Anticipate Sales Traffic With 2015 Google Shopping Holiday Calendar

As retailers prepare for the busiest time of the year, Google has released a calendar that will help anticipate the largest online shopping days.
Specifically, this calendar will advise marketers when they should be increasing budgets to capture the influx of sales traffic.
The most important thing for retailers to remember this holiday season is – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
While 25% of holiday shoppers start shopping before Halloween, 49% do the majority of their shopping in December, and 30% of shoppers don’t actually finish holiday shopping until after Christmas”.
This year, Google anticipates ecommerce holiday sales are expected to grow 14%.
November – 30
December – 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 15, 16
November – 27, 28
December – 5, 12, 18, 19, 21, 22
Black Friday is expected to be the top in-store sales day. In-store pick-up rose 40% last year on Black Friday.
Cyber Monday is expected to be the top online sales day. Last year, Cyber Monday became the biggest day in U.S. online shopping history.
If you’re debating whether to invest in mobile or video advertising – it would be wise to jump on board with both.
In response to recent shopping trends, Google is set to release a Holiday Ad Extension feature for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. The custom ad extension is available to advertisers who want to run ads that highlight specific, value-added deals or tailored offers (as seen in the graph below).
Pro-Tip: This feature supports English-language ads only. Implementation is easy, using new, custom headers available in the Structured Snippets options list. The relevance of these extensions will help generate additional clicks and conversions.
For more on Google Shopping holiday sales strategy, email [email protected]