15 eCommerce Best Practices To Increase Holiday Sales In 2026!

It’s October, which means seasonal shoppers have already started looking at your products. The real question now is: “Is your store ready to capture their interest and convert them?” Because minor gaps in your customers’ buying experience can cost you sales. So, what does it really take to increase holiday sales in 2026?

Is it offering better discounts, or bridging the gap in your customers’ buying journey? The answer is a combination of the right offers at the right time, while providing them with an experience that makes them come back to you beyond the festive rush.

Holiday marketing refers to strategies and campaigns that businesses use to attract customers during specific holiday seasons to increase holiday sales. This approach leverages festive themes, limited-time offers, and seasonally tailored promotions to capture consumers’ excitement and purchasing intent during popular shopping events, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.

The holiday rush is here, and preparing your eCommerce site to capture more sales this season is essential. According to the Adobe U.S. Holiday Shopping Forecast, U.S. online holiday shopping is projected to hit a record $275.1 billion (up 6.7% year-over-year).

These projections point towards a promising holiday season, but they also raise the stakes for eCommerce businesses. With more seasonal shoppers ready to spend, discover 15 powerful strategies to increase holiday sales and boost your store’s revenue. With so many tips to cover, let’s dive in without delay!

Is Holiday Marketing Essential for Making Profits?

Holiday marketing is essential because it capitalizes on heightened consumer interest and spending during this season to increase holiday sales.

Let us understand why it matters:

1. The holiday sales season is peak time for shopping, with customers more inclined to spend on gifts, decorations, and celebrations. Effective holiday marketing can significantly boost revenue.
2. During retail holidays, people are actively looking for deals and gift ideas.
3. Personalized, festive-themed campaigns show customers that your brand understands and celebrates what matters to them.
4. During the holiday season, most businesses ramp up their marketing efforts. Holiday marketing ensures your brand stays competitive and doesn’t miss out on consumer attention.
5. Many consumers look for bundled deals and holiday-specific products, making it a prime time to introduce package deals, upsells, or limited-edition products that drive larger purchases.

In short, marketing to increase holiday sales is just tapping into the seasonal surge in demand, amplifying brand presence and boosting sales during critical revenue-generating periods.

Before we jump into the many holiday marketing strategies to increase your holiday sales, here is a little something for our overwhelmed store owners.

Holiday Calendar To Increase Holiday Sales

15 eCommerce Best Practices To Increase Holiday Sales!

The holiday season is a prime opportunity to elevate your eCommerce store’s success, with customers eager to find the best deals, gifts, and experiences.

To help you stand out and maximize profits, we’ve compiled proven eCommerce best strategies tailored to increase holiday sales. 

From optimizing your website to enhancing customer engagement and loyalty, these strategies will ensure your store is ready to capture festive shoppers and turn seasonal traffic into long-term growth. 

1. Use Gift Cards to Capture More Holiday Revenue

Increase your holiday sales with personalized gift cards. This is an excellent holiday sales tip that works every season. These cards resonate during the festive season, offering thoughtful customization options like background images, messages, and delivery dates.

They capture the essence of the season and empower recipients to tailor their gifts. Let customers unleash their creativity in the shopping experience and build brand loyalty.

The Gift Cards for WooCommerce Pro plugin allows customers to create gift cards with custom elements that accurately reflect their sentiments. This fusion not only resonates with the spirit of the retail holidays but also contributes to increased holiday sales. WooCommerce gift voucher plugin also allows you to send gift card details to customers via WhatsApp notifications. With easy setup, you can quickly share personalized gift card details with your loved ones.

Another festive element you can include is a gift-wrapping station, which is a great service and can be a game-changing addition to your holiday season sales strategy.

Offering complimentary gift wrapping takes the stress out of the busy holiday season for your shoppers. It’s a value-added service that can set your store apart from the competition, attracting customers who appreciate the attention to detail. This gesture also resonates well with the spirit of giving during the holidays.

2. Run Cart Abandonment Campaigns to Increase Holiday Sales

The average worldwide online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.22% according to the Baymard Institute and Statista, meaning roughly 7 out of 10 online shopping carts are left unpurchased.

Cart abandonment poses a challenge for businesses. It impacts holiday sales and profits. Even with eCommerce best practices in place, abandoned carts are inevitable. Counter this by persuading customers to complete orders through cart abandonment recovery campaigns.

