When UK Businesses Order: Seasonality Data from a Sign and Badge Maker
Our Shopify order book from January 2024 to September 2026 shows three clear patterns. A single large bulk order can make a whole month; Christmas bauble orders land between late October and the end of November; and name badges peak in May and June, with December one of the quietest badge months. Weekday buying was strong in 2025 but weaker in 2026, so treat any one year with care. The method is at the foot of the page.
Data: 1 January 2024 to 30 September 2026, Shopify orders only · Last updated: 29 October 2026 · Refreshed each January
About the dataset
Cherry Grove Craft is a made-to-order engraving workshop in North Wales. These figures come from our Shopify order records for January 2024 to September 2026, shown as shares of each year's total rather than as counts. Buyers include hotels, schools, workplaces and clubs as well as people buying gifts, but Shopify doesn't record which is which, so this page doesn't split them; where a pattern looks like organisational buying, the text says that is our reading. Etsy, Amazon and eBay orders are not included. This is one supplier's order book, not a national survey.
One bulk order can make a month
| Month | 2024 share of revenue | 2025 share of revenue | Share of 2024 orders | Share of 2025 orders | Share of Jan–Sep 2026 orders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.6% | 5.1% | 5% | 10% | 11% |
| February | 3.5% | 12.1% | 5% | 15% | 11% |
| March | 5.8% | 9.4% | 6% | 12% | 14% |
| April | 7.7% | 8.7% | 8% | 7% | 12% |
| May | 8.0% | 3.6% | 8% | 5% | 14% |
| June | 17.5% | 9.9% | 11% | 7% | 11% |
| July | 11.9% | 10.1% | 10% | 8% | 11% |
| August | 8.7% | 3.4% | 9% | 4% | 8% |
| September | 9.6% | 5.5% | 7% | 7% | 8% |
| October | 6.5% | 17.8% | 10% | 8% | – |
| November | 15.7% | 6.8% | 12% | 9% | – |
| December | 2.5% | 7.5% | 10% | 9% | – |
When Christmas bauble orders land
Baubles are a small line for us, so this is a pattern, not a forecast. In most autumn weeks of 2025 the number of items ordered stayed within a normal range; the bulk-order week was far above it. If you are planning branded baubles or staff gifts, the practical window in our data is late October to the end of November. Lead times and what recipients keep are covered in our corporate Christmas gifts guide.
The spring and summer run
Spring and summer are many small and medium orders rather than a few big ones. Keyrings, which include many of our school-leaver gifts, were busiest in March 2026, four months before end-of-term events in July, and March and May were our busiest months overall. Our teachers' guide to leaver gifts covers the practical side.
When name badges are ordered
| Month | Share of 2024 badges | Share of 2025 badges | Share of Jan–Sep 2026 badges |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | <1% | 11% | 13% |
| February | 4% | 4% | 3% |
| March | 7% | 14% | 6% |
| April | 4% | 12% | 4% |
| May | 23% | 7% | 17% |
| June | 6% | 22% | 26% |
| July | 17% | 6% | 16% |
| August | 14% | 1% | 9% |
| September | 9% | 11% | 5% |
| October | 8% | 5% | – |
| November | 7% | 5% | – |
| December | 1% | 1% | – |
Badge demand follows events and staff intakes rather than the retail calendar. After June, the busiest badge months of 2025 were March (14%), April (12%) and January (11%), but August swung from 14% of the year's badges in 2024 to 1% in 2025, so a single month tells you little on its own. The steadiest signals are the late-spring peak and a quiet December.
How much people order at once
| Product type | Items per order 2025 | Items per order 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden name badges | 13.0 | 11.9 |
| Keyrings | 21.9 | 8.5 |
| Door hangers | 7.7 | 9.6 |
| QR code signs | 3.4 | 2.7 |
| Wooden signs | 2.2 | 2.1 |
2026 figures are January to September. Items per order is the number of items of that product type divided by the number of orders that included it. The 2025 keyring figure includes a single large bulk order; without it, keyring orders averaged 14.5 items. Signs are bought one or two at a time; badges, keyrings and door hangers are bought in batches of roughly 8 to 20. Door hangers, which are mostly hotel and guest-house products, had the highest average order value of these product types in 2026.
