IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v85y2025ics0969698925000967.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Timing Matters: How pre- and post-holiday promotions affect fresh and frozen product sales in grocery retail

Author

Listed:
  • Darbanian, Farzaneh
  • Brandtner, Patrick
  • Falatouri, Taha
  • Nasseri, Mehran
  • Mirshahi, Sina

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of promotional timing on fresh and frozen product sales during holiday periods within the supermarket sector. Using a comprehensive dataset from an Austrian retail chain, spanning six years and over 19 million transaction lines, the research highlights the critical interplay between promotional strategies, consumer purchasing behavior, and product perishability. The findings reveal that pre-holiday promotions are particularly effective for fresh products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish, leveraging consumer urgency due to store closures and perishability. In contrast, frozen products exhibit more stable sales patterns, with less pronounced effects from promotional timing due to their suitability for stockpiling. The analysis emphasizes the importance of tailored promotional strategies. Five key implications emerge: the necessity of timing promotions for fresh products to capitalize on consumer urgency, the reduced sensitivity of frozen products to promotional timing, the effectiveness of promotions for high-frequency items in driving sales and traffic, the importance of customizing promotions by product type and leveraging deal intensity, and the critical role of accurate forecasting to minimize waste, particularly for frozen goods. These insights contribute to both theoretical understanding and practical strategies, offering retailers actionable recommendations to enhance sales performance, optimize inventory management, and reduce wastage during holiday periods. The study also highlights avenues for future research, including product-level analyses and the exploration of consumer behavior across different holiday types.

Suggested Citation

  • Darbanian, Farzaneh & Brandtner, Patrick & Falatouri, Taha & Nasseri, Mehran & Mirshahi, Sina, 2025. "Timing Matters: How pre- and post-holiday promotions affect fresh and frozen product sales in grocery retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000967
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925000967
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104317?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000967. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.