Digital Marketing Tips for the International Holiday Peak Season

With online consumers worldwide looking to benefit from holiday promotions, the season offers an important opportunity to grow your global customer base and boost online orders. Running marketing campaigns that drive international traffic to your website during this busy time of year requires a strategy that takes local nuances into account and adjusts the campaign to each market.

As the holiday shopping season approaches, the Global-e DTC Digital Marketing Team has compiled a number of actionable insights based on their extensive experience managing successful campaigns across more than 25 international markets, to help you plan your international holiday marketing.

#1

Leverage local shopping events

Many markets around the world have popular local shopping events, before and after the BFCM weekend, offering opportunities to grow online sales. For merchants who focus on these markets, it is advised to include these dates in their local marketing campaign plans. Key local and regional shopping events in Q4 include:

November 11^th,2024 - Asia: Singles Day

Originally created to celebrate "Bachelor's Day”, this Chinese holiday has grown into a long online shopping festival, peaking on November 11. This is a major event in Asian markets that also attracts shoppers from other markets worldwide and has become the world’s biggest online shopping event.

November 12-15, 2024 - Australia: The Click Frenzy Main Event

The local mega-sale event has become a significant date on the Australian retail trade calendar and one of the biggest online shopping events in this market.

November 15-18, 2024 - Mexico: El Buen Fin

One of the biggest retail events in Mexico, El Buen Fin marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in this market, with retailers and brands offering special promotions.

December 26, 2024 - UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand: Boxing Day

Celebrated in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries, particularly Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, this public holiday has become one of the busiest shopping days in these markets.

Localize ad creative

When planning your international marketing campaign for this season, allocate time to adapt your ads to local markets. This includes translation and/or localization of the copy – either the copy accompanying the creative or even within the creative assets themselves, for example adding “Happy Holidays” in the local language.

Reflecting the same local messaging on the website, for example, on the top-line banner or main hero banner, could complement the campaign and enhance the localized experience.

#2

Communicate delivery cut-off dates

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As Christmas gets closer, it is recommended your ads include the cutoff date for delivery before the holiday for the market. Informing shoppers they can buy from you and get their gifts in time creates urgency and could positively impact ads conversion.

#3

Align your international marketing campaign with your stock planning

Set your international marketing strategy in alignment with your stock planning. An unexpected stock-out before your campaign ends could significantly impact the campaign’s performance and negatively affect results.

#4

Ramp up audiences in preparation for peak

Expanding your international audiences in the months leading up to the holiday season can help you improve your remarketing capabilities during the peak period. Increasing efforts on targeting new audiences outside your domestic market and newsletter subscriber sign-up activities, could allow you to remarket to these prospects during the peak season when buying intent is high.

#5

Ensure compliance with local regulations

When running marketing campaigns in international markets and launching new marketing channels, it's crucial to ensure your campaigns comply with the local laws and regulations.

These include GDPR data privacy laws in Europe for email marketing and market-specific regulations for influencer marketing activity. For example, in Germany, influencers must use clear labels like "#Anzeige" (advertisement) or "#Werbung" (advertising) when posting sponsored content.

Be aware of country-specific rules about promotional language. In France, for example, you cannot use the word “sale” in November and will need to use alternatives such as "promotion", "reduction" or "special price" instead. This is because the word "sale" can only be used during two specific periods each year: the winter sales in January and the summer sales in late June or early July.