Retail Insights: 10 Trending Homewares for Holiday Marketing in 2024

A Must Read Guide For Homewares Wholesalers and Retailers

Introduction

Hi there! Ever wondered why some household products just fly off the shelves around the holidays while others don’t? Explore the ever-changing world of seasonal retail today! I’m here to guide distributors and retailers maximize year-end sales with the most promising houseware products for the 2024 holidays. Understanding these trends helps you stock up for Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any holiday and meet consumer demands and boost sales. This post is the ultimate guide to marketing insights help you succeed in the competitive festive seasons market.

The Influence of 2023’s Holiday Retail Trends

The 2023 holiday shopping season saw a significant change in consumer behavior and retailer strategies, which had a huge effect on the retail world. According to industry analisis and recent data research, some important trends influenced brands and consumers’ holiday celebrations.

Soft Landing, Early Spending

  • According to Retail Dive‘s research, despite inflation fears and economic uncertainty, consumers remained resilient during the holiday season. A gentle economic landing boosted shopping.
  • The majority of customers anticipated to spend the same or more as last year.
  • Due to pay increases, yonger generation such as Gen Z and Millennials boosted sales growth.

Extended Holiday Shopping Season

  • According to the 2023 Holiday Shopping Trends Report from Celigo, 2023 saw earlier holiday shopping that began in October to avoid supply chain problems and get the best discounts. By November, 60% of holiday shopping was done. Retailers launched promotions and bargains earlier than before, extending the holiday shopping period.
  • Online platforms became popular, resulting in earlier transaction moments and key events.
  • Digital Commerce 360’s report shows that online sales grew as e-commerce gained market share. Retailers improved their digital experiences, offered seamless omnichannel options, and used social media and influencer marketing to reach this growing audience.

With supply chain challenges still lingering, consumers will be shopping earlier than ever this holiday season. Retailers need to be prepared with inventory and promotions.

Sustainable Buying Habits

  • People also looked for brands that shared their values and sold eco-friendly, ethically sourced goods. This contributed to the growing attention to sustainability and conscious consumerism. I suggest retailers promote their sustainability efforts and add more sustainable products.

Personalization and Digital Influence

  •  Millennials and Gen Z are particularly open to customized recommendations and loyalty programs.
  • Apps along with personalized marketing helped retailers attract younger customers.
  • Advanced digital marketing methods and personalization are crucial to attracting and retaining customers, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

Resilience and Optimism

  • Consumers expressed a desire to open their wallets during the holidays despite inflation concerns.
  • Labor markets remained strong, contributing to good pay increases.
  • September saw high retail spending across categories.

Understanding of the Holiday Market

In this section, we will explore the overview of holiday market, the influences of seasonal changes and the key factors driving housewares sales.

Overview of Holiday Market

Holiday markets, also known as Christmas markets or seasonal markets, are temporary retail events held from late November until December. Consumer spending rises during holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s. People buy gifts, decorations, and holiday clothes. In order to attract customers, retailers offer special promotions, discounts, and limited-time deals.

Holiday markets can generate large revenue for vendors, with some reporting up to 50% of annual sales in the last six weeks of the year, according to The economics of holiday markets, explained  posted on Marketplace. Thousands of consumers seek unusual presents, homeware items, and holiday-themed products at these events.

In fact, holiday markets offer valuable marketing opportunities for vendors, during which they can promote brands, connect with growing new customers and create an exciting shopping experience with their festival themed products.

Despite economic challenges like inflation, holiday markets continue to thrive. To have a successful holiday market, you need to plan ahead, know your target audience, use data from past sales, and use good marketing strategies to stand out in a competitive market.

The Influence of Seasonal Changes

Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day changed consumer buying habits. People spend much more during these seasons because they want to follow traditions and find the right gifts. In developed countries, metallic houseware products are popular for gift-giving and holiday home decor because of their longevity and aesthetic appeal. Understanding these trends can help wholesalers and retailers stock products that meet consumer needs, making their products relevant and appealing.

