How to optimise your online store to boost holiday sales

This year, perhaps more than most, effort to boost holiday sales will be critical. Reversing trends of recent years, Statista estimates the total value of retail sales in the run-up to Christmas will reach £96 billion this year. That’s up from £93 billion in 2023.

Claiming a share of this seasonal windfall will take some effort, however. The online marketplace is crowded, busy and exceptionally competitive. This means optimising your online store now.

Holiday calendar

’Holiday sales' and Christmas are indivisible. But there are several other holiday-themed opportunities to consider:

Valentines Day – 14th February 2025

Flowers, chocolates and extravagant romantic gifts are popular choices. But virtually anything that qualifies as a thoughtful gift could be promoted alongside this date.

Easter – 20th April 2025

Chocolates, toys and flowers are common Easter gifts. As a Christian festival, retailers have an opportunity to connect with another sales demographic.

Mother’s Day – 30th March 2025

Mothering Sunday is a time to pamper mothers and grandmothers. Aside from flowers and chocolates, luxury goods are also popular choices.

Father’s Day – 15th June 2025

Tools, gadgets, beer and snacks tend to sell well for Father’s Day. However, experiences and other thoughtful gifts offer an attractive alternative.

Back-to-school – Early September (England and Wales) 2025

Not a holiday as such, but the back-to-school period offers an opportunity to gift schoolchildren fun variations of the things they will need for the next academic year. This can extend beyond the pencil case with some creativity from retailers.

Halloween – 31st October 2025

Associated with fun, games and parties, almost anything goes. Especially if it is horror themed.

Black Friday – 28th November 2025

Black Friday falls the day after US Thanksgiving and is traditionally bricks-and-mortar focused. It is an opportunity to kick-start Christmas sales early. Virtually anything can be sold as part of a Black Friday promotion.

Cyber Monday – 1st December 2025

The second part of the US sales weekend, Cyber Monday is traditionally the day when online retailers kick-start their pre-Christmas sales. Again, almost anything can be promoted alongside this ‘holiday’.

Christmas

Arguably, the single most important season in the calendar for retailers. Christmas is a time for giving, feasting and celebrating. And any retailer can participate.

New Year – 1st January 2026

Another excuse for parties, celebration and relaxation. It is also a time when many consumers begin thinking about how to improve their health, fitness and wellbeing.

This holiday calendar shows just how many opportunities are available with careful campaign planning.

Ecommerce optimisation: How to increase holiday ecommerce sales

Unfortunately, holiday ecommerce sales don’t ‘just happen’. With so much online competition, you must optimise your website to capture – and keep – customers. These ecommerce optimisation tips will help you get started.

Product page optimisation

The product page is the point at which customers will decide whether to purchase an item or not. Product page optimisation means doing everything possible to convince a visitor to buy.

Detailed product descriptions help customers to understand the benefits of a product and attract the attention of search engine indexing spiders. Similarly, high quality product photographs help customers visualise a product.

Customer reviews are an increasingly important aspect of online purchasing. Including ‘trust signals’ like reviews and ratings on your product pages give confidence that your products are acceptable quality and your business is trustworthy.

These product page optimisations will all help to improve conversions.

Mobile optimisation

The web is officially mobile-first, with most consumer traffic coming from smartphones. It is imperative that your ecommerce website is optimised for a mobile user experience.

Mobile optimisation means redesigning your ecommerce website to use responsive design principles, automatically sizing content to the user’s screen. Speed is everything, so reducing page loading times is vital – for the mobile user experience and for search engine rankings.

Finally, revisit website navigation. Is it simple and intuitive? Effective mobile optimisation demands that customers can find and purchase what they want with minimal effort.

Pricing optimisation

In a global marketplace, customers are never more than a click away from your competitors. This means they can and will check prices. If your product pricing is not competitive, they will go elsewhere.

Pricing optimisation involves analysing what your direct competitors charge, what your target audience wants, and how to balance those factors competitively.

