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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 2022 global marketplace search data to see when interest in each 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 2023 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 2022 on Faire. In total, there were over 90,000 global searches for Valentine’s Day in 2022. In 2022, almost 90% of searches for Valentine’s Day took place in January.
Searches begin: In 2021, searches began as early as November, totaling 5,000 searches during the month. In addition, December saw about 28,000 total monthly searches.
Searches peak: In 2022, searches peaked in early January, totaling over 33,000 during the month.
Searches slow down: Searches began dropping in early February of 2022, with just about 1,000 taking place that month.
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 2022, with almost 60,000 yearly searches for the word.
Searches begin: Retailers began searching for Easter as early as the last week of December in 2021. In January, monthly searches totaled 12,000.
Searches peak: Searches really picked up during the last week of January in 2022, and February saw the highest search volume for Easter, totaling about 24,000 in the month. High search volume continued through March, which saw 20,000 total searches.
Searches slow down: Searches began tapering off in early April, with around 9,500 total searches during the month.
Shop the Easter collection on Faire.
Spring
The official first day of spring in 2023 is March 20, but searches for the season spiked during February of both 2022 and 2021. In fact, ahead of the 2022 spring season, searches for the term began as early as December 2021.
Searches begin: Searches for spring grew to over 2,000 per month in December of 2021 and continued to rise and reached over 6,000 monthly searches in January.
Searches peak: In 2022, searches hit their highest around mid-February, with about 7,000 total searches during the month. Searches were still high in March, totaling about 6,600 that month.
Searches slow down: Searches decreased in April, totaling about 2,800. By May, searches dipped back down to about 1,000 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 4,000 searches for Mother’s Day.
Searches peak: Searches peaked at a high of about 10,000 per month in April of 2022.
Searches slow down: Come May, searches for Mother’s Day died down to around 1,300 per month.
Father’s Day and summer shopping: May
Summer
Searches begin: In 2022, searches for summer began as early as February, totaling about 3,800 searches in February and 6,600 in March.
Searches peak: April and May saw the highest search volume for summer in 2022, with about 6,800 searches taking place in April and 6,900 taking place in May.
Searches slow down: By June of 2022, summer searches were down to about 5,000 per month and continued to decrease through July, which saw 2,700 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 2022, retailers began searching for the occasion in April.
Searches begin: In 2022, 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 totaled about 4,200 in May of 2022.
Searches slow down: At the beginning of June, searches for Father’s Day began to slow down, coming to a near halt as the holiday passed and totaling about 2,000 searches during the month.
Back-to-school shopping: July
Searches begin: Searches for “back to school” began to rise in mid-June of 2022, with about 1,100 total monthly searches.
Searches peak: “Back to school” searches peaked in mid-July, totaling 3,500 during the month.
Searches slow down: Searches slowed during the final week of July, and as of August 2022, searches decreased to 1,200 total monthly searches.
Halloween and fall shopping: August
Fall
Searches begin: Retailers had the fall season on their minds as early as May in 2022, with 1,200 searches for “fall” and “fall decor” taking place that month. By June, searches totaled 3,900 monthly, and in July, they hit 15,000 total monthly.
Searches peak: By mid-August, searches for “fall” and “fall decor” hit their highest, with 36,500 total searches that month. In September, search volume was still high, with 22,000 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 only 1,000 per month.
Halloween
Halloween takes place on October 31 each year, but searches begin long before the fall season.
Searches begin: In May of 2022, searches for Halloween began to rise, totaling 1,100 searches that month. June saw about 2,500 Halloween searches, and by July, searches hit 11,300.
Searches peak: Searches for Halloween reached their peak in August of 2022, totaling 28,000 searches that month. September search volume was also high, with 22,000 total monthly searches.
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 7,000 in 2022.
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 search term that saw a search volume of over 1,000 per month in every single month of 2022, showing that the major buying season is never too far from retailers’ minds.
Christmas
Even in January, searches for Christmas totaled about 2,000 per month. February proved to be the slowest month in terms of Christmas searches, with 1,200 total monthly searches, followed by 1,800 in April. Christmas has been the top search term of the year for the past several years on Faire, with searches totaling over 484,000 in 2022.
Searches begin: Because searches for Christmas see a high volume year-round, there’s no real “beginning” date—last year, searches reached over 2,000 monthly searches by May, and over 6,000 monthly searches by June. However, July saw searches really gain momentum, with searches reaching 13,000 total during the month.
Searches peak: Search volume remained above 10,000 searches per month from July through November, peaking at the beginning of October. In August, there were 27,000 total searches; in September, 37,000; and in October, 86,000. November searches totaled 57,000.
Searches slow down: While search volume was still high in November, it starts to slowly decline toward the end of the month, and after the first week of December, searches really start to halt. In December of 2022, there were a total of 8,000 searches for Christmas.
Holiday
Similar to Christmas, searches for “holiday” were high throughout most of 2022 and reached above 1,000 per month by July.
Searches begin: In 2022, searches for “holiday” totaled about 2,100 in July, more than doubling since the previous month.
Searches peak: As with Christmas searches, “holiday” searches continued to rise after July, reaching 5,500 total in September, 10,000 total searches in October, and 11,000 total searches in November.
Searches slow down: By early December, searches for “holiday” totaled about 2,200 for the month, the lowest since July.
Dive into more data from 2022—and see our predictions for this year—with The Faire Forecast.