Key Factors Driving Houseware Sales

However, why do some items perform better during these times? Style, utility, and giftability. High-scoring products are more likely to be bought. Many buyers now choose eco-friendly products due to the sustainability trend. They want items that look attractive, durable, and eco-friendly. So it’s a good opportunity for housewares businesses to drive sales during holiday season. Here are some key factors drive up household sales:

  • Entertaining at Home: Consumers tend to buy serveware, beverageware, and other home entertaining items to enhance their hosting during the holidays.
  • Gifting Trends: Housewares like cookware, small appliances, and tabletop accessories are popular holiday gifts. People are looking for unique, high-quality gifts.
  • Seasonal Product Offerings: Brands and retailers make use of seasonal trends by offering holiday-themed housewares such as festive mugs, attractive serveware, and bakeware. These limited-edition products encourage impulse purchases and satisfy consumers’ demand for holiday home decor.
  • Value and Sales: People’s budgets are tight during the holidays, so they are attracted by things that they think are a good deal (perceived value) and are on sale (with discount). Deals, bundled offerings, and gift sets are ways for retailers to get customers who are seeking cost-effective purchases.

Top 10 Trending Houseware Products for Holidays

As the holiday season approaches, some housewares categories tend to see an increase in demand, consumers attempt to upgrade their homes, entertain guests, and give gifts related to cooking, dining, and home decor. Understanding when specific houseware items are most popular can greatly benefit your marketing strategy. Let’s market during these things’ peak searches to boost sales. Here are the top 10 trending housewares products to watch out for:

Bakeware and Cookware sets

With more time spent at home, baking and cooking remain popular activities. As a result, high-quality bakeware, pans and cookware sets tend to have growing sales.

three baking sheets with silicone grips with food in them

Examples: Cookware Sets & Roaster Pans

In my research on Google Trends, it shows that cookware sets and roaster pans have continuously high search activity throughout November’s peak week in 2020–2023. This trend matches exactly with major holiday like Thanksgiving in the US. 

Consumers are more inclined to purchase new cookware sets to meet their cooking needs during the festival periods. Also, big blowout shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday happen around this time of year, when people tend to buy a lot of home goods. This makes search demand for cookware sets even higher.

In the same way, people look for roaster pans a lot from late November to early December. There is a lot of demand for this product because people need big roasting pans to cook turkeys, hams, and other major holiday dishes during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, people tend to buy more kitchen tools and cooking equipment around the holidays so they can host more parties, which makes people search for roaster pans more.

Marketing Strategies for Retailers and Wholesalers on Bakeware and Cookware:

To make the best advantage of the popularity of these kitchen products, I recommend that distributors and retailers take the following marketing strategies:

  • Maintain enough inventory levels to fulfill the increased holiday demand for these items.
  • Use targeted promotions like bundled offers or free gifts to attract customers.
  • Enhance product visibility with SEO and online product listings.
  • Collaborate with influencers and food bloggers or chefs to promote your product on social media.
  • Share content about these cookwares’ variety and value. Videos, recipes, and instructions on using cookware and roaster pans might encourage purchases.
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See Bonray’s case study of retailer buyer about their holiday marketing strategies for custom bakeware sets

Decorative and Functional Items

Home decor and entertaining supplies are always popular for seasonal marketing. Based on my analysis of Google Trends, home decor such as candle holders and serving trays has peak search interest in late November to early December. It is likely that people are looking for accents for holiday gatherings and decorations during the festival season.

Examples: Candle Holder & Serving Tray

Candle holders are a classic holiday decoration item that creates a cozy atmosphere to homes. The trend data shows that the most searches happen annually from late November to early December, usually around Thanksgiving, because people are preparing for the festival. Candle holders are useful and decorative. What’s more, they are also excellent Christmas gifts, which increases demand even more.

Serving trays, like candle holders, have more search activity in mid-to-late November. The fact is, they aren’t just used for holiday decor; they’re also popular for everyday life and important events such as wedding ceremonies and birthday parties.

