There’s no doubt that Labor Day has become one of the best days to shop, with many brands offering deep discounts. The long weekend provides an opportunity for consumers to shop both offline and online, with significant growth in mobile commerce, as mentioned in eMarketer's 2024 Holiday Season prediction.
Since no data has yet been published by major outlets on Labor Day 2024 regarding sales volume and retail revenue, we’re excited to share our initial analysis before anyone else. We surveyed hundreds of brands during the Labor Day 2024 weekend. As we do for every important sales day, we tracked in real-time hundreds of leading D2C ecommerce brands’ websites, which we discovered via our favorite index—1-800-D2C.
Here are the top 6 insights our analysts compiled for your convenience based on our database—which, as with every seasonal moment, you can purchase and download from our store. Once you purchase, you’ll get access to our raw data in a Google Sheet, where you can make your own copy and easily analyze the data.
1. As expected, majority of D2C eCom brands offered a Labor Day promo
Not surprisingly, out of the hundreds of brands' website we tracked - a staggering 67% offered a Labor Day promotion. Though it's not as high as our Cyber Week monitor, which indicated that 83% of surveyed brands offered discounts, still it marks Labor Day as a major sales day that you cannot ignore in your marketing calendar.
2. D2C home goods category was the most competitiv & price-sensitive
Home goods brands were the most competitive with more than 80% of brands offering promotions during Labor Day long weekend (Aug 31st-Sep 2nd 2024). This is hardly a surprise, as Furniture brands (as well as retailers) are known to offer deep promotions - Article, Home Depot, Pottery Barn, Wayfair and many more presented in their websites (and in their stores) discounts that ranges bettwen 25% to a whopping 70% (e.g. Wayfair clearance sale). Thanks to deep discounting, people leverage Labor Day to get new furniture sets, mattresses and more.
3. The least price-sensitive category was Health & Wellness
Again, not a big surprise - Health & wellness brands are subject to signifcantly more regulation. Some have a significantly different business model which makes promotional/seasonal moments less relevant, and some are focused on creating a brand that is associated with credability and quality, positioning their products as premium - reducing the price signifcantly might reduce the same credability that they are counting on (e.g. Hims, Bonafide).
4. This year, more brands opted for Sitewide promotions compared to last year
Though the most common deal structure for 2 years in a row (or as Shopify calls it Discount pricing strategy) is what we call "Select SKUs" strategy, meaning discount/s on a curated subset of SKUs. In the graph below, you can see that compared to our survey last year in Labor Day 2023 - there was an increase of +7pt in brands that offered a sitewide promo.
For example, Aroma360 - one of the leading D2C scent diffusers brands in the last years, which offered a 30%-50% OFF discount on select items in 2023; this year, in 2024, they chose a significantly more aggressive strategy and offered 60% OFF sitewide.
5.The most common discount pricing strategy is "Select items" which allows brands to give consumers deeper discounts
Even though there was an increase in the number of brands that offered sitewide promos in 2024 compared to 2023, it is important to note that the majority of D2C ecommerce brands usually go for a specific sub-set of items/SKUs, create a dedicated "Labor Day Sale" collection page. That allows them usually to be more flexible with the discount rate - as according to our research, this Labor Day weekend - the average discount that brands with sitewide discount was significantly lower than brands that offered discounts on select items.
Avg % of discount for brands that offered sitewide promo was 28% OFF - For example - Figs with with 20% OFF; Brooklinen with 25% OFF; Cuts Clothing with 30%:
Avg % of discount for brands that offered select SKUs promo was 40% OFF - for example - Wayfair with 70% OFF; Burrow with 60% OFF; Kitsch with 40% OFF, Naked & Thriving with 30% OFF:
6. Amount off vs. percentage off: Majority of brands opted for percentage off display
Out of the D2C ecommerce brands that offered a discount during Labor Day long weekend (August 31st-September 2nd), 87% displayed the discount in ‘percentage off’ format (e.g. “50% OFF”). Only 13% of brands with a promotion, opted for an ‘amount off’ format (e.g. “$100 OFF”). Important to note that the data doesn't vary even when segmenting brands by deal strucutre (meaning sitewide discount vs Select SKUs discount), meaning the vast majority of D2C ecommerce brands that we surveyed during Labor Day long weekend went with a simpler "percentage off" format. 
There is a common theory that for higher-priced products (e.g. furniture, mattresses, high-end jewelry), consumers perfer 'amount off' display; while for lower-priced products (less than $100), 'percentage off' format will convert better. Our survey shows that this hypothesis might be out-dated, as more and more higher-price categories & brands seem to be adopting 'percentage off' format. Though the hypothesis make sense - that a higher number will have more impact on consumer and contribute to better conversion rate, we have to remember that D2C ecommerce brands have the ability to A/B test their website and offering, if so many high-price brands are choosing the simpler 'percentage off' display, it might indicate that consumers prefer simplicity, regardless of the price point.
Mattress Firm with a 70% OFF on select mattresses:
Inside Weather with up to 50% OFF on Sofas:
And a more traditional approach - Dyson offering $300 OFF on select dyson appliances:
Conclusion
While the majority of brands still favor selective item discounts over sitewide offers, the shift toward sitewide promos is notable. Furniture and home goods continue to dominate with competitive promotions, while health and wellness brands maintain a more reserved approach. The trend of using percentage-based discounts, even for higher-priced products, seems to be solidifying. Our analysis of Labor Day 2024 offers valuable insights that brands can use to strategize for future sales events.
In summary, Labor Day 2024 solidified its place as a key shopping moment, especially for D2C brands, and if the trends & insights we identified are any indication of Cyber week & the holiday season promotions - looks like we're ahead to a year of wider, deeper promos from various D2C ecommerce brands.