19 Holiday Marketing Ideas for Your Resale Business

With holiday sales predicted to reach $1.3 trillion from November to January according to Deloitte, there’s no time to waste on your holiday marketing efforts. While marketing your business may be at the bottom of your to-do list, you’d be surprised at the impact even a few simple actions can have on your holiday sales! From boosting awareness in your community to strategic retail merchandising, there’s plenty of options your resale business has. And online resellers, we’ve got you covered too!

Scroll through 19 holiday marketing ideas your resale business can try starting today! We even include examples and last-minute holiday tips and considerations you will want to check out down below.

19 Holiday Marketing Ideas

There are many marketing tactics you can try this holiday season! From catching a few extra eyeballs across the web to increasing foot traffic to your retail store, the opportunities are endless. While some of these range from low to higher difficulty (or monetary commitment) you can surely find one or two holiday marketing tips to try.

1. Digital displays

If you’re pretty savvy with your own site or use a service like Shopify to do that for you, be sure to create holiday displays for your site. Think places like your home page, global navigation, and other site banners and calls-to-action. Not only will it help you capture more eyes across your site by reminding users that you have holiday inventory available, but it adds an extra cheerful touch.

2. Endcaps

Retail merchandising, the way you set up your physical store for the promotion and selling of products, is critical during the holidays. Physical retail stores should make sure signage and endcaps align with the holiday shopping season. Can you cross-promote certain items by placing hooks next to stockings? Or perhaps hanging batteries near the children’s toys?

3. Spend time photographing holiday inventory

Set the scene in stores by creating a winter wonderland or Santa’s workshop. If you’re an online reseller, you can do this without a store, too. Simply photoshop your product backgrounds or create your own festive backdrop. Nicely thought-out product photos will surely get shoppers in the spirit!

4. Create gift bundles

For items that go well together, like razors and shower gel or cookbooks and Instant Pots, you can create gift bundles and offer deals on them. That way, you can market items together and sell twice as much to one customer.

5. Promotions & discounts

There are several different promotions you can run this time of year. If you need some incentive, consider this: online coupon users spend 24% more than regular shoppers. Resale businesses can run promotions like a certain percentage off, BOGO (buy one get one), bundle deals, loyalty rewards program, free sample with a purchase, among others.

6. Discount out of season inventory

Holiday marketing ideas can be as simple as running a good clearance sale. Out with the old and in with the new! If you have out-of-season inventory taking up space, mark it down and watch as it flies off the shelves. For savvy shoppers thinking ahead, those pool floats and flip-flops might make excellent gifts.

7. Give out free samples

Samples are always a hit. The Snack Factory, makers of Pretzel Crisps, found that when they offered samples of their product, conversion rates were at 25-30%. A quarter of those who tried the sample went on to purchase!

8. Offer free shipping

While this may not be a marketing idea exactly, it’s definitely a way to draw in some more customers. Everyone loves free shipping this time of year!

9. Email customers

Let your customers know when you have new inventory in stock. You can also use it as a way to entice customers when in-demand inventory is running low! Email marketing is a year-round way to get past, present, and hopefully, future customers excited about your products.

10. Incorporate social media

Companies that incorporate social media into their holiday plan have even more chances to engage and delight their online audiences. You can even drive customers in-stores that way, too. Let followers know about any in-store promotions, specials, or limited inventory. You can film live unboxings, ask questions through polls, or even have direct links to shop your products.

11. Run a contest

To run a contest, decide on a worthwhile prize (maybe it’s the last flat-screen TV) and how customers can enter. In person, you can hand out tickets, or if you want to add in social media for bonus entries, you can ask them to show you proof of having liked/ followed your business page. Clearly state when you will announce winners and how the drawing will take place.

12. Give back

Holiday marketing ideas don’t all have to involve just you and your business. Find a charity to donate partial proceeds to. You can encourage your customers to round up their purchase total as part of the cause or you can pledge to match any of their donations. If there is a particular charity that is important to your community, like an animal shelter or children’s home, choose that one.

13. Make sure your business is listed on Google

This may go without saying, but make sure your storefront is listed on Google My Business. You can create a free Business profile and verify your business so customers can easily find you from Maps and Search. Important business information like hours, street address, phone number, and website should be up to date leading up to the holidays.

14. Advertise locally

Depending on location, budget, and audience, you can use ads to promote your business. You will want to consider your options carefully. For example, if you have multiple retail locations in the state, you can budget for a radio spot that will cover your local area or neighboring areas. Your local targeting may also include direct mail campaigns where you can send out promotional materials like postcards and catalogs to local residents.

