Today marks 100 days until Christmas. eBay will be celebrating this occasion with a “chill this holiday” approach, justifying this stance with their disfavour of “the stress-inducing creep that comes with it.”
The move will see the marketplace taking a stand against the “Christmas Creep,” by promising “no Holiday promotions until November” – moving away from an established Christmas peak formula in retail to start navigating now for one of the most lucrative and competitive spikes of shopping activity of the year.
The benefits of ‘the early bird catching the worm’ are echoed in new research from leading retail job board RetailChoice which suggests that 26% of UK consumers purchase Christmas goods in August. Under a half (47%) of UK shoppers plan to complete their Chrismas shopping early, with 43% doing so to avoid the Christmas rush.
This year saw Selfridges becoming the first store in the world to unveil their seasonal Christmas shop in July, responding to the growing demand for shopping outside of the traditional festive season, and other retailers are looking to follow suit.
“We’re already starting to see companies make early holiday announcements – with reports of early in-store displays and decorations! What’s the rush?!
We love the holidays. But we don’t love the stress-inducing creep that comes with it. Each year, holiday prep and promotions start earlier and grow bigger, louder and shinier throughout the season. Christmas music in stores in October? Holiday sales before Halloween? It’s gone too far. Even Mariah Carey, the so-called Queen of Christmas, thinks so.”
– eBay.
The marketplace are moving against this retail model, attributing the move to three factors. First, eBay will busy themselves with supporting their merchants to prepare for the busiest time. Second, the marketplace may “call out their competitors for getting ahead of themselves.” Third, shoppers will start seeing holiday ads, promotions and sales on eBay from November to avoid bombarding sellers with holiday messages, spiking their appetite for Christmas sales.
eBay say they’re committing to “some much needed holiday chill. Because eBay sellers offer great deals every day, not just holiday discounts, you can find exactly what you want, whenever you want it.”
4 Responses
So let me get this right…. Consumer research suggests 26% of people do xmas shopping in August, almost half plan to get it done early…. And ebay want to pretend this isn’t happening by not promoting xmas until November?!
So basically the plan is to miss almost half of the xmas potential, well not target them anyway.
Now im the first one to be depressed about the ever earlier xmas stuff… But if that is what shoppers want, then that is what they shall have!
I think this make back fire on them, but I guess what we will see is a flow of sales, offers and the such all with a ‘winter theme’ instead!
There doesn’t seem to be any research to support their decision. This is just standard proceedure for eBay.
I’m for it, but at the same time cycinally see through it.
Who’s the first person to mention Christmas shopping to me this year? eBay.
they’re even playing “it’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas” in the ad.
But because they’re doing so ironically, they appeal to the grumblers like me who are fed up of it, and remind the early birds about Christmas at the same time.
They’ve launched their Christmas campaign in September by saying they won’t launch it until November, plus they can take pops at competitors in the meantime who try to do a serious Xmas launch, still getting the eBay name mentioned alongside Xmas shopping each time.
I’m sure it’ll even gain some extra free press inches just because people in general have been crying out for some Xmas chill for years now.
The people who like to Xmas shop in July are going to do so anyway, whether you mention Xmas every ten seconds or not.
I’m on board.