With Upsell Funnel Builder, You Can –

• Craft holiday-specific cart abandonment email campaigns using automation tools. Merchants can utilize Upsell Funnel Builder for WooCommerce’s email CRM automation functionality. Integrate Fluent CRM into their WooCommerce store. This integration can be used to sync the contacts of your customers who have purchased pre-bump or post-bump offers from your website. This information can be used to send follow-up emails.
• Create Abandoned Cart Bumps by deploying Upsell Funnel Builder. Use its compatibility with the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recover plugin to create bump offers targeting the customers who have abandoned their carts. These bump offers will showcase offers related to the products that customers have abandoned, increasing the chances of converting the user into a customer.

• Send periodic reminders urging users to finalize their purchases.
• Utilize push notifications for gentle nudges.
• Tap into customers’ FOMO (fear of missing out) with Countdown Timers and out-of-stock messages.

Using these strategies to increase holiday sales can help you with abandoned cart recovery.

3. Review Your Previous Data To Avoid Mistakes

Enhance the holiday sales season by learning from past mistakes. Just as personal growth stems from avoiding errors, eCommerce thrives by this principle. Avoid repeating previous missteps and benefit from the following holiday sales ideas.

Addressing prior bottlenecks ensures seamless user journeys and boosts conversions during the holiday sales season.

Here’s how you can avoid your previous mistakes:

• Analyze last year’s data via Google Analytics and Search Console.
• Decode user behavior using heatmaps and scroll maps.
• Study user interactions through recorded page visits.
• Correct past issues—failed marketing, non-converting ads, and more.

Apply these insights not only to dodge pitfalls but also to increase holiday sales. Harness this knowledge to boost holiday sales, elevating your eCommerce success.

4. Run Exciting Offers For First-Time Buyers

Converting new customers costs more than converting existing ones. But that doesn’t mean you can neglect your new buyers. If you can retain your first-time customer for a long time, they will also be profitable for you in the future.

Implementing eCommerce best practices, such as offering exciting rewards to new users, is an effective strategy for customer retention and future growth.

Here’s what you can do to retain first-time buyers with exciting rewards:

• Offer discounts, free shipping, cashback, etc., on users’ first purchase
• Create offers that are dedicated only to first-time buyers
• Provide them early access to your upcoming sale. This will be a great idea to increase sales for small businesses during the Holidays.
• Offer them a referral bonus

5. Launch a Holiday Loyalty & Rewards Campaign

Festive loyalty programs are a smart way to boost sales and engagement during the holidays by rewarding customers and encouraging repeat business.

Key strategies include offering double points, exclusive rewards, referral bonuses, VIP tiers, and early sale access to loyalty members. This holiday sales season, enhance your customer loyalty with the Points and Rewards for WooCommerce plugin.

It empowers you to:

• Offer exclusive festive perks, such as double points, unique holiday rewards, and referral bonuses, all designed to boost engagement and sales.
• Store owners can run engaging, gamified campaigns, such as referral, quiz, birthday rewards, first-order points, and comment-based points, all within customizable pop-ups.
• Run exclusive membership and referral programs; this not only makes your customers want to come back but also makes them your brand’s loyal advocates.
• Showcase earned points, referral counts, set dynamic images for the pop-up, or simply choose pre-defined templates for upcoming festivals.

During the holidays, loyalty programs do more than drive immediate sales—they create a connection with customers that extends beyond the season. Customers who feel rewarded and appreciated are more likely to return, which drives long-term brand loyalty. A well-designed festive loyalty program can help your brand thrive through the holiday sales season and keep customers coming back year-round.

6. Promote Impulse Buys With Upselling and Cross-Selling

Has it ever happened to you that you planned to buy one product, but ended up buying many other unplanned products? It personally happens to me a lot.

This is called impulse buying — when a customer has to purchase one product and then buys an additional item they hadn’t planned to. In online business, we encourage impulse purchases through upselling and cross-selling strategies.

Upselling is about offering an upgrade or a better version of the product the user is purchasing. On the other hand, cross-selling is used to gain more revenue by showing related products (variable products) to the purchased product (parent product) to current customers.

Here’s how you can increase impulse buys at your store:

• Use a smart upselling or cross-selling plugin
• Offer post-purchase upsells, i.e., after checkout
• Offer them cross-selling products right before they add a product to the cart
• Show them the products relevant to the initial purchase
• Avoid offering a product they’ve already purchased before

7. Include the Countdown for Offers

Another effective strategy is creating a sense of urgency, a proven technique to boost holiday sales. By employing limited-time offers and showcasing expiring discounts, you trigger a fear of missing out (FOMO) among your audience.

This urgency-driven approach encourages potential customers to act swiftly, thus converting their intentions into actual purchases. Don’t miss out on integrating these tips for increasing sales into your holiday sales strategy—they hold the potential to make a remarkable impact on your bottom line.

