Amazon FBA Holiday Calendar for 2024 – Dates Every Seller Should Track

It’s always a season somewhere. If you think Amazon holiday marketing begins on Amazon Prime Day and ends on New Year’s Day, then think again. Marketing is an all-year-round effort and there are plenty of ways to make your seasonal marketing campaigns livelier to generate more sales for your Amazon business.

Think of these holidays as rainy days that allow you to make up for dry periods or slumps. In this blog, we’ve compiled a few promotion ideas for you to execute, grab your customers’ attention, and generate more sales and profits!

Amazon Seller Holiday Calendar – Holiday Dates Sellers Should Know

Here is a list of all the holiday dates—big and small—that occur throughout the year and can benefit FBA sellers:

January:

• January 1^st: New Year’s Day
• January 15^th: Martin Luther King Day 

February:

• February 1^st: Black History Month begins
• February 2^nd: Groundhog Day
• February 11^th: Super Bowl Sunday
• February 14^th: Valentine’s Day
• February 19^th: Presidents’ Day
• February 19^th: Family Day – Canada 

March:

• March 04 - 06^th : The Prosper Show
• ‍March 8^th: International Women’s Day
• March 17^th: St. Patrick’s Day
• March 20^th: First day of spring
• March 29^th: Good Friday
• March 29^th: Easter Sunday

 April:

• April 1^st: April Fools’ Day
• April 4^th: Qingming Festival – China
• April 11^th: National Pet Day
• April 11^th: Double Third Festival – China
• April 15^th: The last date to file corporate tax returns
• April 22^nd: Earth Day

 May:

• May 1^st: Labor Day – China
• May 12^th: Mother’s Day
• May 27^th: Memorial Day

 June:

• June 10^th: Dragon Boat Festival – China
• ‍June 14^th: Flag Day
• June 16^th: Father’s Day
• June 19^th: Juneteenth
• June 20^th: First day of summer

 July:

• July 1^st: Canada Day
• July 4^th: Independence Day – United States
• July 11-12^th: Amazon Prime Day (Expected)

 August:

• August 1^st: Back-to-School season begins

 September:

• September 2^nd: Labor Day
• September 7^th: Start of the NFL season 
• September 22^nd: First day of Fall

 October:

• October 1-7^th: Golden Week – China
• October 14^th: Indigenous Peoples Day
• October 14^th: Thanksgiving – Canada
• October 31^st: Halloween & the deadline for ordering inventory before the start of the Chinese New Year

 November:

• November 1^st: Deadline for shipping inventory to Amazon’s warehouse for Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and the holiday season.
• November 1^st: National Native American Heritage Month begins
• November 10^th: Daylight Saving Time 
• November 11^th: Single’s Day – China
• November 11^th: Veterans’ Day
• November 11^th: Remembrance Day – Canada
• November 28^th: Thanksgiving Day – United States
• November 29^th: Black Friday
• November 30^th: Small Business Saturday

 December:

• December 2^nd: Cyber Monday
• December 21^st: Super Saturday
• ‍December 21^st: First day of winter
• ‍December 24^th: Christmas Eve
• December 25^th: Christmas
• December 25^th: Hanukkah begins
• December 26^th: Boxing Day – Canada
• December 26^th – 1^st Jan: Kwanzaa
• December 31^st: New Year’s Eve

We’ll be taking a look at some of the more impactful holidays that affect FBA businesses. But before that, why are so many Chinese holidays mentioned in our calendar and how are they linked to FBA businesses?

Impact of Chinese Holidays on an Amazon FBA Business

China is where most Amazon businesses source their products from. Sellers get in touch with manufacturers and suppliers throughout the country through Alibaba.com, Aliexpress, 1688.com, or sometimes hire natives to scour local markets. As such, holidays that result in a nationwide closure of marketplaces negatively impact the supply chain. 

By anticipating events like the Chinese New Year (CNY), sellers can order adequate amounts of inventory beforehand to prevent Out-Of-Stock (OOS) situations that not only affect Amazon sales but also rankings. It may sound simple, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Increased production times: Just before the festivities kick off in China, sellers place bigger orders to prevent their inventories from running dry. Higher demand places additional strain on manufacturers resulting in delays and increased production times.
• Greater need for quality control: Building on the first point, suppliers are more concerned with pumping out greater inventory which inevitably results in quality control taking a back seat. Routine inspection and open communication with the supplier is vital to ensure your products don’t come out defective or give customers a reason to complain.
• Increased expenditure: It’s a frantic time just before the holiday season as sellers rush to place orders and have the inventory shipped to a fulfillment center or storage hub. With increased demand comes increased shipping costs. 
• Delayed shipping times: A natural consequence of the holiday season. Just make sure to plan before time to avoid missing out on the holiday sales spike. 

Keeping track of all the major holidays listed above will prevent organic orders from being disrupted and might even give you an edge over competitors that fail to plan, go out of stock, and eventually plunge down the rankings.

Sellers that successfully sail through the holiday season are ones that have spent time and effort building healthy relationships with suppliers. Here’s a tip on how you can do the same: Sign up to ZonGuru and avail the Easy Source feature that lets users pick out reliable and quality suppliers available on Alibaba.com with just a click of a button!

