Why brands are asking shoppers to celebrate their birthdays
Brands and retailers are putting on their party hats and dishing out deals to mark another year around the sun. It’s not shoppers’ birthdays they’re celebrating, however — it’s the brands’.
In June, the bra brand Third Love announced it was marking “10 years of support” with a special promotion on T-shirt bras. In August, Select Blinds held a $500 and a $1,000 “birthday sweepstakes” for its 21st birthday. In September, Los Angeles bakery Winston Pies celebrated seven years in business with a special “buy six slices, get the seventh free” offer. That same month, Seattle-based jewelry brand Baleen discounted its entire collection up to 40% off in recognition of its 11th birthday.
Anniversary sales are not new. Nordstrom, for example, reportedly threw its first such event in 1955 and has done so most years since. It’s also not unusual for department stores or big-box retailers to dole out deals for major milestones. But more brands and retailers — especially smaller ones — are starting to hold regular promotions or giveaways to mark their birthdays. These occasions, they told Modern Retail, help them to better reconnect with dormant customers, tease new products and boost sales during slower seasons. They’re also offering these deals at a time in which shoppers are focusing on value.
Lulus, an apparel retailer headquartered in California, has given discounts to celebrate its anniversary each year for the last five years, CEO Crystal Landsem told Modern Retail. This year, though, the company marked its 28th birthday with a heightened deal: 28% off purchases made in Lulus’ in-house app. Lulus still offered an anniversary coupon for 20% off its entire site, as it has done in years past. But customers could only get 28% off via Lulus’ app, which it launched a year ago, Landsem explained.
The promotion had the intended effect for Lulus; it brought in waves of customers and sales. “We doubled our revenue through the app through this promotion, and ever since then, our subscriptions have been increasing,” Landsem said. “We’ve seen awesome engagement. It was our best offer, I think, outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday that we’ve ever given.”
On the opposite U.S. coast, Old Whaling Company, a bath and body products brand from South Carolina, has held flash anniversary sales for the past several years. In May, it offered customers 12% off in celebration of its 12th birthday. In September, however, Old Whaling Company held its first product-specific anniversary deal: 20% off shower steamers to mark one year since introducing the category.
Shower steamers were Old Whaling Company’s first new product in years. They were also items the brand had gotten multiple requests for across its online, owned store and wholesale channels, Noelle Cork, head of sales and marketing for Old Whaling Company, told Modern Retail. In the last year, Old Whaling Company added three new scents for the shower steamers, and customers were “really, really excited,” Cork said.
“We really did want to continue the momentum,” she said. “It’s something that people responded to well, and we wanted to highlight it. We’re also a small team — we have fewer than 30 employees, and we make all the products ourselves — so it was something for our team to celebrate, as well.”
Old Whaling Company doesn’t hold sales often, although it runs a Labor Day sale every September. This year’s Labor Day sale fell approximately two weeks before the shower steamer sale, and still, customers came back to order even more products, Cork said. “We definitely had people who were buying shower streamers, but there was also an uptick in the rest of the company,” she explained.
Julianne Hudson, managing director of strategy and insights at the marketing agency VML, told Modern Retail that deals with built-in dates — like anniversaries or holidays — “are sort of a cheat code for the brand.”
“It’s a way to answer shoppers’ growing demand for something that feels a little bit more intimate, and it gives the brands an opportunity to provide that without breaking the bank,” she said.
Hudson reiterated that birthday deals have been around for years, although she said that more brands are holding them “as a sign of the times.” Retail sales in the U.S. are up more than expected, but many shoppers are still cutting back on discretionary spending. VML’s latest “The Future Shopper” report found that “price sensitivity remains a dominant factor in purchasing decisions” among 31,500 shoppers across 20 countries.
To remain competitive, retailers are launching all kinds of seasonal deals. Walmart is hosting its holiday deals event online and in stores from Oct. 8 through Oct. 13, up from four days last year. Meanwhile, Best Buy’s fall savings event is already underway and lasts until Oct. 25. On Sept. 29, Joann began offering its “lowest fleece prices of the year” ahead of the holidays.
Ultimately, at this time, shoppers are still looking for ways to save money, and birthday sales are a way that brands can run promotions on their own terms.
“Brands are feeling vulnerable,” Hudson said. “What happens when there’s uncertainty? You want something that’s familiar. So they’re leaning into this sort of urgent, time-sensitive [offer] that has all of these emotional connotations that go with them… I think it’s really about finding new ways to gain traction with consumers.”