Changing Your Brand’s Look For Autumn Can Boost Seasonal Sales

Yes, traditional stores already do this, but should online businesses do the same? In a word — yes.

Slightly switching up the look of your website or social media page to match the season is one tradition online marketers have picked up from their real-world counterparts. Changing the look of your store to match the season isn’t strictly necessary, especially if your product or service isn’t affected much by seasonal factors, but there are good arguments for it.

Why change your brand’s look with the seasons?

• A new look can help maintain fresh interest in your brand

• If well executed, changing the appearance of your website and social media pages can delight customers and followers

• Changing your look can signal that it’s time for some specific seasonal products.

• Holidays, seasons, and events all drive sales and help with SEO.

Don’t discount the effect of seasonality on driving sales. This may seem obvious, but many businesses actually rely on seasonal bumps in demand to be viable. Just using fall as an example, it becomes clear just how seasonal demand can drive sales of so many items.

Items that are more in demand in the fall

In a blog post, Alice Delore from eCommerce site Salehoo outlined a few items that are more in demand in the fall. Here are a few of them.

Clothing and fashion:

• Halloween costumes
• Tweed coats and trousers
• Warm innerwear
• Thick socks 
• Scarves
• Boots

Sporting goods:

• Indoor workout equipment
• Fishing equipment

Homeware:

• Car covers
• Suitcases

Thanksgiving- and Christmas-related items

• Platters and serving ware
• Decor
• Turkey knives
• Cushion covers
• Tablecloths and kitchen towels
• Disposables like paper towels, paper cups, toilet tissue and napkins

Craft equipment:

• Quilting fabric
• Soap making kits
• Cake decorating supplies
• Ready-to-paint pottery
• Clay sets
• Scrapbooking stickers

Health and Beauty:

• Deep conditioning hair treatments
• Rich lotions and moisturizer creams for dry skin
• Deep shades of red and pink lip colors

Other less obvious industries that get bumps in demand include travel, custom printing, alcoholic beverages, heating supplies and maintenance, and much more. The retail and food industries pretty much gets a boost across the board, as holiday spending also includes items that are not directly affected by the weather.

You might not even have to switch out your site’s look. You may just use images, colors, or even just subtle filters that suggest the season, as in these examples from KFC, Macaroni Bros., and Kitchen Universe:

Notice the video on the page has a slight orange filter.

Is there even an autumn theme going on? Tell us in the comments.

Instead of filters or changing the entire design of the site, Kitchen Universe decided to just shoot items with fall colors.

Social media graphics are one thing you can create to help drive autumn sales. This example may not be the best by itself, but in the context of a Facebook or Twitter post, it is more than sufficient.

Even something as simple as changing out your social media share icons can be enough to give you some of the benefits of maximizing seasonal sales.

Cover photo credit via photopin (license)