Peak Season: what is it and what events does it include?

If you've heard about the 'Peak Season', but don't know what we're talking about, you've come to the right post to find out. 

For a quick understanding we could define it as the busiest period for any self-respecting eCommerce company.. During this time there are exponential increases in searches and, therefore, online sales also grow (if you don't try to do it really badly). In short, it is a great opportunity to secure a not inconsiderable percentage of your annual turnover. Did you know that an average of 30% of annual sales is concentrated in this period?

The Peak Season runs from Halloween to the post-Christmas sales.. In between we find an endless number of important dates: Singles Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and so on. All this succession of events causes peaks of searches, sales and activities around your online business.

Search and compare beyond the discount

Although it is normal to associate this type of events with discounts, offers and promotions; not everything is summed up in that. More and more eCommerce decide to extend the stock period and lengthen this Peak Season. Gone are the days when the best price and the biggest discount had the almost absolute guarantee of winning. Nowadays, the user opts for a quality-price ratio according to both the product and the service.

Personalized attention, free shipping costs, delivery time, ease of returns or exchanges, etc. are increasingly valued. In other words, don't limit your eCommerce to a linear discount percentage and say you are doing Black Friday! Differentiate your strategy from the rest of your competitors. and tailor promotional content to your customers' needs.

Anticipate and plan ahead, two guarantees of success. Black Friday searches start up to six weeks before the most frenetic Friday of the year. And it's not as obvious as positioning dozens of terms containing "Black Friday". It's becoming more and more common to search for generic terms which, as time goes on, become much more specific brand terms, models or 'long-tail' references.

Finally, if your eCommerce also operates outside Spain, you may have noticed that the influence of Black Friday is uneven (like the rest of the events in the Peak Season). For example, the Buen Fin is the most important shopping event in Mexico and marks the beginning of Christmas shopping even before Black Friday itself.

What events are included in the Peak Season?

Although the first peak in sales of the high season was observed on Halloween, it was not until mid-November that we began to notice a significant increase in traffic and sales on our website.

• We start with the Singles Day (11/11)This is a day that has been gaining popularity in Spain in recent years. To give you an idea, searches have grown 9% compared to the previous year, with interest growing up to two days before the date. 
• Black Week, an event beyond Black Friday itself. As we indicated earlier, more and more players choose to extend the Peak Season. And that is why many stores no longer make a single day of offers, but a whole week, because of the long-awaited Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Although there are stores that offer their Black Friday throughout November, most usually set their dates from the Saturday before Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
• Black Friday (11/24): You may already know it as the big day of the Peak Season. To give you an idea: Black Friday alone generates more sales than Christmas week. Last year Spain experienced, once again, a significant increase: around 20% more turnover and 40% more orders than in 2021.
• Cyber Monday (11/27)This event is generally related to discounts for electronics, although this date has lost importance in the last 2 years, because the duration of Black Friday has become diffuse as it is not limited only to Friday. Still, the trend is clear, shopper activity during Cyber Monday increased in 2022 by 256%.
• Christmas and the days leading up to itEstablishing a strategy for those last minute purchases can be a great option for your eCommerce. Keep in mind that the day with the highest sales is the Monday before Christmas. During the past holiday season, online sales experienced an increase of 13% compared to the previous year. Despite this increase, shoppers chose to spend less, evidenced by a 26% decrease in average ticket.
• Three Wise Men (05/01): For the Three Kings Day holiday, toys are the most requested with 64% of purchase intention. This is followed by fashion with 33% and board games with 32%. And in fourth place, consoles and video games with 30%. The highest spending in online stores occurs on January 2, on the eve of the Epiphany holiday, and on January 5 itself, which is due to the fact that consumers want to take advantage of early sales in some stores. 
• Winter sales (07/01) As a general rule, the winter sales start on January 7. But, the dates that comprise the winter sales has been somewhat distorted in recent years, as many stores choose to unify the actions of Christmas with the sales.

Curious facts about the Peak Season

In the week before Black Friday (Black week):

• The highest number of sales was recorded on Thursday
• Mobile and desktop traffic peaked at 20:00h and desktop traffic at 14:00h.
• Mobile devices generated 76.30% of online traffic and 59.78% of sales.
• The day with the highest number of dropouts is the Saturday before Black Friday.
• Users show higher purchase intent on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before Black Friday.

Black Friday:

• Online traffic peaked at 20:00h.
• The highest number of sales was recorded at 17:00h.
• Mobile sales were 18% more than on desktop
• 10:00 a.m. was the time with the highest purchase intention
• The abandonment rate was 72.19%

Cyber Monday

• Cyber Monday accounted for 7,44% of online traffic between November 20 and December 4. Black Friday accounted for 8.53%.
• The dropout rate was 73.06%.
• 55% of sales came from mobile devices.
• 8:00 p.m. was the time of highest sales.

Omni-channel to go out and win

On the paid platforms, either Google or Meta, the increase in the CPC and CPM has been a regular occurrence in recent months. This situation is even more accentuated in periods of high demand such as Black Friday. 

If your structure has active intelligent campaigns, such as the Performance Maxseeks to configure seasonality adjustments so that the algorithm takes into account the variations in conversion rates during peak periods. Do not forget to optimize all payment platforms: Amazon or TikTok should not be left out of the equation when it comes to coherence of the graphic image and the promotional message refers.

Surprise! The user no longer searches with the keyword "Black Friday". Not so long ago searches with related terminology were very common. Nowadays generic terms are searched up to 6 weeks in advancebeing vital an optimal organic positioning for their capture. This should be complemented with paid traffic on highly relevant keywords. In addition to initiating searches well in advance, it is becoming increasingly common to search for reviews about products, buying guides, comparatives, content in YouTube on product use, etc. 

As it could not be otherwise, a strategic planning in advance is also vital for a channel such as Marketing Automation. For example, increasing your subscriber base is a job that takes weeks to have a minimal impact. 

What other strategies can you implement through email? Take your VIP customer segment and offer a pre-sale of discounted products for them to receive before Black Friday slows down shipments. On the other hand, don't forget to all those users who have become inactiveThe following is an example: they may have bought motivated by an old promotion, so why not try to win them back with an exclusive offer? Finally, it is highly recommended to both segmenting promotional content to each type of customer as well as to generate engagement with the new ones we want to attract.

In short, the Peak Season is still a full marathon to close the final stretch of every year. Do you need to pivot your strategy on an expert team in Digital Marketing? In Geotelecom you have at your disposal the Business Intelligence team to size your business on the digital side, the best combination of SEO, Marketing Automation, SEM and Social you can count on. Don't stop contact us at to evaluate your project!