Well, I run a rather large retail site, and I would say that you won't really see a pick up until Nov, but for the same reason that B&M put up Xmas stuff in Oct, is a good reason to think about doing the same on the web.

People don't start buying Xmas stuff in Oct., but they start looking for it then. A B&M has no hope of selling a Xmas tree before Nov., but as people are shopping for other items, they see the Xmas selection and think "Hmm... I'll have to come back for that."

I know I am already mentally doing my holiday shopping, thinking that my husband or kids would really like that so I should remember where I saw it. Lots of people do it.

In retail September is often a slow month because people are short after paying for summer holidays and new school kit. Also, with online shopping there's no sense of having to get in early to avoid the queues.

It seems as though some shops want Christmas to last for a full third of the year. Personally that bugs me no end, and I imagine most rational people will be carefully ignoring the hype until late November at least.

People that collect Dept <snip> houses start sniffing for them in August.

It went mad for me in mid Nove and pretty much stopped by the first week of December

Thanks for all the replies. As I am PPCing the traffic, I've decided to leave it until the second week of November rather than pay for people "researching" purchases. It's when they're making the purchases that I'm happy to pay for their clicks.

For some odd reason it seems to start in late Oct. and end in late Jan. For two years now Jan. has greatly exceeded expectations.

For two years now Jan. has greatly exceeded expectations.

Our company does better in Jan than Dec. In this day and age, people will buy all the things they didn't get for Xmas, and gift certificates are getting to be an extreamly popular gift as well.

I always have the huge increase during November and December. Then it crashes, but Q1 is much better than Q3 was. After Q1, it starts crashing again.

In the U.S., the week before Thanksgiving thru the end of Jan. Also, best promote the Jan. efforts as 'deals,' 'clearance,' etc...

50 days left until Christmas.

Associated Press reported earlier today that "Holiday Outlook Brightens for Retailers". Let's see if they're right.

It depends partly on what you are promoting. On Amazon, for books, though there is some build-up early in November, the real surge is after Thanksgiving till a week or so before Christmas. Then it starts to drop, perhaps because people do last-minute shopping at real stores. The week between Xmas and New Year's is dead. If I were doing PPC I'd take it down for that week....

Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving, is the unofficial start of Christmas shopping season. I would say around that time people start getting in the Xmas shopping mood. I think sometime during the 2nd week of December is the busiest online shopping, the Saturday right before Christmas the busiest offline, last minute shoppers and all.

The last week of Nov through January. It's already picked up some, but not the real rush yet. Getting ready to kick back and watch. Looking forward to it.

wellzy

People are ordering Britney Spears CDs through my power tools links. Christmas is here :P

Christmas seems to be here for us.

-- High ticket items are showing an increase. Sales on stuff like HDTVs etc are up.

-- Conversion rates are up from summer and post summer seasons -- a definate clue that people are swtiching from tire kicking mode to buying mode.

-- Seeing more weekend buyers

I think thanksgiving is the start for christmas shopping in the US. So prepare your servers for the traffic or increase your campaign if you're not too sure about it.

>Sales on stuff like HDTVs etc are up
I want that as a present