on Jul 7th, 2013 | in Etsy Tips | 1 Comment

It might be July, but sleigh bells are jingling and snow is falling at Etsy. The annual Christmas in July sale is set to begin July 11th, bringing the spirit – and price reductions – of the holiday season during the height of summer. This community-driven event was first put on in 2007 by DesignedByLucinda, yet has reached such acclaim that Etsy regularly features it on the Etsy blog.

Summer months can be slow for retail in general, and Etsy shops are no exception. If the summer slump has your sales dipping, consider participating in the Christmas in July sale to bring a boost of attention to your shop. Joining in is easy – tag as many of your shop items as you like with either ‘CIJ’ or ‘christmasinjuly’ and offer a promotional price. The promotion is up to you – a percentage off, free shipping, BOGO, etc.

The Christmas in July Team is organizing the sale; there are planning threads to help hash out the specifics for your shop. The team also has ways to get your items posted on the team Pinterest boards, or shared on Facebook and Twitter. Join the team to see the full listing of promotional threads. The team is a great resource in general if you’re planning to participate – I’ve found the leaders to be knowledgeable and quick to reply to questions from members.

Christmas in July basics

When is the Christmas in July event?

The Christmas in July sale runs from July 11-21, 2013.  If you like, you can extend your own sale to the end of the month.

Is the event only for Christmas items?

Not at all! Any shop with any type of items can participate. The Christmas part is just tongue-in-cheek to refer to the holiday sale prices.

Do I need to put my whole shop on sale?

No, although many sellers are choosing to discount everything in their shop – or create a special shop section for the CIJ event. Feel free to choose only a few items to participate – just tag them with ‘CIJ’ or ‘christmasinjuly’ and offer a promotional discount.

Is there an easy way to set items on sale for the duration of the event?

There are several apps available to help manage the promotion. Paid options include BETSI, famous for bulk editing Etsy listings, and EtsyOnSale, designed specifically to manage promotions. EtsyOnSale includes 5 credits for new members, enough to run one sale event free of charge.

Craftopolis offers a free bulk editing tool to add the CIJ tag, but doesn’t schedule the edit – so you’ll need to manually add and remove the tag before and after the sale.

What type of promotion should I do?

Crunch the numbers to figure out what makes sense for your shop. If your items are heavy, offering free shipping may turn out to be a mistake. If you do choose free shipping, all you need to do is set up a new shipping profile and make the changes to the items you want to promote.

Some sellers are opting to use a coupon code, which will make it more obvious which customers were drawn to the shop specifically from the CIJ sale. Beware that this method is a bit more confusing for customers, so unless that information is extremely valuable, it may not be the best option.

Where can I go to find out more or ask additional questions?

The Christmas in July Team has you covered.

I’m participating in the Christmas in July sale this year for the first time; I’ve already found the process to be a bit of fun. I hope you’ll join and promote the sale. Let’s put an end to the summer slump together!

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