Here’s how you can use a sense of urgency:

• Add countdown timers for your sales, discounts, or products going out of stock
• Offer reward points to customers if they buy the product within the deadline
• Display the number of products left in stock
• Notify customers by email, SMS, or social media about products going out of stock, sales ending, etc.

8. Personalize Holiday Email Marketing

Email marketing is not a thing of the past. Many digital marketers still use emails to pitch their products to potential customers. And why do they use it? Because it gives amazing results.

We have observed that when you use email marketing to offer coupon codes, 7 out of 10 people use them. Not only that, but emails can also bring great traffic to your website and help convert users.

But remember, sending random emails is like taking shots in the dark. So you need to create an infallible strategy to increase your holiday season sales.

Here’s how you can create an effective email marketing strategy:

• Choose the perfect email platform that best suits your needs. There are many, like HubSpot, MailChimp, and OptinMonster
• Avoid email marketing mistakes like not sending welcome emails, using a bunch of stock images, etc.
• Send segmented and personalized emails to your audience
• Always test your emails and marketing strategies via WooCommerce A/B testing
• Optimize and make your emails mobile-friendly
• Don’t be promotional in your emails. Try to provide them with value
• Monitor your email deliverability. If that’s not good, you may ruin your reputation

9. Optimize Your WooCommerce Store for Holiday Traffic

Have you seen how brick-and-mortar stores are decorated for festivals? They decorate their shops according to the festival so that people can relate.

In the eCommerce business, your website is your store. You need to give it a festive look and feel so that customers know you’re prepared for the festivals, and they can get some good deals and offers there.

Along with giving your site a festive look, make the website navigation and checkout process easy for users.

Here’s how you can give your website a festive look:

• You can use festive images on your website’s home page and other pages
• Use graphics and themes that represent the festival or the ongoing season
• Change the fonts to give your website a festive look

Here’s an example of a WP Swings Offer Page –

10. Running Festive Ad Campaigns To Increase Holiday Sales

Infuse your holiday sales strategy with an impactful move: launching festive ad campaigns. Amid the season’s hustle and bustle, a well-executed ad campaign can be the catalyst to boost holiday sales. For example, Google Search Ads (PPC), Social Media Ads, Video Ads, and more.

Craft holiday-spirited ads, resonating with emotions and aspirations of the season. Use social media and search engines for optimal reach.

Use ads in your holiday selling tips to drive conversions by relying on these methods:

• Targeted Messaging: Tailor your ad content to evoke festive emotions and reflect the season’s essence.
• Limited-Time Offers: Capitalize on the urgency of the holidays by featuring limited-time promotions.
• Visual Appeal: Design eye-catching visuals that encapsulate the joy and spirit of the season.
• Call to Action: Include clear calls to action that drive potential customers to make a purchase.

Your efforts, combined with the right timing and resonant messaging, can increase holiday sales outcomes and elevate your brand’s holiday success.

11. Offer Free Shipping and Easy Returns

Just a couple of weeks back, I was searching for some trousers for myself. One of them was so mind-blowing I added it to the cart instantly. But as I saw the shipping charges were mind-blowing too, I abandoned my cart. This is what you should care about. Don’t charge too much for shipping. You can also offer free shipping during the holiday season.

Also, focus on smoothing the return process along with shipping. If a customer is somehow not satisfied with the product and wants to return it, make this process easy for them. And in the holiday season, the number of returns skyrockets. So make it better if it’s not.

Here’s how you can use free shipping and returns:

• Set a specific price limit for free shipping
• Promote your free shipping event
• Include shipping cost in the product price
• Make returns easy for customers
• List the return deadline on every product page

In addition to these tips, let us also give our readers (or the overwhelmed store owners) a little help. Return Refund and Exchange For WooCommerce provides you with an easy refund, exchange, and cancellation request interface for purchased products for customers. It is like a plus point for your store.

This plugin is a common element between Black Friday marketing strategies and Cyber Monday marketing strategies because it helps overwhelmed store owners manage these requests with a structured return workflow, automated email, SMS, and WhatsApp notifications, return and exchange management, cancellation requests, and integrations with shipping platforms like ShipRocket, ShipEngine, and ShipStation.

12. Leverage AI Shopping Agents

For years, online store owners have optimised their websites to meet the changing requirements of their customers. But what if we say the next generation of shoppers may not browse through your store at all? They will rely on an AI Sales Agent to browse, compare, place, and track the order on their behalf.

These Agents not only understand your customers’ requirements, but also compare products across multiple stores and sometimes even complete the purchase autonomously. This is one of the essential marketing strategies to increase holiday sales that also sets the tone of your store for the holiday season.

The basic idea is that instead of shoppers navigating your website and comparing prices during the peak holiday rush, the AI Sales Agent knows what your store offers and is trained to handle the entire transaction without leaving the chat.

