How brands can leverage our holiday trend report for a lucrative busy season

The holidays are fast approaching – and with them all the opportunities of a busy buying season. To get our customers prepped and ready, we recently released our holiday trend report. Based on search and buying data, this handy guide includes the top six products we anticipate will be high on retailers’ must-have lists this year:

1. Flavoured drink mixes
2. Claw clips and belt bags
3. Pickleball equipment and accessories
4. Vintage decor and colourful glassware
5. Kids’ bamboo pyjamas and weighted plush toys
6. Red apparel, maxi skirts and matching sets

We also shared a buying calendar, which highlights popular retailer buying moments during the season. Keep reading for three ways you can leverage our holiday trend report and buying calendar and for tips for a successful 2023 holiday season. 

1. Ensure your product listings reflect the trends

If you sell products that fall into any of the above trending categories (and even if you don’t), updating your product listings to reflect the current buying season can increase the chances you’ll show up in retailer searches. Unsurprisingly, many retailers are looking for things like “holiday gifts” or “unique holiday decor”, so ensuring your product descriptions and/or titles include similar buzzwords can be a powerful and easy switch.

For products that fall into the trending categories, make sure you use the exact keywords for your product listing. For example, if you sell claw clips, make sure you use the full search term “claw clip” rather than a more generic title like “Haley’s favourite clip” or an SKU number. 

While your product descriptions should always speak to your ideal buyers, take a moment to consider how they’ll be thinking during the holidays. Will they be excited to help their shoppers find the perfect gifts? Will they love the uniqueness of your offerings? Will they appreciate ease of display and merchandising? Adjust your tone to speak to their state of mind. 

Also remember that the best product descriptions are simple and direct and often nod to the five senses. So if you’re talking about a matching set, for example, be sure to include those words – “matching set” – as well as a description of the soft and buttery feel of the fabric. Or, if it’s a flavoured drink mix, speak accurately to the taste and what kind of event it might be good for (perhaps a holiday party?). Get even more tips on how to write compelling product descriptions.

2. Offer your products to retailers during key buying times

Even if you have the most on-trend products, it’s still important to get them in front of your buyers in the right context. Start by taking a look at the buying calendar to see when retailers most actively search for each holiday. For instance, we know that searches for “Hanukkah” spike in November. If you have Hanukkah products, November is the time to step up your marketing and ensure your email campaigns highlight relevant products. 

You can even leverage Faire’s search data as a sales tool to customize your communication. For example, you could write an email to retailers saying, “Last year, almost 86,000 retailers were searching for ‘Christmas’ products in October. Stock up on Christmas items from my store now before they sell out”! 

Or, perhaps you have new products that fit into our top trends and keywords and you want to make sure your customers know about them. Don’t be afraid to leverage Faire’s CRM and segment your customers into specific groups. For example, you could use Faire to create:

• A “Ready to buy” list for customers who have your products in their cart
• A “Faire Direct” list for customers who have unused Faire Direct credit

If you have some holiday-relevant products that would fit nicely into the buying season but aren’t quite ready to ship, you can list them as pre-orders so that retailers can still get organized and buy when they’re ready. 

3. Make it easy for yourself and retailers with trending Collections

Even if a retailer knows exactly what they want, it can still be overwhelming to navigate through many pages of products. That’s why we created the Collections tool, which allows you to curate specific product assortments around seasons, trends, bestsellers and more. This makes it much more seamless for retailers to discover what they’re looking for (with less effort). And they’ve proved pretty helpful: Brands that build collections drive up to four times the sales as brands that don’t. 

To tap into this power, highlight seasonal products and those that fall into our major trend categories. For example, you could create a collection like “trending winter products” or “vintage decor collection”. If you don’t have any seasonal products, create a collection of your bestsellers and put a holiday spin on them like “holiday gifts collection”. You can save time by using our email templates in your Campaigns tab and leveraging social media assets. You can also create a promotion for Collections, easily applying a discount to all holiday-ready items. Get more tips on how to use Collections to streamline your season.  

The holidays can be one of the most lucrative (and fun!) times for Faire brands. And if you act now to plan accordingly and thoughtfully, you’ll ensure you aren’t adding stress to an already packed season.