Which days and hours people order
| Day | Share of 2025 orders | Average order rank 2025 | Share of Jan–Sep 2026 orders | Average order rank 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 17% | 3 | 16% | 6 |
| Tuesday | 17% | 1 | 16% | 2 |
| Wednesday | 19% | 2 | 16% | =4 |
| Thursday | 17% | 6 | 13% | =4 |
| Friday | 14% | 4 | 14% | 3 |
| Saturday | 8% | 5 | 12% | 1 |
| Sunday | 7% | 7 | 14% | 7 |
Average order rank runs from 1, the day with the highest average order value that year, to 7. In 2025 the week looked like an office week: buying front-loaded to Tuesday and Wednesday, with small weekend orders. In 2026 weekend orders rose to 26% of the count and Saturday's average order was the highest of the week. Our reading is that the 2025 pattern reflects organisations buying in office hours, but one more year of data changed the picture, so don't plan a campaign around a single year's weekday split.
Frequently asked questions
When should a business order Christmas baubles?
In our data, 76% of bauble orders across 2024 and 2025 were placed between the last week of October and the end of November, and only 10% came in December. Baubles are a small line for us, so treat this as a pattern rather than a forecast. The figures cover all our Shopify buyers, businesses and individuals together.
Which is the busiest month for a sign and badge maker?
It depends on single bulk orders. October was 2025's top revenue month and November 2024's second, each shaped by a single large bulk order; June led 2024. By order count, the busiest months were May 2026, March 2026 and February 2025, in that order.
When are name badges ordered?
Badges peak in May and June: May in 2024 (23% of that year's badges), June in 2025 (22%) and in 2026 (26% of January to September badges). December was one of the two quietest badge months in both 2024 and 2025.
How many name badges does a business order at once?
13 on average in 2025, and 12 from January to September 2026. About a third of 2025's badge orders (35%) came from customers who had already ordered badges that year. The figures cover all our Shopify buyers, businesses and individuals together.
Which day of the week do people order?
In 2025 Tuesday carried the most value and Wednesday the most orders, with 84% of orders on weekdays. From January to September 2026 weekday orders fell to 74% and Saturday had the highest value, so the pattern is not fixed.
Is this data representative of UK business ordering?
It is one workshop's Shopify order book for January 2024 to September 2026, covering organisations and individuals together. It is a signal from a real order book, not a national survey.
How the figures were produced
Source and method
All figures are from Cherry Grove Craft's Shopify sales reports for 1 January 2024 to 30 September 2026, queried on 15 October 2026. Revenue is gross sales before discounts, returns, shipping and tax. Orders and badges are shown as percentages of each year's total (for 2026, of the January to September total), rounded to the nearest whole number, so columns may not add to exactly 100%. Orders include every Shopify channel, including invoiced orders; Etsy, Amazon and eBay orders are not included. About 96% of orders went to UK addresses; orders to the other countries we ship to are included. Weeks begin on Monday and times are UK time. Product types use our current product categories, which were tidied in October 2026, so some figures differ slightly from earlier versions of this page. Bauble orders are products with "bauble" in the name. No individual customer is identified.
Corrections, 15 October 2026: an earlier version said the two biggest weeks were bauble and badge orders (each was a single large bulk order), gave the weekday share of 2025 orders as 86% (it was 84%) and said 69% of orders arrived between 9am and 5pm (64% did; 69% arrived between 9am and 6pm). This page is refreshed each January. You are welcome to reuse the data with attribution to Cherry Grove Craft.
More from Cherry Grove Craft
More from our order records: where small businesses point their QR codes, what businesses put on staff name badges and what UK businesses put on their signs.
Cherry Grove Craft makes engraved name badges, signs, keyrings and corporate gifts to order in North Wales. Bulk discounts apply automatically at checkout from 20 of the same product, with no minimum order.