Marketing Strategies for Retailers and Wholesalers on Decorative Items

For wholesalers and retailers, this type of home decorative product should be focus when planning holiday marketing strategies. Here are some strategies for your reference:

Product Selection:

  • Choose materials such as ceramic, glass, metal for a sustainable touch.
  • Create popular seasonal motifs like snowflakes, reindeer, or modern geometric shapes. 
  • Combine different materials, such as match metal and wood or marble or slate, for a luxurious feel.
  • Curate themed collection that appeal to a wide range of customers. For example, make a “Winter Wonderland” collection with white and green color coating, or “Rustic Holiday” collection with items that are made of wood and have earthy tones.

Packaging and Design:

  • Create gift-ready packaging and make them easy to give as presents with holiday-themed colors, patterns, or messages.
  • Design boxes with ribbons, bows or festival motifs related printing color card. You can check out Bonray’s customer case to light up your ideas. 
  • Combine different materials, such as match metal and wood or marble or slate, for a luxurious feel.
  • Consider limited-edition and discount product bundles on seasonal themes to satisfy consumers’ personalized needs and generate more sales volume. For example,  put scented candles with candle holders, or a bakeware pan sheet and tabletop flatware with a serving tray.
  • Consider incorporating design elements that can double as holiday decor—such as packaging for candle holders that transforms into festive lanterns or serving tray covers that can be used as placemats.

Promotions and collaborations:

  • Work with lifestyle influencers or interior designers to promote the products around the holidays.
  • Start a social media campaign that encourages user-generated content, including photographs of customers styling their products at home.
  • Offer unique in-store experiences like monogrammed art wall customisation services.

Past custom candle holder projects I collaborated on in the past.

Custom wooden serving trays projects I collaborated on in the past.

Custom two tier and three tier serving stand projects I collaborated on in the past.

Customers would find it easier to buy from these carefully chosen sets, which can also make visual merchandising more powerful.

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Seasonal and Outdoor Living

As the weather warms, consumers naturally shift towards seasonal and outdoor living things. I found distinct spring and summer search peaks for flower pots, picnic tables, and bucket coolers on Google Trends. These trends not only represent seasonal purchasing habits, but also demonstrate the possibility for customized marketing efforts.

Examples: Flower Pot & Picnic Table & Bucket Cooler

Flower pot sees a surge in search volume in early May, during gardening season and Mother’s Day celebrations. This trend shows customers want to decorate their outdoor spaces or buy gardening presents. To meet this need, stores could sell a lot of different types of stylish, long-lasting flower pots.

Picnic tables are more popular a little later, usually in late May or early June, when people are having more outdoor gatherings outside as summer starts. Houseware manufacturer could develop foldable or expandable picnic tables for storage and transport to stand out in this category. Additional features, like cooler compartments or detachable serving trays could also make the products more useful and appealing.

Bucket coolers, on the other hand, show an a bimodal search pattern, with peaks in mid-June and mid-July, which are times when people are most likely to go on picnics, camp, and beach trips. Bucket coolers that come in different sizes, colors, and with or without insulation or double walls could meet the wants of a wide range of customers. You could also make a more appealing package deal by putting them with reusable ice packs.

Marketing Strategies for Retailers and Wholesalers on Outdoor Items

Wholesalers and retailers could try the following ideas to get people more involved in these seasonal outdoor supplies:

Product Selection:

  • Offer a wide range of styles, like marble patterns or metallic finishes.
  • Develop outdoor table and chair set packages, add extras such as flower seeds, or picnic blankets, or camping cookware sets to provide a one-stop solution and raise perceived value.. 

  • Offer customized options, like monogramming or custom designs, to make the buying experience more unique.

  • Develop eco-friendly or sustainable product lines, appealing to environmentally conscious consumers.

  • Make themed sets of product bundling, for example, a “Backyard Oasis” package with a picnic table, flower pots, and outdoor lights, a picnic table with outdoor dining accessories or a bucket cooler with drinkware.

