Retail calendar 2026-2027: Europe, United States, Australia
Retail peaks across Europe, the United States and Australia, from September 2026 to December 2027. Each one comes with the date from which a promotion starts damaging your reference price.
Add it to your calendar The full calendar drops into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook in one click. It carries the retail peaks and 36 price-freeze alerts, each thirty days ahead of its deadline, with a reminder of what it rules out.
Subscribe to the calendar · Download the file
Subscribing keeps it current as we extend it. Downloading freezes today’s version.
What this calendar adds
The dates are available everywhere. What is not is the price-freeze window.
In the European Union, any announcement of a price reduction must state the lowest price charged during the previous thirty days. And where several reductions follow one another, the reference stays the one from before the first: it does not recalculate. In practice, any promotion launched after the date in the freeze column lowers the reference for the matching peak, and therefore the discount you will be allowed to display when traffic is highest. A warm-up operation in late October costs you several points of discount on Black Friday. We set out the mechanics, with worked examples, in a dedicated article on the reference price rule, published on 16 August.
The rule is European, but the logic is not. In the United States and in Australia the regulators do not impose a fixed window, they sanction fictitious former prices, which comes down to the same discipline: keep a price history you can stand behind.
September to December 2026
| Date | Retail peak | Markets | What it prepares | Price freeze |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sep | Back to work and school | FR, DE, ES, IT | B2B traffic resumes, office and home equipment | Not applicable |
| 7 Sep | Labor Day | US | Last summer peak, end of season on apparel and outdoor | 8 Aug |
| mid-Oct | Prime Big Deal Days | US, EU | Dates announced late, often three weeks out. Do not build your freeze on them | Not applicable |
| 28 Oct | Black Friday freeze window opens | All | From this date, any promotion lowers your reference for 27 November | same day |
| 31 Oct | Halloween | US strong, UK, FR moderate | Costume, decoration, confectionery, beauty. Short window | 1 Oct |
| 3 Nov | Melbourne Cup | AU | Public holiday in Melbourne. Fashion and hosting peak | 4 Oct |
| 11 Nov | Singles Day | EU, AU | Chinese in origin, now followed by European marketplaces | 12 Oct |
| 12 to 15 Nov | Click Frenzy Main Event | AU | Australia’s November event, ahead of and separate from Black Friday | 13 Oct |
| 23 to 29 Nov | Black Week | US, EU, AU | The week replaced the day. Competitors start on the Monday | 24 Oct |
| 26 Nov | Thanksgiving | US | Very high mobile traffic that same evening | Not applicable |
| 27 Nov | Black Friday | US, EU, AU | The peak of the year for most catalogues | 28 Oct |
| 28 Nov | Small Business Saturday | US | A differentiation angle for independent brands | 29 Oct |
| 30 Nov | Cyber Monday | US, EU, AU | Natural extension, more tech and subscriptions | 31 Oct |
| 1 to 15 Dec | Christmas buying peak | All | Where the volume happens, before delivery becomes the subject | Not applicable |
| 25 Dec | Christmas | All | Summer in Australia: outdoor, beach, barbecue | Not applicable |
| 26 Dec | Boxing Day | UK, AU, US | Australia’s biggest selling day of the year, ahead of Black Friday | 26 Nov |
January to June 2027
| Date | Retail peak | Markets | What it prepares | Price freeze |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Jan to 2 Feb | Winter sales (soldes) | FR | Official dates set by decree. Derogation in four eastern departments: 2 to 29 January | 7 Dec |
| 18 Jan | Martin Luther King Day | US | Three-day weekend, home equipment | 19 Dec |
| 26 Jan | Australia Day | AU | National holiday in high summer | 27 Dec |
| late Jan | Back to school | AU | The Australian school year starts six months before the European one | Not applicable |
| 14 Feb | Valentine’s Day | All | Jewellery, beauty, fashion, food. Late purchase | 15 Jan |
| 15 Feb | Presidents Day | US | Appliances and bedding | 16 Jan |
| 7 Mar | Mothering Sunday | UK | The UK celebrates mothers in March, not in May | 5 Feb |
| 19 Mar | Father’s Day | IT, ES | On Saint Joseph’s day, not in June | 17 Feb |
| 28 Mar | Easter | All | Confectionery, decoration, spring fashion | 26 Feb |
| 2 May | Mother’s Day | ES | 2 Apr | |
| 6 May | Vatertag | DE | Germany celebrates fathers on Ascension Day | 6 Apr |
