As spring closes in, it's time to look ahead and prepare for the peak shopping periods over the coming months. In this article, we will be covering
The Spring Holiday Season
Spring is the second strongest quarter on Etsy for many stores, bringing a surge in seasonal refresh, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day shopping, along with a rise in wedding and graduation orders.
Occasion-based shopping drives major revenue on Etsy, and seasonal SEO and product campaigns will be key over the next few months. This is a highly competitive period, and good planning will help you capture more sales and make the most of the seasonal boost.
1. What are the main themes of Spring Holiday Season?
Women's History Month and Spring Refresh - March
March is dedicated to women, and Etsy celebrates this with curated collections featuring floral designs, women-owned shops, and empowerment themes. This also aligns with home improvement trends and a boost in the outdoor & garden categories. Targeting these niches starts in February.
Mother's Day (May 11. in the US) - April until Mid-May
One of the biggest gifting events of the season, Mother's Day sales rival Christmas in some shops. Popular categories include personalized jewelry, self-care products, greeting cards, matching outfits, home & garden décor, and sentimental gifts. Shopping starts in late March, so prepare early.
Father's Day (June 15. in the US) - May until Mid-June
With most shoppers being women buying for dads, grandfathers, or husbands, Father's Day brings another peak opportunity. Top-selling categories include personalized clothing, prints, mugs, barware, electronics accessories, and gift boxes. Personalization is a strong conversion driver around both parent holidays.
Graduation Season - April - June
Graduation ceremonies peak in May and June and dress and gown searches are already heating up while gifting traffic starts. Strong categories include personalized gifts, graduation decorations, greeting cards, and jewelry. Consider adding year-specific engravings or class-related themes to boost conversions.
Wedding Season - March - October
Wedding-related searches rise as early as February and peak in summer. Etsy sees demand in bridal accessories and lingerie, invitations, hosting and wedding décor, personalized gifts, wedding favors, and guest outfits. If you can offer a wedding-friendly line of products, start now - this niche will deliver strong performance for more than a quarter.
2. How to make the most of Spring Holiday Season?
Seasonal and gifting SEO: Matching relevant products with occasion-specific and seasonal keywords and phrases is one of the core aspects of real-time SEO. SEO for March-June boosts starts this month so you can align with the SEO team on your marketing plans around the different occasions and key categories in the store.
And with all the gifting occasions that are coming up, we will expect new Etsy Sale Events to get announced in the coming weeks to outline the full Etsy calendar for the season.
Visual marketing around thematic products: Now is the perfect time to update your shop visuals and listing photos to reflect spring themes. If you sell personalized items, consider creating dedicated Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or wedding-related listings with tailored images.
Updating your shop banner, listing images, and thumbnails to match the season can enhance conversions and attract more buyers. Make sure to check out the "dress your store" for the season article in our blog for tips and tricks.
Email marketing: Spring’s gifting occasions are ideal for engaging past buyers with email campaigns. Promoting thematic listings and personalized gifts can drive repeat customers and encourage early shopping - plus repeat buyers usually convert better and place bigger orders. If you need help with email strategy, now’s the time to plan your campaigns!
3. Release new collections and revisit best-sellers
February and March bring a seasonal shift in search trends, making it the ideal time to launch your spring-summer collections. During this period, the search algorithm undergoes a natural reshuffle of prominent keywords and listings - while winter listings start lagging behind, new contenders pop to the front pages.
Releasing new listings now gives them time to gain traction and win strong placements in search ranking. Whether you’re introducing new designs, seasonal colorways, or trend-driven products, listing them in the next 4-8 weeks ensures they get enough rotation for good positioning as the spring and summer traffic surges.
Showcase springtime florals, soft pastels, summer neutrals, or vibrant vacation-ready styles, depending on your niche. Early releases also give you the advantage of testing new listings and adjusting based on customer feedback before competition heats up in the peak months.
Now is also the time to align your inventory and workflow to avoid last-minute stress and stock shortages. Review your best-selling products from previous seasons, assess demand trends and ensure you have the necessary materials or supplies ready.
For personalized and made-to-order items, consider your peak week volumes from previous years and make sure processing times will allow you to cover the load. Take a quick look at your shipping profiles too and make sure everything is up to date.
Balancing production, marketing, and shipping during the peak months is essential to avoid bottlenecks. Pay special attention to your best-selling products staying in stock because sold-out listings take a major hit to their SEO performance in the algorithm. Organizing your workflow in an efficient and predictable way both saves a lot of stress and helps your visibility in the platform.
The next months will be busy and as always at the start of a strong season, the big goal is to trigger seasonal boosts and to make the most of the activity in the marketplace.
In the coming weeks the Etsy algorithm will start shifting and we will see a reshuffle of top listings and performance in all stores. Adapting to Etsy's plans and the seasonal demand from customers will be very helpful to make your shop and listings stand out and outperform the competition.
