Small business owners often think that Christmas Day marks the end of the Christmas sales, but in reality, the sales only stop when people stop spending. Post-Christmas sales between Christmas and New Year’s are a lucrative opportunity to capitalise on festive cash flow, with customers ready to spend.
Post-Christmas sales: Boxing Day and beyond
The transition from pre-Christmas shopping to post-Christmas clearance is immediate, and it’s not just bargain hunters looking for discounted merchandise, but everybody who received cash or gift cards for Christmas. Retailers can use this period to increase turnover and clear seasonal inventory.
Small businesses should not overlook post-Christmas sales, according to Caleb Shepard, media director at TDMC (The Digital Media Collective). It’s often the difference between a good peak season and an exceptional one. Data shows that 41% of festive shoppers continue purchasing into January, yet the majority of businesses switch off their marketing efforts.
Post-Christmas shopping isn’t only happening in malls; online shopping means it’s happening on screens. South African shoppers don’t wait for stores to reopen; they start scrolling as soon as they’ve woken up from their Christmas dinner coma.
Digital behaviour spikes between 26 December and mid-January, and small businesses who ignore it are leaving money on the (virtual) table. Digital-first shoppers are hunting for convenience, speed, and transparency. Small businesses that show up online during this period make sales while bigger retailers are still counting returns.
The gloves come off on Boxing Day when retailers announce their clearance sales across South Africa. Retailers desperate to clear Christmas-specific stock, specifically decorations, festive wrapping, seasonal confectionery, and even specific themed apparel, often start discounting merchandise at 50% off or more.
Post-Christmas sales serve two main purposes for businesses: to recover capital from unsold stock and to prepare shelves for new-year inventory, particularly for back-to-school and summer essentials like fans, swimwear, sunscreen, stationery, and organisational products; the practical stuff people forgot to buy in December.
Anything that cannot be sold is taking up space, and space is money. It has to go.
Inventory turnover is imperative in any business. While sales start on the 26th, the deepest discounts often occur throughout January as retailers move to 70% or even 80% markdowns on final seasonal items, particularly apparel and home goods.
Post-Christmas sales are a goldmine for retailers and shoppers alike; retailers like cash, and shoppers like bargains.
The post-Christmas sales surge with gift cards
One of the key drivers of the post-Christmas shopping surge is the volume of gift card redemptions.
The Card-to-Cash Conversion: Many closed-loop gift cards, those tied to a single retailer, are activated on Christmas Day. Recipients flock to stores and online platforms after the 25th to redeem this “new money.” Gift cards are literally a license to spend money.
Even better are the open-loop gift cards, which are debit cards that can be used anywhere.
The Upspend Advantage: The most significant trend for shoppers is the upspend. Research consistently shows that a majority of consumers spend more than the value loaded on their gift card. Shoppers are effectively using the card as a partial payment, making it psychologically easier to justify buying a more expensive item, especially when combined with the prevailing clearance discounts.
Example: A shopper uses a R500 card to buy a R900 gift they wanted that is now marked down to R750. They save R150 on the clearance price and only pay R250 out of pocket. In the past, some retailers never gave change on shopping vouchers or gift cards, so shoppers chose to spend extra rather than forfeit the difference.
Self-Gifting: This period sees a spike in self-gifting. Consumers use their gift cards to purchase items they truly want but did not receive, converting the card’s value directly into an item of their choice from the discounted stock.
How smart businesses boost post-Christmas sales
Understanding the post-Christmas rush is good, but knowing what to do with it is where the money is. This is the part many retailers skip, and it’s why they miss out on one of the most profitable sales windows.
- Bundle leftover stock strategically: Pair slow movers with high-demand items to increase average basket size. Example: festive napkins + neutral tableware = “New Year Entertaining Pack.”
- Use urgency without being tacky: Terms like “final markdown,” “limited sizes,” and “last of the season” work because they’re true, and customers know January stock moves fast.
- Remarket to your Christmas buyers: They already trust you. Send them a targeted ad campaign showing what’s now on clearance, or what complements what they recently bought.
- Encourage upsell and add-on sales: Shoppers with gift cards are primed to overspend. Add “You may also like” options or offer tiered discounts (e.g., “Buy 2, get an extra 10% off”).
- Clear slow-moving online inventory: Your website shouldn’t be a storage unit. Discount end-of-line items, refresh photography, adjust keywords, and re-share products that were overshadowed by Christmas noise.
- Repurpose seasonal stock imaginatively: Festive colours don’t expire. Red candles become Valentine’s décor, gold tableware becomes New Year’s glam, and “Christmas gifts” become “summer luxuries.” Customers don’t care when you bought it, only whether it’s irresistible now.
The post-Christmas period is not a downtime for business; it is a critical shift in consumer behaviour that companies can effectively capitalise on from gift card redemptions and upselling. The Christmas sales aren’t over until customers say so.