Don’t want to spend your hard-earned money without knowing if the subscription is worth it or not? We’re also offering a free 7-day trial! 

Capitalize on Holidays All Year Round

With sourcing concerns out of the way, let’s go over a few popular FBA holidays!

Note: We will mention a few seasonal products that do well during specific holidays. However, we still believe sellers should stay away from such products due to inconsistent sales, inventory management troubles, and a few other issues. It’s highly recommended to opt for Evergreen products.

Super Bowl – February 11th 

The unofficial national sports holiday of the US where friends and family get together to enjoy the massively popular Super Bowl event held on the 13th of February. Think sports-related shirts, hoodies, and hats as good items to market and sell on Amazon. 

Valentine’s Day – February 14th 

This is the day that your other half spends his/her paycheck on gifts without any hesitation. Depending on the type of products you sell, you can arrange gift ideas for buyers. For instance, you can create a $100 gift set offering bundled products for buyers.

St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th

St. Patrick’s Day is undoubtedly the biggest holiday of the month. Although it’s considered a national holiday only in Ireland, many cities in the US witness parades with large crowds taking to the streets including Boston, Washington, Chicago, Savannah, and Kansas City. 

The celebration-filled day takes place during the summer season which means that items such as party supplies, t-shirts, and anything fun and green are bound to sell. Make you’re sure inventory has reached Amazon’s fulfillment center before the beginning of March to capitalize on the buying frenzy!

Easter – First Sunday

Easter is one of the main annual events that many people celebrate especially in the Western part of the world. You can offer discounts for your products on Amazon storefront and website. If you’re the daring type, there’s an opportunity to bundle different products together like chocolates, candies, and Easter eggs!

Mother’s Day – May 8th 

Mother’s Day is the perfect day to promote gift ideas for moms, grandmothers and mother figures. Think of products like jewelry, photo frames, and memorabilia. Browse Amazon’s virtual aisles to gather a list of items that have the potential to sell well on this day.

Father’s Day – June 16th 

Father’s day is the ideal time to start looking towards DIY items which you think dads might be interested in. Just slap a reasonable discount and watch the orders flow in!

Independence Day – July 4th

The start of July is marked with good fortune as any and everything red, white, or blue gets sold out fast. Independence Day discounts or pushing product variations resembling the stripes is a smart way of cashing in on patriotic buyers. 

Amazon Prime Day – July 11-12th (Expected)

Prime Day is one of Amazon’s biggest global shopping events exclusively for Prime members. According to Digital Commerce 360, Amazon managed to record global sales of around $10.4 billion from October 13-14th, 2020 surpassing 2019’s record by almost 45.2%. This is the perfect time for sellers to offer discounts to Prime members.

Back To School Season Begins – August 1st 

As the summer season is about to end, “Back to School” sales can be seen everywhere in malls. If you think that this has nothing to do with your business, then you are wrong. There are plenty of ways to sell products like lunch boxes, notebooks, and backpacks to cautious parents wanting to stay and shop indoors. 

Don’t ignore the Back To School season—it’s the perfect example of how simple products advertised at the right time can bring in massive sales!

Halloween – October 31st 

October—and Halloween in particular—marks the beginning of Q4. It’s the harvesting season for sellers that have ordered inventory beforehand and are all set to engage in aggressive marketing campaigns. 

This is also the period where Amazon lifts the meltable FBA restrictions creating a window of opportunity for sellers offering products such as candies and chocolates.

Note: FBA storage fees for October, November, and December months increase significantly. Check out our sell on Amazon fees blog for more details. 

Black Friday & Cyber Monday – November 29th - December 2nd

Black Friday & Cyber Monday go hand in hand. They’re celebrated on the Friday and Monday directly after Thanksgiving. However, they are hosted by most retail and e-commerce companies around the world, even those countries that do not celebrate Thanksgiving. 

Amazon is no exception, with Black Friday and Cyber Sales being one of the biggest seasonal marketing opportunities on Amazon. Shoppers are expecting huge discounts for products so be sure to give them what they want. Check out this article on 5 creative promotion ideas you can run for a more profitable BFCM.

Christmas – December 25th 

Right after Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Christmas—an opportunity to maintain and ride high sales following the previous two holidays. Amazon tends to receive FBA shipments much slower than usual so you’ll have to try your best to get your inventory in Amazon’s fulfillment centers latest by 10th December. 

Product ideas for Christmas are a no-brainer: LED, neon, and string lights, socks, clothes, and party decorations.

The Takeaway

Sometimes there is less than a month between all of these holidays so you don’t have to run marketing promotions for all these events. However, some seasons, such as winter, can be extremely lucrative and well worth creating a packed promotions calendar.  

If you can’t fit all these events on your marketing calendar, choose a few that your Amazon business can relate to and mix it up with discounted promotions. Be sure to plan in advance and market it to your audience on social media channels and emails.

Short on product ideas? Maybe you can’t get the creative juices flowing. Our Amazon experts created a free eBook containing 80 hot Amazon FBA products--it covers virtually every holiday throughout the year. Download it now and launch your first million-dollar product!