| 9 May | Mother’s Day | US, DE, IT, AU | Australia follows the American calendar | 9 Apr |
| mid-May | Click Frenzy Mayhem | AU | Australia’s mid-year event. 2027 dates unpublished: the 2026 edition ran from 13 to 16 May | Not applicable |
| 30 May | Mother’s Day | FR | France sits three weeks after the United States | 30 Apr |
| 31 May | Memorial Day | US | The unofficial start of the American summer season | 1 May |
| 20 Jun | Father’s Day | FR, US | 21 May | |
| 23 Jun to 20 Jul | Summer sales (soldes) | FR | Official dates | 24 May |
| 30 Jun | EOFY, end of financial year | AU | Australia’s most profitable peak on equipment and computing, driven by tax deductibility | 31 May |
July to December 2027
| Date | Retail peak | Markets | What it prepares | Price freeze |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Jul | Independence Day | US | Outdoor, garden, apparel. Falls on a Sunday | 4 Jun |
| July | Back to school | US | The American school run starts buying in July | Not applicable |
| August | Back to school build-up | FR, EU | Traffic returns from the 15th | Not applicable |
| 1 Sep | Back to work and school | FR, DE, ES, IT | Not applicable | |
| 5 Sep | Father’s Day | AU | Australia places it on the first Sunday of September | 6 Aug |
| 6 Sep | Labor Day | US | 7 Aug | |
| 27 Oct | Black Friday freeze window opens | All | Any promotion from this date lowers your reference for 26 November | same day |
| 31 Oct | Halloween | US, UK, FR | 1 Oct | |
| 2 Nov | Melbourne Cup | AU | 3 Oct | |
| 11 Nov | Singles Day | EU, AU | 12 Oct | |
| 22 to 28 Nov | Black Week | US, EU, AU | 23 Oct | |
| 25 Nov | Thanksgiving | US | Not applicable | |
| 26 Nov | Black Friday | US, EU, AU | 27 Oct | |
| 29 Nov | Cyber Monday | US, EU, AU | 30 Oct | |
| 25 Dec | Christmas | All | Not applicable | |
| 26 Dec | Boxing Day | UK, AU | 26 Nov |
Wording, market by market
The word you use matters as much as the discount. Some terms are legally reserved, and using them outside their window is an offence rather than a slip.
| Market | Reserved term | What the rule says | Safe all year |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | soldes | Reserved for the two periods set by decree. Using it outside exposes you to sanction under article L310-3 of the commercial code | promo, offre, réduction, -X % |
| Italy | saldi | Regulated, and the windows vary by region | promozione, offerta, sconto |
| Spain | rebajas | Regulated by Real Decreto 1/2007 | promoción, oferta, descuento |
| Germany | Schlussverkauf | Looser since the sales law was repealed, but the reference price rule still applies | Aktion, Angebot, Rabatt |
| Australia | No reserved term | No regulated word, but the competition regulator swept Black Friday advertising in late 2024 and targets former prices inflated before a discount | sale, clearance, % off |
| United States | No reserved term | The issue is not the word but the substance: regulators sanction fictitious former prices | sale, deal, % off |
Four traps this calendar exists to avoid
The warm-up that backfires The most expensive trap, and it only shows on Black Friday, when the discount you can display is smaller than planned and nobody understands why. An operation launched in late October locked November’s reference.
The Europe, US and Australia offset. Mother’s Day falls on 9 May in the United States, Germany, Italy and Australia, on 2 May in Spain, on 30 May in France, and in March in the United Kingdom. Father’s Day is in March in Italy and Spain, in May in Germany, in June in France and the United States, and in September in Australia. A single campaign gets it wrong somewhere.
Australia’s inverted seasons. Christmas falls in high summer: outdoor, beach and barbecue sell, not knitwear. Boxing Day is the biggest selling day of the year there, ahead of Black Friday, and the 30 June end of financial year creates a peak that exists nowhere else. A European campaign duplicated as-is arrives out of step.
The events with no announced date. Prime Day, its autumn variants and the Click Frenzy editions are communicated late. Do not build your price freeze on an assumed date: treat them as a bonus, not a milestone.
Going further
This calendar serves a decision more than an execution: choosing in advance which moments deserve a real discount, and protecting the thirty days before them. That is the work we do within our acquisition practice: fewer operations, better prepared.
Moving dates are computed from the official rules, and the French sales dates come from the decree. Compiled on 9 August 2026, dates re-verified on 10 August 2026. A question about your promotional calendar? Let’s talk.