When UK Businesses Order: Seasonality Data from a Sign and Badge Maker
When UK Businesses Order: Seasonality Data from a Sign and Badge Maker
Two full years of order data from a UK maker of engraved signs, name badges, keyrings and corporate gifts — when corporate Christmas orders actually land, how the school-leaver season builds, which months name badges are bought, how large a typical business order is, and which days and hours businesses buy. Nobody else has this data, so we have published it.
Data: 1 January 2024 to 31 August 2026, Shopify channel only · Last updated: September 2026 · Refreshed annually in January
About the dataset
Cherry Grove Craft is a made-to-order engraving workshop in North Wales selling to hospitality, education, corporate and retail customers across the UK, plus consumers. The figures below come from our Shopify order records — roughly 1,000 orders a year, around two thirds of them from businesses and organisations. They exclude our marketplace channels. This is one supplier's book, not a national survey; the patterns are consistent across the two years we have, and we have said where a single large order distorts a month.
December is not the peak
| Month | 2024 share of revenue | 2025 share of revenue | What drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.6% | 5.1% | New-year starters: name badges |
| February | 3.5% | 12.1% | Early-year corporate and hospitality refits |
| March | 5.8% | 9.4% | Name badges, early school orders |
| April | 7.7% | 8.7% | School-leaver season opens |
| May | 8.0% | 3.6% | Leavers build |
| June | 17.5% | 9.9% | Leavers peak; name badges peak |
| July | 11.9% | 10.1% | Leavers tail; back-to-school badges begin |
| August | 8.7% | 3.4% | Trough |
| September | 9.6% | 5.5% | New academic year badges |
| October | 6.5% | 17.8% | Corporate Christmas bulk lands |
| November | 15.7% | 6.8% | Corporate Christmas bulk lands |
| December | 2.5% | 7.5% | Late consumer gifts; business ordering has stopped |
When corporate Christmas orders actually land
The count of orders per week is nearly flat from September to early December. What changes is units per order: a normal autumn week is 30–100 items; the corporate Christmas weeks are 1,000 or more. Businesses that order branded baubles, staff gifts and client gifts do so in bulk, once, and between late October and the third week of November. A business that has not ordered by 1 December has, in our data, almost always decided not to. The planning detail is in our corporate Christmas gifts guide.
The school-leaver curve
Leaver gifts are the opposite shape from corporate Christmas: many small-to-medium orders from individual teachers and PTAs rather than a few large ones. The season is long — sixteen weeks — and the risk for a school is not ordering too early but leaving it to July, when dispatch times lengthen for everyone. Our teachers' guide to leaver gifts covers the mechanics.
When name badges are ordered
Badge demand follows the employment and academic calendars, not the retail one. A business that runs out of badges in December is unusual; one that needs thirty for September starters is the norm. A further pattern worth knowing: a meaningful share of one-to-three-badge orders come from existing business customers topping up — in one sample of a hundred consecutive orders, several small badge orders were from accounts on their fifth, seventh and fifteenth purchase. Small badge orders are the tail of a bulk relationship, not the whole of it.
How much a business orders at once
| Product type | Orders, 2025 | Units per order | Average order value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keyrings (incl. school leaver keyrings) | 145 | 22 | £72 |
| Wooden name badges | 175 | 13 | £60 |
| Hotel supplies (door hangers, room signs) | 17 | 10.5 | £110 |
| QR code signs | 142 | 3.3 | £54 |
| Wooden signs (single signs) | 338 | 2.2 | £28 |
Single signs are bought one or two at a time; badges, keyrings and hotel supplies are bought by the dozen. The most common order in the book — a wooden sign — is also the smallest, and the rarest — a hotel refit — is the largest. This is the difference between a consumer buying a thing and an organisation buying a set.
Which days and hours businesses buy
| Day | Orders, 2025 | Revenue | Average order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 169 | £8,394 | £50 |
| Tuesday | 170 | £12,566 | £74 |
| Wednesday | 186 | £10,142 | £55 |
| Thursday | 165 | £5,719 | £35 |
| Friday | 133 | £5,940 | £45 |
| Saturday | 81 | £2,882 | £36 |
| Sunday | 72 | £1,377 | £19 |
The shape is a B2B one: the week front-loads, Friday afternoon is quiet, and the weekend is small consumer purchases. For anyone timing a marketing email or a stock check, Tuesday to Wednesday, late morning to mid-afternoon, is when the business buyer is at the keyboard.
Frequently asked questions
When should a business order corporate Christmas gifts?
In our data the bulk orders land between the last week of October and the third week of November, and business ordering has effectively stopped by mid-December. October was the biggest revenue month of 2025; December was one of the quietest for business orders in both years.
When do schools order leaver gifts?
Ordering climbs from the first week of April, peaks in mid-May, holds through June and tails off in July. The last large ordering week is the end of June. The season is sixteen weeks long and made up of many small and medium orders.
When are name badges ordered?
June is the peak month in both years, with January and September as secondary peaks matching new-starter and new-academic-year cohorts. August and December are near-dead months for badges.
How many name badges does a business order at once?
Thirteen on average in 2025, at an average order value of about £60. Small orders of one to three badges are frequently existing customers topping up rather than new buyers.
Which day of the week do businesses place orders?
Tuesday and Wednesday. 86% of orders arrive on weekdays; Tuesday carries the highest value and Wednesday the highest count. Weekend orders are small and mostly consumer.
Is this data representative of UK business ordering?
It is one supplier's Shopify order book, around 1,000 orders a year across hospitality, education, corporate and retail customers. The patterns held across both full years we have. It is offered as a signal from a real book, not a national survey.
How the figures were produced
Source and method
All figures are from Cherry Grove Craft's Shopify order records, 1 January 2024 to 31 August 2026, queried in September 2026. Revenue is gross sales before discounts, refunds and shipping. Weekly figures use weeks beginning Monday. Units per order and average order value by product type are for calendar 2025, the most recent complete year. Marketplace orders (Etsy, Amazon, eBay) are excluded. Customer data is aggregated; no individual order or customer is identified. Where a single order materially shapes a week or month, the text says so.
This page is refreshed each January with the previous full year added. Requests to reuse the data with attribution are welcome.
More from Cherry Grove Craft
Cherry Grove Craft makes engraved name badges, signs, keyrings and corporate gifts to order in North Wales, with bulk discounts applied automatically from 20 units. No minimum order.