Pricing optimisation is not always a race to the bottom, however. You could offer free shipping, unique product bundles or volume discounts to add value for customers. You can also test your products at different price points, balancing profitability and sales volume.

Seasonal sales

Using the holiday dates above, ecommerce businesses can build accompanying seasonal sales campaigns. Holiday-themed promotions are an obvious starting point.

Consider bundling popular products that tie-in to the event in question to drive more sales. Or offer limited-time discounts to create urgency as people prepare for the ‘big day’. Peak shopping times and seasonal sales coincide in this way for a very good reason – people are already shopping for a specific event.

Checkout optimisation to reduce cart abandonment

Website checkout is the ultimate point of failure. According to Hotjar, 70% of all carts are abandoned – and 17% of those are due to complicated checkout processes. Shoppers ‘drop off’ if the process is long, complicated or requires too much effort.

Safe, secure and simple, Worldpay Ecommerce takes care of payment processing to help your customers checkout faster – reducing cart abandonment. It also offers customisable hosted payment to pages retain brand identity and maintain checkout flow.

Holiday marketing strategies

Optimising your website is only half of the holiday sales boosting equation. You must also develop holiday marketing strategies that draw people to your site. Here’s a couple of techniques to consider:

Christmas delivery dates

Displaying last shipping dates before Christmas is essential. This ensures customers know when to place orders to avoid disappointment. It will also help to reduce returns from disgruntled shoppers who order too late, receiving their deliveries after Christmas.

Displaying deadline dates is a powerful psychological motivator, encouraging a sense of urgency. Customers order sooner to avoid missing out.

Limited time offers

Like delivery dates, customers are strongly motivated by limited time offers. The promise of getting something ‘extra’ if they act quickly will often encourage ecommerce shoppers to check out.

Reward customer loyalty

It is always cheaper to encourage repeat business than it is to acquire new customers. You should target existing customers with special offers that remind them to shop – with you.

Implementing a customer loyalty program is even more powerful. Whether you offer loyalty discounts, member-only deals or some kind of restricted access experience, the only limit is your creativity.

Worldpay offer loyalty and rewards solutions to accelerate and simplify deployment. Your Worldpay loyalty program can improve revenue by retaining profitable customers through data-driven rewards automation, targeted offers and incentives.

Social media marketing

Hubspot reports that 41% of Gen Z shoppers prefer social media for discovering new products. As such, social media marketing is an essential tool for reaching new customers.

Posting content about holiday promotions, discounts and gift ideas will drive engagement and boost sales during the holidays.

Holiday email marketing

Sometimes regarded as old and dated, email remains an incredibly effective channel. Ecommerce businesses can use holiday email marketing to send personalised and engaging emails featuring special offers, seasonal promotions and product recommendations.

Holiday email marketing is particularly powerful when used in combination with loyalty programs to increase traffic during the holiday seasons.

Seasonal paid advertising

One of the easiest ways to get holiday sales noticed is using paid ads. Paid ad effectiveness can be further improved by targeting and retargeting trending holiday-related keywords that are relevant to your products.

Advertising on social media platforms and search engine results attracts the attention of a highly targeted audience, increasing the likelihood of making a sale.

Conclusion

Boosting holiday season sales is a two-step process. Optimising your ecommerce store is the first step, ensuring it is easy to use and allows your customers to buy exactly what they want with minimum effort. The checkout process should be regularly assessed and improved to reduce cart abandonment rates.

Once the website is optimised, attention must shift to attracting new visitors. Your holiday sales marketing strategy should cover multiple channels to maximise message reach. Use all available tools to personalise messaging and targeting as much as possible.

These efforts do yield results. Applying the best practices outlined in this guide will help boost holiday sales revenue – if you act in advance.

Worldpay ecommerce solutions can help your business boost sales. With a portfolio of products, there’s everything needed to accelerate deployment, simplify the shopping experience, and increase customer choice and loyalty.