Black Friday gets all the attention: the countdown banners, the email campaigns, the budgets. But there is a peak period in the Netherlands that moves more money every year, is far more predictable, and is barely taken seriously by most webshops. Holiday pay season. Every May and June, an enormous amount of money is released across the Netherlands. Not as an impulse purchase triggered by a social media ad, but as an expected, planned sum that consumers have been anticipating for weeks.
What holiday pay is and when it arrives
Holiday pay, officially known as vakantiebijslag or vakantiegeld, is a legally required payment of at least 8% of an employee’s gross annual salary. Employers must pay it out before 1 July. In practice, that means most salaried workers receive it in May, with a smaller group in June. State pension recipients always receive their holiday pay in May via the Sociale Verzekeringsbank.
For someone on a modal income of around 43,500 euros gross per year, that works out to a gross holiday payment of roughly 3,480 euros. After the special tax withholding rate, which is higher than on regular salary, the average employee is left with 50 to 65% net. For many households, this is the largest single payment they will see land in their account all year.
Why holiday pay is spent differently from regular income
This is the part most marketers skip, and it is exactly what makes holiday pay season so interesting. Holiday pay functions as a mental pot. Because the amount arrives once a year and carries a recognisable label, it is experienced differently from monthly salary. It feels like room for something significant: a holiday, a new washing machine, a bicycle, a television, or clearing a financial backlog. Consumers actively plan larger purchases around this period.
Research by Hart van Nederland found that 38% of Dutch consumers spend their holiday pay on holidays and days out in 2026. But a considerable share also goes towards durable home purchases, sporting goods, and electronics. And directly relevant for e-commerce: one in five respondents says they are choosing a noticeably more luxurious holiday in 2026 than the year before, which also puts the online travel market in motion.
How major webshops play the period
Coolblue ran its holiday pay promotions from 18 May to 7 June this year. Alternate did the same. Bol.com activated a dedicated campaign window with hundreds of deals. Android Planet published a holiday pay gadget roundup. What all these players have in common: they were live well before 18 May, with curated landing pages ready for search terms such as “vakantiegeld deals elektronica” and “vakantiegeld [brand name]”.
The search intent around holiday pay is strongly predictable and repeats every year. Consumers know what is coming, they have a budget in mind, and they are actively looking. That behaviour starts well before the payout date, as soon as the subject appears in the news.
Opportunities for smaller webshops
The strategy used by large retailers is not reserved for large budgets. There are concrete steps any smaller webshop can take immediately.
- SEO and content in advance. Build a landing page or blog post around the search term “vakantiegeld [your category]”. Bicycles? Electronics? Garden furniture? The search intent is there. Publish that content before mid-May, because organic reach takes time to build.
- Email at the right moment. Segment your list by purchase history and send a targeted holiday pay mailing around 15 May. Not a generic discount, but a specific product or category that matches what that customer bought before. Customers who have already spent a larger sum in your shop are the most promising group during this period.
- Campaign timing. The active window runs roughly from 18 May through the first week of June. After that, attention shifts towards holiday preparation and summer shopping. Starting too late means missing peak purchase intent at the moment it is highest.
- Bundles and higher order values. Holiday pay encourages larger purchases. Bundles, combination deals, and checkout recommendations perform better during this period than at other peaks, because the consumer is already in the mindset of spending more than usual.
- Communicate delivery times before the holiday. A portion of purchases is directly holiday-related: clothing, luggage, camping gear, outdoor equipment. Make sure your product pages and checkout clearly show whether an item arrives before the upcoming travel season. That removes a significant barrier to purchase.
What does not work
A generic discount banner reading “holiday pay promotion” without any context converts poorly. Consumers know what they want to buy. They are not looking for a deal on something random; they want a good price on something specific. Relevance beats volume. And anyone who launches their campaign in the second week of June is playing in the tail end of the period, when the money has already left most accounts.
A peak that returns every year
The Dutch e-commerce market generated 35.7 billion euros in online spending in 2025. Product categories grew by 2% that year, while services declined. That means the physical goods market online is stronger than ever, and seasonal peaks like holiday pay season play a structurally larger role than they did a few years ago.
Holiday pay is not a surprise. It arrives at the same time every year, for roughly the same amount, for the same group of consumers. Anyone who has their campaign, content, and logistics in order a few weeks ahead will capture a predictable revenue peak that most competitors leave on the table.
