5 Tips for a Successful eCommerce Labor Day Sale

Thanks to inflation, consumer spending for the Labor Day holiday weekend has trended downward in recent years. That means it’s more important than ever for brands to have a savvy Labor Day sales strategy this year.

If you’re planning to host a sale this year, read on. We share 5 tips for setting up a successful Labor Day eCommerce sale.

Sections

1. Run your sale the entire weekend, and start early

As with any sale, there’s a lot of noise during the Labor Day weekend. However, Labor Day differs from Black Friday sales, when people are mostly sitting at home (or out at the mall) and ready to shop.

Instead, people are grilling, hosting a party or attending one, and generally having fun with family and friends during the Labor Day weekend.

To capture sales, you need to make your sale as accessible as possible throughout the Labor Day weekend. You might even consider extending it by starting on Thursday and ending on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day.

Pro Tip: Once your sale is live, include a countdown timer on your site to create urgency and drive sales.

2. Generate interest with an opt-in campaign

Make it even easier for people to shop during the sale by inviting them to opt in for early access and first dibs.

Email is the biggest driver of Labor Day sales, generating more sales than direct traffic, social media, search and text. In addition to spinning up a strong email drip campaign for the sales weekend, email your list a few weeks before and tip them off that a sale is coming.

3. Segment your list

Consider the nuances of your audience. If you have students or parents in your audience, tie your sale into back-to-school savings. Six in ten shoppers plan their back-to-school shopping around sales events like Fourth of July and Labor Day.

For everyone else, you might position your Labor Day sale as a way for shoppers to treat themselves as a send-off to summer, like this brand does:

These audiences have different motivations for shopping. Speak to that with segmented email campaigns that have tailored messaging and imagery.

Pro Tip: Run remarketing ad campaigns throughout your Labor Day promotion to recapture any abandoned carts.

4. Be strategic with your discounts

Review your eCommerce sales data from previous Labor Day sales. Have different promotions been more effective than others? Do certain products historically sell well during the Labor Day weekend? Consider offering an additional, special discount on those to drive purchases.

If you don’t have historical sales data, no worries. You can use the weeks ahead of Labor Day to experiment with different discounts. Run a limited ad campaign in Google or Facebook to see which discounts are most persuasive to your audience:

BOGO offers on popular products, or themed products related to Labor Day or back-to-school
Fixed-amount spending before a discount kicks in (e.g. 20% off $100)
Incremental discounts with higher cart totals (e.g. 10% off $50, 15% off $100, 20% off $150)
Site-wide promotions (e.g. 20% off everything)

Pro Tip: Whatever discount you choose, don’t forget to include free shipping. Free shipping has become table-stakes during holiday sales. Plus, half of consumers specifically avoid retailers that don’t offer free shipping, and nearly 80% have abandoned their purchase if they have to pay for shipping.

5. Give away something for free

Who doesn’t like a freebie? Nobody! So, take a cue from Oprah and offer freebies throughout your Labor Day sale. You could offer a free gift with purchase or a multiplier on loyalty points. Both give you a way to add value without having to further discount your products.

Or, you could host a giveaway on social media to generate more site traffic — and more eyeballs on your sale. Here are three examples from three different brands. Transformer Table offers a traditional giveaway, while HOP WTR and Davines North America partner with an influencer and another brand, respectively, to spread the word.