Packaging and Design:

  • Use bright colors and patterns in the design of their packages to make people have more spring or summer feeling.
  • Design flat-pack, easy to assemble picnic tables with recyclable packaging, or biodegradable packaging for flower pots.

Promotions and Collaborations:

  • Use augmented reality (AR) technology to let customers see how these goods will look in their outdoor spaces before they buy them.
  • Work with lifestyle or influencer bloggers to create a boxing video and show how these goods are used, which will give people creative ideas for outside events.

Custom picnic table projects I collaborated on in the past.

Custom flower pot projects I collaborated on in the past.

Custom iron cooler bucket project I collaborated on in the past.

Custom ice bucket project I collaborated on in the past.

The holiday season is a critical time for retailers, and those who can anticipate consumer needs and provide a seamless omnichannel experience will be the winners.

Holiday Gifting and Entertaining

As the holidays get closer, people naturally become more interested in goods that can be used as gifts or for fun. Based on my study of Google Trends, people are most interested in drink shaker sets, wine racks, and cookie cans near the end of the year, around the holidays. Let’s look into why these trends are happening and come up with marketing plans that are just right for wholesalers and stores.

Examples: Cocktail shaker sets & Wine Rack & Cookie Can

Before the holidays, people search for cocktail shaker sets a lot, with the most searches happening in the weeks before Christmas. This may be due to more Christmas parties and gatherings where people make festive cocktails or are looking for unique gifts for the holidays. To capitalize on this interest, retailers or brands can release specialty or limited-edition shaker sets with special designs or other accessories. For example, sell basic stainless steel bar tool sets together with recipe books or stainless steel tumblers, which have steady, high search volume all throughout the year.

Wine rack searches surge around New Year’s Eve. This trend could be attributed to people receiving holiday wine as gifts and looking for elegant and efficient storage solutions, or preparing their homes for New Year’s celebrations. I suggest vendors develop different wine rack sizes, materials (wood or metal), and styles (wall-mounted, tabletop, or freestanding) could meet consumer expectations. Also offering wine rack bundles with bar supplies is also kind of strategy.

Cookie tins are another holiday item that leads pre-Christmas searches. It’s mostly because cookie cans’ multi-functionality for a holiday treats and pretty, reuseable container for gifts. To stand out in this area, retailers and distributors might try with special holiday designs printed on the surface. Putting recipe cards or baking supplies with cookie cans can also attract consumers.

Marketing Strategies for Retailers and Wholesalers on Holiday Gifting

Here are my strategic product marketing recommendations for wholesalers and retailers:

  • Gift packaging or collectible boxes with festive colors and messaging.
  • Consider eco-friendly materials and designs that buyers may reuse, increasing purchase value. Include QR codes on the packaging that link to holiday cocktail tutorials.

Custom bar tool set project.

Custom cocktail shaker set project.

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Home Organization and Storage

It looks like people are looking for ways to organize and store things around the house all year long.Storage boxes and carts are especially popular in the summer and around the holidays.The data suggests that customers want these adaptable solutions to improve their homes.

Examples: Storage Cart & Storage Basket

Storage cart search maxima occur in late August, late December/early January, and late July. These patterns indicate that consumers seek storage solutions during back-to-school, post-holiday, and summer cleaning or reorganizing.

However, storage basket searches surge around the new year, possibly due to resolutions, tidying up, and fresh starts. Organizing Christmas decor, gifts, and new home items may help drive demand for these multipurpose storage options.

Marketing Strategies for Retailers and Wholesalers on Home Organization Items

Wholesalers and retailers can use these tactics to capitalize on these trends:

  • Offer a variety of storage carts and baskets in varying sizes, materials, and styles to meet organizational and aesthetic needs.

  • Create modular or customizable storage systems that let customers mix and match components to customize their rooms.

  • Work with expert organizers or influencers to demonstrate creative and functional uses for these products to inspire consumers to solve their organizational problems.

  • To attract eco-conscious customers, use woven natural fabrics for a rustic look or sleek metal and fabric combinations for a stylish appearance.

