From Etsy’s Merchandising Desk: November With Friends and Family

marymary

Story by marymary

Published on Oct 07, 2009 in Seller Handbook

Photo by PrudenceOctavia, luckybeepress, and LittleHouse

It’s that time again, and those of us behind the scenes at Etsy would like to share our merchandising plans for November. As we continue to plan Etsy’s calendar for the year ahead with thematic merchandising, we will be incorporating many of the concepts you shared in response to October’s report and continue to welcome your input. It is our goal to create a healthy balance between promotions for traditional holidays, seasonal changes, and lifestyle trends.

Rounding out October
Keep abreast of the October seasonal themes, holidays, dates to remember, and trends we are looking to highlight in October’s Merchandising Desk edition.

Stay Engaged in November
November marks a seasonal transition from the harvest into the cooler winter holiday season. Our critical merchandising focus this month will center around the holiday gift-giving season. Below you will find the extended list of topics we’ll be looking to highlight throughout the month of November. We’re looking for your creative interpretation and spin on each of the upcoming seasonal themes.

  • Dia de los Muertos: bright colors, skulls, international motifs, and party decor.
  • Seasonal, harvest, holiday, and winter home decor: candles, baskets, furniture, tabletop, quilts, blankets, pillows, storage solutions, rugs, windows, lighting, bedding, and bath.
  • Items made from or incorporating rich and raw sturdy fabrics, fibers, and yarns: cashmere, industrial felt, silk, raw silk, wool, burlap, and canvas.
  • Autumn and winter entertaining leading up to Thanksgiving: creative and unique tabletop accoutrement, dinnerware, glassware and bar, table linens, food for your feast, centerpieces, invitations, menus, and hostess gifts.
  • Winter fashion: warm layers, boots, bags, accessories, jewelry, legwear, and emerging industry trends.
  • Autumn and winter weddings: attire, decor, invitations, favors, and gift ideas.
  • Holiday gift-giving: mothers, fathers, teens, children, coworkers, friends, the person who has everything, the host or hostess, pets, personalized and custom gift options, stocking stuffers. November is your time to shine with items that would make great gifts. Plan ahead and be sure to include why your item makes a great gift and who it might be for in the item description.
  • Paper goods: holiday card sets, thank you card sets, invitations, 2010 calendars, gift tags, and favors.
  • Cyber Monday: Cyber Monday is a shopping occasion gaining a reputation as the best day of the year to find sales while shopping online. We’ll be hosting a special Cyber Monday promotion November 30 for sellers interested in participating. Stay tuned for details as we get closer to November including how to participate as a seller. 
  • November trends: woodland, tribal, wintry motifs, metallics, winter hues of gem tones, reds, whites, silvers, greens, and blues. Vintage objects repurposed into decor and storage solutions along with eco-friendly options are topping the trends this season.
  • Citrine is November’s birthstone, and November’s astrological signs are Scorpio and Sagittarius (October 24 – November 22: Scorpio and November 23 – December 21: Sagittarius).
  • Promotional Opportunities for Sellers:

If you’d like to stay engaged and involved with the approaching merchandising themes, interpret them in your own artistic voice. This can be translated in your listings, photos, shop announcement, descriptions, tags, titles, sales promotions and more. We’re excited to see your creative interpretations!

If you make items that would fit well with the themes outlined, try stocking up and listing them in advance to take advantage of potential shipping deadlines and on site features. Do you already have items in your shop that meld well? That’s great! Now it’s time to revisit those items to make sure your tags, titles, and descriptions reflect keywords shoppers might be looking for this time of year. This is also a great opportunity to revamp your item photography with a new look, if you think they need some work. Check out some great how-to’s for item photography to get started.

If your items fall under the main thematic categories we’ll be highlighting this month, it might be a great time to consider purchasing a spot in a Category Showcase. For those of you who enjoy making Treasuries, we’ll be looking to highlight lists that interpret October and November’s themes in a creative and cohesive way, as well as the many innovative and beautiful collections that we normally feature.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

  • November is known as Real Jewelry Month, Peanut Butter Lovers Month, and Aviation History Month.
  • November 1: Dia de los Muertos
  • November 1: All Saints’ Day
  • November 11: Veterans Day
  • November 16: Button Day
  • November 20: Twilight, New Moon Movie Premiere
  • November 26: Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving is October 12)
  • November 27: Black Friday
  • November 30: Cyber Monday

Do you have a date to remember that you don’t see on the list? Let us know in the comments section below. We are currently working toward incorporating a more detailed calendar of international holidays into Etsy’s thematic merchandising plans, so we’re eager to hear which dates you would like to see included.

We’d like to hear from you!
We appreciate your support and look forward to your feedback and suggestions in the comments section below.

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