13. Build a Customer Base Before the Sale Season

Start building your audience before the holiday season by using various channels. For instance, you can collect email subscribers, grow your social media followers, or create members-only groups or spaces.

Here’s how you can build an audience before the holiday season sale begins:

• Find your target audience in social media groups
• Offer free WooCommerce subscriptions to some users
• Look at the kind of audience your competitors are targeting
• Analyze your products and think about what kind of audience’s problem it will fix
• Create WooCommerce memberships and offer them for free at the beginning

Building an audience after the holiday season begins can be challenging, as people are less likely to trust new brands over established ones.

The goal is to have an audience who will be instantly notified of your festive sales through posts, emails, and more. With timely notifications, they’re more likely to visit your website, make purchases, and boost your holiday sales.

14. Promote Video And GIFs to Increase Holiday Sales

During the holiday season, one tends to increase revenue, thus amplifying the checkout process through something innovative and out of the box. And using videos and GIFs is the best choice to do so.

If you already have demo videos of your products, or an explainer video and walk-through videos, then you are set. Videos and GIFs have become the centerpiece for conversion.

Here’s how you can use videos and GIFs effectively:

• Use videos to explain the functioning of your products
• GIFs are trending these days. You can use them in your social posts and promotions
• You can also use product teaser videos to generate curiosity among customers

15. Introduce Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)

Over 50% of online retailers now offer BNPL options, with a spike in usage of 39% during festive periods. 

The “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) option is a powerful tool during the festive season, allowing customers to shop more freely and spend with ease. By offering payment flexibility, BNPL encourages customers to make larger purchases, enhancing their shopping experience without financial strain.

For retailers, BNPL boosts average order value, reduces cart abandonment, and attracts new, budget-conscious customers. 

Ready to Make Holiday Sales That Matter?

Retail Holidays make people crazy. They buy things without even thinking much. 

You just need to increase this opportunity to make more profit and boost holiday sales. The key is to start with the areas that need the most attention in your store. 

Use the holiday sales calendar to plan your marketing campaigns, review your store’s performance to avoid making the same mistakes, and choose the eCommerce best practices that align with your customers’ needs. 

Remember, you don’t have to implement everything at once. Focus on removing purchasing barriers, creating relevant offers, and giving the seasonal shoppers a reason to return even after the festive rush.

Have a holiday sales strategy that’s worked well for your store? Share it in the comments below!

Quick Answers to Your Holiday Marketing Questions

1. How can I increase my holiday sales?

Here are some tips to increase your holiday sales –

• Organize your orders & store backup
• Highlight & create a festive product category
• Have a dedicated landing page for offers
• Employ FAQs, live chats, images & GIFs
• Create a countdown timer & stress test
• Optimize your eCommerce store for mobile
• Create urgency & display scarcity
• Track competitors

2. What is the best way to increase eCommerce sales during the holidays?

You can increase holiday eCommerce sales by combining holiday marketing strategies with upselling and cross-selling, gift cards, loyalty rewards, subscription offers, and a smooth post-purchase experience. Tailor campaigns to high-intent occasions such as Halloween, BFCM, and Christmas, while tracking metrics like conversion rate, AOV, repeat purchase rate, campaign revenue, and cart abandonment to identify what is driving results

3. How can I increase holiday sales without offering big discounts?

These are some ways to increase holiday sales without offering big discounts –

• Examine your previous data to figure out what you should do this year
• Create holiday-related content and promote it on multiple channels
• Run giveaways or online contests to increase traffic and followers
• Run hashtag campaigns on social media to stand out from the crowd
• Create a holiday marketing calendar beforehand to plan your strategies for each day
• Collaborate with influencers to achieve desired results
• Communicate with users on social media by replying to their queries and providing support
• Give your social handles a festive look by changing their cover image, profile picture, etc.

4. How do I attract more customers during the holiday season?

To attract more customers during the holiday season, start your promotions early, offer seasonal discounts, and create gift guides that help shoppers find the right products. Use personalized email campaigns, festive social media content, and targeted ads to reach your audience. You can also offer first-time buyer discounts, free shipping, and loyalty rewards to encourage purchases. Most importantly, optimize your website for mobile users and ensure a smooth checkout experience to turn seasonal traffic into sales.

5. What holiday promotions increase sales?

Holiday promotions that can attract customers while increasing sales include discounts & deals, festive-specific gift cards, personalized offers, upsells and cross-sells, loyalty rewards, referral bonuses, and subscription boxes. eCommerce store owners can customise these promotions to specific occasions such as Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas to match different shopper needs and buying occasions.