While consumers are eagerly celebrating the arrival of summer, brands are perfecting their holiday promotions strategy for 2025. Rather than visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads – brands and retailers are navigating changing tariffs, and shifting trade policy as they work to make sure their customers will have a joyful holiday season come winter.
With a 90-day pause in the highest tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Chinese goods, the door is open for brands to move forward with holiday promotions planning without the looming fear of supply shortages. Even so, tariffs for many goods remain, including those from China, which are facing tariffs of 30% and higher. While some retailers and brands pledge to shield consumers from the full impact of higher prices, Walmart is among those signaling higher prices in the days and weeks to come.
Consumer sentiment continues to trend downward, meaning brands and retailers need to be ramping up plans for promotions to make those goods more attractive to their customers who might be pulling back from purchases.
Start early with promotions and incentives that drive holiday sales
With price sensitivity in mind, many brands have determined they will need greater consumer incentives to motivate purchases. That includes brands that sell products that fall into the “nice to have” versus the “need to have” categories. We’ve seen businesses planning more frequent as well as earlier holiday shopping incentives to boost holiday sales. These include familiar strategies, such as coupons and rebates, but also building tiered discount structures that provide greater discounts or rewards as consumers increase their spend. Buy more, get more.
The holidays are also a time for loyalty programs to shine, offering members exclusive opportunities to drive engagement, or incentivize larger purchases. The additional win for brands is a treasure trove of information to further customize offers for loyal customers.
Communications are a key ingredient to holiday success
A critical piece of holiday planning is communications. Brands that wait too long to map out their holiday promotions can find themselves frozen out of opportunities. Many big box retailers require brand offers at least six months in advance to ensure they can include those offers in their holiday circulars and instore signage. There are last minute strategies that can be deployed deeper into the season, if necessary. Some businesses might need that additional flexibility as uncertainty puts a chill on holiday ordering. Working with a partner can help you understand deadlines, and how to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.
Work with your promotions partner to win this season
Arrowhead can get promotions up and running for its clients in a matter of days in many cases, but less time means fewer options in terms of communicating those promotions to consumers. That’s why an early start to your holiday promotions strategy for 2025 is essential. We recommend carefully planning out your communication now, including ads, circulars, on packaging and instore signage so those materials are in market on time to ensure the most engagement possible with shoppers. Meeting with your promotions partner now to discuss program ideation and development will give your team the necessary time to design and implement a program to ensure a more successful Q4 sales preparation and holiday season.
