#1
Ramadan, 17 February to 19 March
For Muslims, Ramadan is a time for fasting and other abstinence during daylight hours for a period of around 30 days. Breaking the fast includes food, and lots of it, so food consumption actually increases during Ramadan.
In many Muslim-majority countries, both Eids (Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Ad Adha) are public holidays when people get together over large meals with friends and family. Typically, money and other gifts are given to children, with the value increasing with the child's age.
Pre-Eid gift-gifting including fashion wear and accessories, personal care and cosmetics, food and drinks, and household appliances purchased through online channels.
In a survey conducted to understand consumer preferences in the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan 75% notice more ads during Ramadan; 45% are more likely to buy from Ramadan campaigns. Understandably there’s a surge in food-related ads.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Food and beverage brands.
Travel.
Fashion.
Electronics.
Health and beauty.
Our top tips:
Demonstrate respect for the values of Ramadan by aligning with themes of family and charity.
Deploy personalized ecommerce retargeting campaigns to capture shoppers searching for gifts and food and beverage products.
Build landing pages dedicated to Ramadan.
#2
Easter, 5 April
In many regions around the world, Easter ecommerce brings a significant spring sales boost—a 30% surge in sales compared to other April weeks. Sales crescendo in the week preceding the holiday and according to a 2025 U.S. survey, shoppers were expected to spend a total of $7.4 B on food, $3.5 B on clothing, $3.3 B on candy, and $1.9 B on flowers.
Traditional, family-themed messaging in the week lead-up to Easter can serve as a helpful reminder to start getting prepared. Gifting at Easter is clearly no longer just about chocolate. The holiday signals the beginning of spring. Home and garden brands can tap into this optimism with messaging that invites consumers to refresh their home decor, for example, furniture, home furnishings & DIY has seen a 14% increase in revenue since 2022 in the U.K. Fashion brands can ramp up their colorful spring-line campaigns as people consign their winter clothing to the wardrobe.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Food and beverages.
Home and garden.
Travel.
Fashion.
Top tips:
Create “Easter Basket,” bundles to increase your AOV.
Consider flash sales and countdowns to the delivery cut off for Easter.
Offer flexible payment options.
People spend Easter in very different ways—ensure a high degree of personalization for your messaging.
#3
Mother’s Day: March or May
As much of a great opportunity as Valentine’s Day is for retailers, Mother’s Day, for good reason, is cherished the world over. The exact date for honoring mothers worldwide may vary, but what doesn’t change is the enthusiasm of daughters and sons for expressing their heartfelt appreciation on this special day.
Mother's Day 2025 was projected to reach a record $34.1 B in total U.S. spending, with a massive 36% of shoppers favoring online channels. Key trends include a large increase in early, research-driven mobile browsing (up 38% in 2024).
Although the exact date of Mother’s Day varies, in many key territories it coincides with late spring and early summer, so, sprucing up and home and garden is top-of-mind for many mothers.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Floristry.
Food and beverages.
Travel.
Health and beauty.
Fashion.
Home and garden.
Top tips:
Leverage personalization with your online campaigns, because, although they are all cherished, no two mothers are the same.
Launch campaigns at least two weeks in advance, and don’t shy away from a high cadence of messaging—people will forgive the high frequency, after all, no one wants to forget mother’s day!
Sensitive marketing is often needed. Give those users to whom Mother’s Day may not apply the option of opting out of receiving further promotional material.
#4
FIFA World Cup 2026, USA, Canada, and Mexico, 11 June to 19 July
Soccer, or Association football, is far and away the most popular game on the planet, and the FIFA World Cup is the world's biggest sporting event. It happens only once every four years and it attracts billions of viewers globally, making it an unmissable opportunity to reach massive international audiences.
Although European brands have long been aware of the power of “the beautiful game” to supercharge promotions, it’s only recently that North America is realizing the potential. This is most likely due to the fact that soccer is now the fourth most popular sport in the U.S. The ascendancy is due to Americans now having easier televisual access to the best leagues in Europe, such as The Premier League (the most watched sports league of any type in the world) and the increasingly popular domestic competition of Major League Soccer (MLS).
