Trends: August, 2012

Themes to Plan for: Our central merchandising themes this month focus on back-to-school, summer, fashion, weddings, and a look ahead to fall festivities. This emphasizes the seasonality of the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s important to remember that it’s wintertime in the Southern Hemisphere. Maintaining seasonally appropriate options year-round is good practice for boosting international and overall sales.

Back-to-School: Emphasis on college planning, dorm decor, small space solutions, gadget cases and accessories, clothing, school supplies, organization and the home office and storage. Back-to-school! Fresh solutions for getting organized.

Summer Olympics: Summer sports, athletics, athletes and London will come into focus as the Olympic Games kick off in late July.

Weddings: Wedding season is in full swing.

Summer: Think in terms of bright summer colors, fashion, outdoor entertaining, grilling, camping, swimming, picnics, markets, festivals, outdoor activities and sports, seasonal holidays and long weekends.

Home: Outdoor living and furniture, fireplaces and pits, outdoor kitchens, string lights and lanterns, window curtains, drapes, shower curtains, bedding and hardware.

Harvest: Autumn decor, fall planting, preserving the summer garden’s bounty; farm, rustic, and woodland motifs.

Natural History: Woodland forest themes and animals, birds, owls, squirrels, hedgehogs, chipmunks, bunnies, butterflies, feathers, nests, eggs, acorns, leaves, trees, branches, woodgrain, and natural colors.

Gardening: With summer’s bounty beginning to come into harvest, think in terms of canning, food preservation, recipes, and culinary kits. Indoor, vertical and container gardening supplies are on the rise.

 Planters, vertical solutions, tools, garden markers, heirloom seed varieties, compost bins, terrariums, bird and bee houses, chicken coops and egg baskets.

Halloween: Shoppers begin planning and searching for Halloween gear as soon as July on Etsy. Get ahead of the game by listing your full line of Halloween decor, costumes and accessories this month.

Industrialization: Large-scale vintage and handmade paper maps, botanical and anatomy charts. Upcycled lights, lamps, exposed bulbs, and chandeliers; vintage cameras, especially Polaroids with film.

Gadget Accessories: Innovative gadget cases, docking stations, speakers, amplifiers and accessories, especially geared around the iPhone 4S, iPad and Kindle Fire. Lockets, secret hiding places, skeleton keys, arrows, diamonds, paper cuts, silhouettes.

?    August is known as National Golf and National Peach month

?    August 3: Wacken Festival (Germany)

?    August 7: Friendship Day

?    August 18: Ramadan end

?    August 21: National Senior Citizens Day

?    August 23: Chinese Valentine’s Day, also known as The DaughtersFestival

?    August 27: Long Night of the Museums (Berlin, Germany)

?    August 27- Sept 11: US Tennis Open Tournament