15. Try advertising online

While direct mail can be a very targeted approach, testing out the waters with digital advertising could be an easier way to start getting the word out about your business. Mailing lists and direct mail can be costly, with digital advertising you can easily start with boosted Facebook posts, Google Ads, or even Instagram and TikTok ads. You can create a boosted post on Facebook for as little as $1/day. However, the larger the budget you have, the larger the audience you can reach.

16. Packaging

If you want to splurge, think about ways to customize your packaging for the holidays. That can include stickers with your logo, custom tissue paper, die cut box inserts, or boxes printed with your company name and branding.

17. Thank you notes

This may not be an exclusively holiday marketing-only idea but including a simple handwritten note or card can leave a great lasting impression. You may also want to consider ordering some branded notes in bulk—that way, all you have to do is sign off on them! Now is the time to be memorable by thanking your customers for their purchase, encouraging them to shop again, and maybe even sharing your business’ own story. Canva is a free design tool that has hundreds of templates you can try.

18. Ask for reviews

Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page, Yelp, or any other site you have your business listed on after they make a purchase. Personal recommendations are highly valued and sometimes you just want to know how another person’s experience went. In fact, Trustpilot says that nearly 9 in 10 consumers will look for a review before making a purchase!

19. Consider hiring seasonal help

Should your reselling business need an extra hand for the holidays, prepare early. Hiring help is a whole process that tends to involve paperwork, negotiations, and scheduling. If you’d prefer to go with gig or pieceworkers (think contract workers) then you should consider signing up for platforms like Upwork, Indeed, Task Rabbit. You should also reach out to your network as you may already know a contractor or can get referred to someone.

Whether it’s extra help photographing products, listing inventory, website updates, managing your social media posting, making repairs, order fulfillment and shipping, warehouse help, or for whatever else, there is no better time to bring in an extra hand.

3 Holiday Marketing Examples

Holiday marketing ideas are even better when they come with examples, right? Here are three to get the creative juices flowing.

Example 1

End caps and in-store displays are incredibly powerful during the holidays. Take a look at how this grocery store set up its merry soda display!

(Photo credit)

Example 2

Don’t forget to utilize your site to capture a visitor’s interest. B-Stock uses prime real estate to promote premium holiday content.

Example 3

Get crafty with your emails! However you choose to email your customers, like on Mailchimp or Shopify, be sure to add a few extra bells and whistles this time of year. Utilize our FREE holiday templates on Canva and customize them with your own logo, address, deals, and more! Here’s a snippet of one of the free social media templates below.

Tips to plan for the holidays

Don’t get caught off guard, plan ahead

The holidays have a way of creeping upon us. Don’t let your business miss a beat! Download our Holiday Reselling Calendar that maps out everything your resale business should be doing from September through to December.

Get My Calendar 

Major retail holidays (post office closures)

There’s more than just Black Friday and Christmas to be aware of. There will be all sorts of retail holidays in the latter half of the year that you should make note of.

• Thanksgiving (US)
• Black Friday
• Small Business Saturday
• Cyber Monday
• Giving Tuesday
• Hanukkah
• Christmas Eve/ Day
• New Years Eve/ Day

Tracking information

Aim to mail early whenever possible. The post office and other mail carriers will be slammed for the holidays. You can avoid shipping delays by mailing out orders as soon as possible.

Tracking information is especially important so customers can have an idea of where the order is. You should have an organized method for tracking shipments and orders — try using Airtable or an Excel spreadsheet to track important information like customer name, address, shipping weight, and of course, the item description.

Resale for the win this gifting season!

With holiday shipping constraints brought on by global supply chain issues, resale has the chance to save this holiday season. Retailers may be struggling to fill primary shelves while they wait on manufacturer delays. With limited quantities and shipping bottlenecks, consumers will be looking for alternative methods to finish off their shopping lists. Resellers have the opportunity to fill that gap and at a good deal, too!

Now that you have all of your holiday marketing ideas to kick off the season, it’s time to keep the shelves stocked. For all of your holiday inventory needs, B-Stock has you covered. We partner with the world’s largest retailers and manufacturers like Walmart, Amazon, Target, AT&T, and Best Buy to offer easy access to merchandise via liquidation auctions on their private marketplaces.

Start browsing auctions and find the inventory that’s right for your business. Once you do that, you can get to the fun marketing part!