Anticipation will start to build well before the event itself, such is the fervor that The FIFA World Cup inspires. Expect food and beverages products to soar as fans get together to cheer on their teams and expect health, fitness, and fashion sportswear will get a typical “inspiration bump.” Online travel agencies (OTAs) based in the host countries of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico should also be prepared for increased business with a huge influx of many thousands of fans and the world’s media.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Food and beverage.
Sports fashion.
Travel.
Entertainment and media industries.
Top tips:
Develop messaging that engages Millennials and Gen Z (who constitute 76% of fans).
Include creatives that can adapt to upcoming matches and even real-time match events.
Prioritize mobile—with 94% of Gen Z fans checking in with their phones during matches brands need to gain an eye-catching and agile presence there.
Ride the wave of World Cup fever, but non-official sponsors need to be careful and navigate around FIFA’s strict IP protections.
#5
Summer sales, mid-July (including Amazon Prime Day)
Summer is invariably a busy time for travel brands as many people book last-minute getaways. Fashion and sports brands also see more interest as shoppers freshen up their wardrobes and get kitted out for outdoor exercise.
With the summer vacation season in full swing, many people will be jumping online during quieter moments. With more free time there’s a good chance that you can win attention, but it has to be with the right messaging—personlazation is key. Only partners with advanced performance advertising solutions, such as Deep Learning, will be able to provide creative customization that can match the season’s wide swathe of interests, tastes, and pastimes.
In mid-July Amazon Prime Day—actually a four-day event—is a revenue-generating colossus on a global scale. In 2025, it generated over $24 B in U.S. online sales alone, this is equivalent to two Black Fridays of consumer spending.
Even brands not directly associated with Amazon can attract deal-seekers by way of a “halo effect.” Important, then, for ecommerce players, to create strong promotions and creatives that entice shoppers to their platforms.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Fashion.
Electronics.
Home and garden.
Travel.
Health and beauty.
Marketplaces.
Top tips:
Deploy personalized retargeting strategies to cut through the noise and capture attention.
Travel brands should ramp up messaging in later spring as users start to plan their summer vacations.
For a large portion of the summer children are enjoying a long break from school, so consider family-themed messaging.
#6
The back-to-school sales, late August to 7 September
Looking back to when we were kids, those summers seemed endless. Most likely, they also felt endless for our parents. On the one hand, the return of school is often welcomed by parents, but, on the other, it inevitably comes with the financial burden of not only buying textbooks and stationery but also kitting out offspring with uniforms and sports gear that they’ll no doubt quickly grow out of. This is one market primed for bargains. Enter the back-to-school sales.
Back-to-school (BTS) sales provide a significant global boost to retail, with sales topping $200 B. There is a large increase in conversions for the sport, home, office and garden sectors, and a more moderate increase for fashion. Shopping now starts as early as June and peaks in July.
A lengthy lead-in for messaging before the commencement of school of two weeks or more is recommended. Summer can be a busy time for many families and a good cadence of messaging can serve as a helpful reminder to get prepared for the return of the school year. Offer tempting bargains that help to relieve part of the financial burden of parents, as according to a 2025 survey by Deloitte, 75% of shoppers are willing to switch brands if their preferred brand is too expensive. This could win significant loyalty in the long term.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Sports fashion.
Office and garden.
Marketplaces.
Top tips:
Offer bargain bundles for value-conscious parents.
Ramp up messaging throughout late summer.
Ensure personalized messages caters to the right spending demographics.
#7
Halloween, 31 October
Many special retail holidays that began in the U.S. have been embraced and adopted by other regions around the world. Halloween is a good example. In the U.S. Halloween is the year’s biggest candy and chocolate purchasing holiday with 80% of people buying candy. It’s a time of costumes, parties, and playfully extorting candy from neighbours and for many brands it provides a welcome opportunity to boost sales in what would be an overly long span between the end of summer and Black November.
It’s not just the kids who dress up. Keen to show off on social media, more adults than ever before are getting into the spirit of the holiday by donning elaborately ghoulish costumes and attending parties.
