How Trends and Seasons Can Help Boost Sales
Published October 2024
As an artist selling your designs on Redbubble, knowing how trends and seasons work can make a big difference in your sales. Let’s break down what trends are, what seasonality means, and how you can use free tools to stay ahead of the curve.
What Are Trends and How Do They Work?
A trend is a popular style or idea that a lot of people like at a certain time. A theme might be trending because of its appearance in pop culture, current events, movies, or on social media. When you create designs that match current trends, you’re more likely to catch the eye of customers who are looking for what’s “in” right now.
Trending themes on Redbubble are typically defined in three ways: a) what users are searching for, b) what shoppers are buying, and c) what artists are uploading. Popular trends can emerge quickly, run for a limited amount of time, and may vary between shoppers and artists.
What Does Seasonality Mean?
Seasonality in sales and trends refers to how certain products or styles become popular at specific times throughout the year. People tend to buy different products depending on the season – think holiday-themed goods in December or beach-themed items in the summer. By understanding seasonality, an artist can create designs that fit with what customers are looking for at different times of the year.
Example: It’s October and Halloween is just around the corner. You notice that “witchcore” (a trendy aesthetic featuring witchy elements like crystals, potions, and magical symbols) is gaining traction on social media. By creating art inspired by this popular trend, your storefront is more likely to appeal to shoppers that are actively looking for these types of designs.
Free Tools to Learn About Trends
How do you find out what’s popular and trending this season? Here are some free tools that can help you stay updated on trends and seasonality:
Google Trends
Google Trends shows what people are searching for online. You can see what’s trending right now and study how interest in a particular topic changes over time.
Enter keywords and tags that related to your art or interests. You can also compare different terms to see which one is more popular. Google Trends will show you related topics and queries that are gaining popularity.
Why Google Trends is great: It’s easy to use and gives you a real-time snapshot of what people are actively excited about.
Check out the free course from Google on how to make the most of this powerful tool.
Pinterest Trends
Pinterest is a visual search engine where people share and discover new ideas. Pinterest Trends is great for spotting emerging trends in fashion, home decor, and art.
The Pinterest Trends tool shows you past search trends from different places around the world. You can use it to see when people begin searching for different keywords, find out what’s popular on Pinterest, and learn what’s trending with your specific audience.
Why Pinterest Trends is Great: Pinterest is visually driven, making it perfect for artists to see what styles and themes are gaining traction.
Check out this step-by-step guide on how to use Pinterest Trends.
Tiktok Creative Center
TikTok is a social media platform where short videos often go viral. It’s a hotbed for discovering the latest trends, especially among younger audiences across a number of different audiences. Videos on TikTok’s For You tend to show recurring themes, challenges, or popular music that reflect current trends. Tiktok’s Creative Center also has lots of great tools to understand what’s popular on the platform – especially the hashtag tracker.
Why It’s Great: TikTok is at the forefront of pop culture, and its trends can quickly spill over into other areas.
This article from Nestscale has a great in-depth guide to using Tiktok’s Creative Center.
