since July.
Dive into more data from 2023—and see our predictions for this year—with The Faire Forecast.