  • Explore inventive features like built-in compartments, wheels, and stackable designs that improve product functionality and versatility.

  • Combine storage solutions with complementing decor to create themed or coordinated collections that help consumers achieve a unified home look.

Take storage carts for example, develop wheels with locking locks for mobility and safety and a variety of colors to complement interior styles.

Design storage boxes with built-in labels or label holders to make it easy to see what’s inside. This is especially helpful for people who use KonMari or other methods of organizing.

Custom storage trolley project.

Custom storage basket project.

Custom 3 tier storage rack project.

Custom storage cabinet rack project.

Marketing Strategies for Holiday Houseware Products

As a houseware vendor in China, I helped several wholesalers and retailers develop customized housewares for their holiday campaigns, and I know how important holiday marketing is. Based on search trends and customer behavior, I recommend a multi-faceted approach to attract people and increase sales.

First, we must analyze the reasons behind search trend patterns in different product categories. For instance, holiday decor and party goods should create a festive environment. Outdoor living product vendors must understand consumers’ outdoor leisure activities. To create more targeted marketing strategies, you need to have an understanding of consumer behavior.

Second, we must be proficient at identifying product differentiation points. Only using classic styles will make it hard to differentiate out in the competitive Christmas market. We can instead launch limited-edition or co-branded designs with unique features or add helpful accessory packages to make the products more desirable. Thoughtful packaging can also provide products holiday and gift qualities.

Thirdly, as people tend to buy online, a good online presence is essential.

Relevant keywords, high-quality photos, and content marketing can boost product listing visibility and conversion rates.Social media and influencer collaborations can also demonstrate products and generate gift and entertainment ideas.

 

 

Furthermore, remember in-store experiences and visual merchandising. Seasonal displays, product demos, and experienced salespeople can enhance the shopping experience and increase impulse buys. Limited-edition seasonal collections might convey urgency and exclusivity, attracting customers.

Last but not least, consider creative packaging and product bundling. Personalization, themed sets, and gift-ready packaging can make products more appealing as gifts or for personal use.

With inflation impacting budgets, value will be top of mind for holiday shoppers. Promotions and bundled offerings that demonstrate value will be key drivers of purchase decisions.

Strategic promotions and focused marketing initiatives can assist gain consumer attention throughout the competitive Christmas season. Offering discounts, packaged offers, or free delivery can encourage sales, while targeted email campaigns, social media ads, and retargeting can keep products in mind.

 

Post holiday follow-up is essential. After the holidays, I’ll do a follow-up effort to keep customers. This will include thanking customers for their purchases, requesting feedback, and offering incentives for potential purchases in the next year. This not only helps to retain customers, but it also provides useful data for future marketing campaigns.

 

Conclusion

To conclude, recognizing houseware product trends and aligning your marketing techniques with them is crucial for holiday sales. Every aspect matters in a successful holiday sales campaign, from using peak search hours for certain products to using comprehensive advertising methods across digital and physical platforms.

Looking Ahead: Preparing for Future Seasonal Trends

Predicting market developments and customer preferences will be crucial for the next Christmas season. By regularly analysing trends and modifying your strategy, you may not only satisfy but anticipate customer needs, assuring your company’s competitiveness and relevance. The most important is, be sure to prepare enough inventories for your holiday marketing.

FAQs

Common Questions

Consider consumer trends, past sales data, and peak search times to select products that are likely to be in high demand.

Adding festive designs, offering customizable options, or bundling products with other holiday essentials can increase their appeal.

Use a mix of online marketing, in-store displays, and seasonal promotions to attract and engage customers.

Highlight the sustainability aspect in your marketing campaigns, focus on the durability and environmental benefits, and connect them with other eco-friendly items for holiday promotions.

Baking essentials include roaster pans, serving trays, and expandable dining tables. They enhance meals for huge family gatherings.

Focus on storage solutions, such as organizational bins and shelving units, which are popular as people prepare for a fresh start in the new year.

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