EP 34. When Should I Get My Holiday Items Listed? | Tips for Etsy Sellers

Wondering when to list your Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas products on Etsy? In this What You're Wondering episode, I'm sharing my rule of thumb for timing seasonal listings so shoppers can find them before the rush. Learn the exact windows for fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas prep — plus what to do if you're already inside that window.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey there, welcome to the Modern Etsy Seller Podcast and What You're Wondering, the segment where I answer one specific Etsy question in under five minutes. I'm Melissa, a busyworking mom with two profitable Etsy shops, and I help other busy women make money with Etsy and print on demand. In today's episode, I'm answering the question: when should I get my holiday items listed? And this is a good question to be asking right now because we are only weeks away from the beginning of three major selling seasons: the holiday slash fall season, the Thanksgiving season, and the Christmas slash holiday season. Now, first, when I say holiday items, I am talking about products that are specifically made for that season. Things like Halloween shirts, fall mugs, Thanksgiving kitchen towels, Christmas ornaments, products with messages and designs tied directly to the holiday. I'm not talking about every product that could be purchased as a gift during the holidays. Most giftable products can sell year-round for lots of different occasions, including Christmas, but the product itself is not necessarily seasonal. Seasonal products are different. They're often meant to be displayed or worn during the season. Even though seasonal items can and do sell year-round, they have a much shorter prime selling period leading up to the season. As sellers, we want to make sure our products are listed before that window opens. As a rule of thumb, I aim to have anything seasonal listed 8 to 12 weeks before the main shopping season begins. People begin shopping before it officially arrives. They are decorating their homes or planning parties and buying outfits and looking for products that they can use throughout the entire season. So we want to be ahead of the start of the shopping period. So for fall and Halloween products, I would aim to have them listed in July or August. For Thanksgiving products, I would aim for August or September, early September, really. And for Christmas products, I would begin even earlier. I would begin listing right now in July or next month in August with the goal of having most of them live by early, early September. Etsy's own holiday guidance supports starting early. In the 2025 holiday checklist that they had in their seller's handbook, they began encouraging sellers in August to optimize their shops and listings, review their search visibility, and get new product ideas in front of shoppers in time for the holiday season. Now, that does not mean that Etsy takes 8 to 12 weeks to index a listing. That is a myth. New listings can appear in search much sooner than that. But getting your products listed early does give Etsy time to begin showing them the shoppers to gather information about how buyers respond and learn where those listings may perform best. It also gives you time to look at your own stats. If shoppers are seeing the listing but not clicking, you may need a stronger first image. If the listing is not getting views, you may need to revisit your keywords or consider whether shoppers are actually searching for that product at all. And if one message or product begins getting attention, then you still have time to create more around that idea before the season's already winding down. Now, if you're listening to this later and you are already inside that 8 to 12 week window, don't decide that it's too late and do nothing at all. You may have missed some of the early shoppers, but you have not necessarily missed the entire season. Get your best ideas listed as soon as you can and focus on products you can create quickly. And no matter what, you will already be ahead for next year. So the simple answer is this aim to have seasonal products listed 8 to 12 weeks before the main shopping season begins. That gives shoppers time to find them. It gives Etsy time to gather information about how buyers respond, and it gives you time to make improvements while the season is still ahead of you. You do not need to have everything finished today, but with three major selling seasons coming up quickly, now is the time to start getting those listings live. Okay, that's all for today. If you have a question that you'd like me to answer on a future episode of What You're Wondering, then you can go to melissacarroll.co slash question or click the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening today, and I will see you next week.