Halloween 2025 was projected by the National Retail Federation to be a record year, with total U.S. spending predicted to reach $13.1 billion, up from $11.6 billion in 2024, with 73% of Americans participating in the festivities.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Food and beverages.
Fashion.
Entertainment.
Marketplaces.
Top tips:
Halloween is a highly visual holiday—leverage social media and videos to inspire.
Create bundles with upselling at check out.
Create early demand to capture a growing interest in Halloween.
#8
Singles' Day, 11 November
Originally called Bachelor’s Day, Singles’ Day is a kind of “anti-Valentines Day,” an unofficial holiday that celebrates singlehood. Although it has its roots firmly in China, awareness is growing elsewhere, in the U.S. and U.K. for example.
Singles Day 2024 was the fourth consecutive year that Alibaba, the largest retailer in China, and JD.com, the second largest, declined to release sales data, although the latter did report a 20% YoY increase in shoppers for 2024. However, the estimates are that total ecommerce sales during Singles’ Day 2024 amounted to approximately $202.8 B (1.4 T yuan), a 26.6% increase YoY. This beats the amount spent online during Cyber Week in the U.S. by nearly five fold. This comfortably makes Singles’ Day the world’s biggest shopping event.
Livestreaming is a growing trend in ecommerce. But for Singles Day 2024, it contributed massively, with live streaming ecommerce platforms driving $46.7 billion (332.5 B yuan) in GMV, a 54.6% increase YoY and 23% of total sales. In 2024, household and electrical appliances won the lion’s share of sales (16%) while fashion (clothing contributed 14% of total sales) came in second.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Household and electrical appliances.
Fashion.
Health and beauty.
Home and garden.
Top tips:
Ramp up messaging one week in advance with teasers and countdowns.
Some brands in territories outside of China, particularly in countries with a sizable Chinese diaspora, should be looking to take advantage of the moment but may need a longer ramp up period for messaging.
Leverage livestreaming.
Adopt a mobile-first approach.
Focus messaging on “self-gifting.”
Target cart abandoners.
#9
Black November
Once upon a time Black Friday, as the name suggests, was a sales event that unfolded over one short day. It occurs on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Since, Black Friday has not only sprouted the offshoot of Cyber Monday, but, in turn, has sprouted Cyber Week, and now the whole of the month is home to a frenzy of promotional activities. Black November, for many ecommerce brands, will be the busiest time of the year.
Black Friday 2025 was a record-breaking year with online sales in the U.S. topping $11.8 B—this is a 9.1% YoY increase. Mobile sales generated 56% of the revenue and there was an 11% growth in buy now, pay later purchasing.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Fashion.
Electronics.
Luxury fashion.
Health and beauty.
Top tips:
Display dynamic creatives that amplify FOMO with time-sensitive offers, such as countdown banners.
Engaging new customers and bringing back lapsed users will resonate far beyond the Q4 promotional period.
Offer flexible payment schemes.
#10
Christmas, 25 December
As soon as Black November ends, for many people, the Christmas shopping season begins. Of course, Christmas is a huge gift-giving holiday. Children can’t wait to raid the tree to unwrap their toys, and adults exchange tokens of their love and affection, with electronics, perfume, fashion, and health and beauty featuring strongly. And let’s not forget about the huge boost for food and beverage brands as people look to purchase an abundance of tasty traditional fare.
For the 2024 Christmas holiday shopping season U.S. online spending reached $241.4 B, a 8.7% increase year-over-year (YoY). These record-breaking ecommerce sales were driven by aggressive discounts, with the continuing shift to mobile shopping evident, and an uptick in buy now, pay later (BNPL) services.
Industries that stand to benefit:
Marketplaces.
Food and beverage.
Fashion.
Health and beauty.
Electronics.
Travel.
Top tips:
Offer free shipping and gift wrapping services.
Offer clear, guaranteed delivery dates to inspire trust.
Create urgency with your creatives showing limited-time offers and countdowns.
Curate gift bundles with complimentary items.
Ensure your messages exude seasonal cheer and a feeling of family togetherness.
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