Key eCommerce Events in 2022 & How to Prepare for Them

In the age of e-commerce post-pandemic, online fashion marketplaces are taking over as consumers’ main shopping portal. But while marketplaces offer an established platform and a  large audience to tap into, the stiff competition online can put brands at a disadvantage.

To succeed in fashion marketplaces, brands must make the most out of every opportunity that arises, such as key e-commerce events. Whether it’s a sale, holiday or the start of a season, there are numerous events on the retail calendar that marketplaces participate in to attract customers, boost traffic, generate more sales and increase revenue.

If you are selling on marketplaces, carefully planning your promotions around key fashion events can set you apart from other competitor brands.

The 2022 Retail Calendar

What counts as a key e-commerce event? There are a few, ranging from events that take place in real life for which consumers need to shop and sales events that have been popularised online.

Why Brands Must Strategically Assort for Marketplaces' Activity Calendar

Fashion marketplaces’ activities revolve around key events on the retail calendar. Typically, marketplaces will run promotions leading up to a key event as there is high traffic online during that period with consumers searching for products. Demand skyrockets during big events and brands too can capitalise on this by being prepared for marketplace activities.

Demand may be high during key events - but so is the competition. Having a strategic plan tailored to every marketplace activity helps brands accurately meet demand and deliver the right assortment. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of when, what and how much to launch, as well as which discount mechanics and brand messaging to use is fundamental to maximise performance.

How to Assort for Marketplaces' Activity Calendar

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#1 Identify When Key Activities Take Place

The first step in preparing for a marketplace activity is to learn when it takes place. With the calendar module on the Omnilytics dashboard, brands can look back at previous years’ activities to understand how long ahead marketplaces start launching promotions for a key event. 

For this example, we’ll take a look at one of the leading fashion marketplaces, Asos and its strategies for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in 2021. We already know that Black Friday falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving, with Cyber Monday following after. But exactly how long did Asos run promotions for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? 

There are two ways to do this - by looking at the visual merchandising module around the date of an event and layering the analysis with the marketplaces’ discounts launch calendar to pinpoint exactly when discounts are launched.

From the visual merchandising module, we saw that Asos first started Black Friday promotions on 16th November, with the warm-up sale. The Black Friday warm-up sale, which lasts until 23rd November shows that Asos launched its Black Friday campaign just over a week before the event itself, which brands like yourselves have to prepare for with the right inventory. Brands can also investigate further to identify the peak launch dates or launch frequency for any marketplace activity.

For the Black Friday event itself, the bulk of discounts was launched on 25th and 26th November. The retailer had 13x more first discounted products compared to November 16th, when it kicked off its Black Friday campaign. The sale also lasts until November 30th, two days after Cyber Monday. You can perform this step for any key event and marketplace to adequately prepare your brand for the promotion period.

The first discount by day of the week table indicates the number of SKUs that Asos put on discount for the first time during the promotion and the depth of discount for the items.

For the warm-up sale, Asos discounted the most SKUs on the first day of the sale, totalling up to over 1k, with over 80% of products discounted at 20-29% off.

For Black Friday itself, 13.5k products were discounted on November 25th and the peak of the sale was on November 26th, with 19.3k first discounts launched. You can also see the discount depths for each day. Asos started with shallower discounts before launching progressively deeper discounts on the 26th, where 17% of products were discounted at 50-59% off.

Reviewing key activities this way helps brands strategise on which products to put on discount for different dates. For a marketplace like Asos that holds a warm-up sale prior to Black Friday, brands can prioritise tactical promotions during the warm-up sale, then discount products with high ageing or broken sizes during the peak of the sale.

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#2 Analyse the Campaign Mechanics

Now that we’ve pinpointed the ‘when’, it’s time to get into the ‘how’. Not every marketplace uses the same campaign mechanics for key events. In fact, some marketplaces use different mechanics for their own activities too. Marketplaces can choose to discount products directly, offer a discount code or both. This is where Omnilytics’ visual merchandising module comes in handy, to help brands analyse the marketplace’s landing page and newsletters.

For the warm-up sale, Asos did not publish any newsletter and only used the landing pages to communicate the sale to its customers. Instead of promoting huge discounts, Asos focused on a different category each day.

There were banners dedicated to a different category each day of the warm-up sale, from tops to coats and jackets. Instead of discounting the products directly, Asos gave discount codes to be used at checkout.

For the main event itself, Asos updated the landing page on three different dates for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

On November 24th, Asos added a banner on top of the page indicating that Black Friday is just around the corner and reminding the customers to shortlist products they want to buy.

Asos launched the Black Friday sale on the website on 25th November by updating the landing page. There is also a banner with a discount code for extra 15% off the total order.

For Cyber Monday, Asos updated its landing page with a new banner - this time a discount code for extra 20% off the total order. However, the retailer did not specify Cyber Monday anywhere on its website. Instead, the Cyber Monday sale was announced through Asos’ newsletter.

Analysing both the landing page and newsletters can help you understand the differences in campaign mechanics towards the loyal customers and customers that do not subscribe to the newsletter. In the newsletter, Asos gave its subscribers an extra 25% off instead of 20% with a completely different discount code. The marketplace did the same thing for the launch of Black Friday, offering additional discounts through the newsletter.

Understanding the campaign mechanics for different customers during one key event will help you better plan your assortment to protect your margins.

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#3 Understand Consumers’ Buying Patterns

It’s important to learn about consumer behaviour during promotional periods so you can anticipate their buying patterns. Brands can look at past years’ events to understand when marketplaces typically launch new products and discounts, as well as how they affect product sell-out.

The chart on Asos’ trade movement during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period shows that the marketplace launched new products on November 26th to capitalise on the increased traffic. It’s clear that this strategy positively impacted sell-out, which peaked the following day. 

By analysing marketplace trade this way, brands can get a better idea of when to inject new products in line with the peak sell-out period. At the same time, brands can validate whether sales are driven by new products or discounts.

Once you’ve identified the critical dates, you can go granular by understanding which categories are the most popular during the sale period.

Looking at Asos’ trade analysis during the Black Friday sale, there were two standout categories - Outerwear and Shoes. Outerwear had a healthy sell-out despite its high median price. Meanwhile, Shoes had higher sell-out at full price. These categories’ performance indicates that the assortments are aligned with the customers’ demands.

After nailing down the popular categories, you can dive deeper to identify the styles, silhouettes and colours that are most popular.

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday take place in the fall, it’s no surprise that the most replenished styles of outerwear are knitwear, jackets and coats. Brands can use this information to plan an assortment mix that generates the highest sales.

The Next Step for Brands

Brands can use the steps above for any marketplace and key events that are relevant to their business. Diving into the marketplace activities, consumer behaviour and understanding the demand for a specific time period will make it easier for you to strategise your stock intake plan, assortment mix and promotions.

To succeed on brutally competitive marketplaces, brands must plan promotional activities well in advance to maximise margins. A fashion data analytics platform like Omnilytics is the perfect tool to help brands prepare for major events.

Are you looking for more strategies to succeed in online fashion marketplaces? Head to our article on optimising brand performance on marketplaces here.

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