Get Your eCommerce Business Ready for St. Patrick’s Day 2020!
Spring is finally around the corner, meaning it’s time to go green for St. Patrick’s Day. While it isn’t the most commercial holiday in the shopping year, this smaller, but still lucrative day can attract customers and increase your March sales. With plenty of ways to capture the gold at the end of the eCommerce rainbow, it’s time to get your eStore ready for maximum traffic in time for St. Patrick’s Day 2020.
St. Patrick’s Day consumer spending typically reaches around $6 billion every year in the US. To help you get in on the action, we picked up on some key insights to get your site prepped and enjoy an uptick in sales now.
Who is Shopping for St. Patrick’s Day?
An estimated 149 million people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, with the vast majority showing their shamrock pride by donning holiday-specific apparel and accessories or purchasing food or beverage items related to the day. 83% of celebrants plan to wear green and many plan on imbibing – green beer is a St. Patrick’s Day favorite. An incredible 73% of young adults aged 18-24 plan on marking the day, with most of them choosing to go out for a fun night rather than staying in.
St. Patrick’s Day may have started out as an Irish holiday giving Catholic celebrants a little break from Lent, but it has become a global commercial holiday with parades all over the world – some with a long-standing tradition. Montreal, Canada, for example, hosts one of the longest-running St. Patrick’s Day parades in North America. First held in 1824, the streets of this French-Canadian city run with green beer every March 17th.
Other countries that also go green for St. Paddy’s include Japan and Russia, both of which have had official parades since 1992. Aside from Ireland, the only other country in the world that has made March 17th an official national holiday is Montserrat. This Caribbean island has Irish roots dating back to the 17th century and many of its inhabitants still celebrate their Irish descent on St. Patrick’s Day.
2020 St. Patrick’s Day Gift Trends
It may not seem like the biggest commercial holiday of the year, but St. Paddy’s does boast a few shamrock specific purchasing categories. Plus, with drinking featuring heavily on the day because of the holiday’s Lent-time traditions, you can bank on some tipsy, booze-fueled buying. So, what are people buying online on St. Paddy’s?
- Clothing – Close to 30% of shoppers are buying apparel and accessories to gear up for the day. Baby items are also popular for St. Patrick’s Day as parents get into the parade spirit by donning matching duds with their tots – think four-leaf-clover, Irish flags, pots of gold, and leprechauns.
- Novelty items – Glitter and glam goes big and green for St. Patrick’s Day parades and parties. Novelty hats, glasses, beer mugs, and other only-for-one-day products do well on this smaller holiday. Party supplies like green tinsel are also go-to purchases for St. Paddy’s partiers.
- Food and beverages – Almost all celebrants plan on buying some St. Paddy’s specific booze and snacks. Beyond the leprechaun-mascot cereal, green candy, shamrock-branded beer, and more are popular.
Three Tips for Online St. Patrick’s Day Marketing
1. Start Early
Most consumers start thinking about preparing for their local St. Patrick’s Day parade at least a week before the day, so don’t wait until the last minute to start preparing. Think of some early bird promotions, like BOGO sales or discounts on certain green products to bring in more customers.
2. The Pot of Gold Lottery
Kick-off your campaign and drive traffic to your site with a Pot of Gold sweepstakes. Utilize your email and social media calendar to get the word out that on March 17th your store will draw a jackpot winner and wish your clientele the luck of the Irish. This chance to win will push people to sign up and generate more long-term leads (as well as immediate sales). The giveaway doesn’t need to be huge but should be big enough to get customers to take notice and buy something to be included in the draw.
3. Shake it Up With Some Shamrock
In the lead up to March 17th, bring some attention to your store with Irish themed branding. Anything green and four-leafed should be front and center, with some pots of gold and rainbows thrown in for good measure. Don’t forget to showcase the “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” kitsch if you’ve got it – this is the one time of year it always sells. While there is a lot of advice out there recommending eCommerce entrepreneurs to tone down the green, combining over-the-top branding with too-good-to-miss promotions will help push your sales over the rainbow.
Manage Your Store’s St. Paddy’s Payments with Payoneer
Payoneer gives cross-border online business owners a big advantage with an effective, transparent, and user-friendly payments platform. Our fast, flexible, secure and low-cost solution makes Payoneer a perfect partner for your business’s growth. Make sure that you get paid globally as easily as you do locally. With Payoneer, you can process payments while paying suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics providers, allowing you to focus on scaling your business, on St. Patrick’s Day and every day.
Interested in learning about other global shopping holidays? Download our FREE 2020 eCommerce calendar!