We’re at the home stretch of the 2024 holiday season!

While it’s a bit late to plan ahead, you can still learn from this season’s successes and failures as we head into the new year. After all, holiday retail sales among our clients hit record numbers in 2024, with retailers seeing 30 million more customers during Cyber Week alone, a 6% YoY increase. 

Ecommerce continues to claim a bigger piece of the pie, something you need to factor in (big time) as you strategize your approach to holiday planning in 2025.

Importance of Ecommerce Holiday Readiness

Ecommerce holiday readiness is the process of preparing your entire ecommerce operation for the biggest shopping season of the year. During peak season, your online store should be able to handle traffic spikes, shifts in product demand, intense competition from other retailers, and inventory snafus – all while holding busy shoppers’ attention. Readiness, from this perspective, means starting early. You need to prepare well before the peak holiday shopping season is here. 

This year’s holiday shoppers are looking for bargains. Customers, driven by economic uncertainty, are actively hunting for deals. In response to this, retailers like Target are cutting prices on thousands of products to prepare for the 2024 holidays. Other big box retailers including Walmart, Joann, and Michaels started lowering prices as early as August. Standing out among a glut of promotions and sales requires you think outside of the discount-bedazzled box. Readiness is as much about thinking ahead as it is about meeting customer expectations. 

This is why elements like personalization, smart site search, and customized content that resonates with individual shoppers and audiences are among our top planning ideas for holiday readiness. They focus on building experiences that help customers find exactly what they’re looking for during the hectic holiday shopping season.

When Should You Start Your Ecommerce Holiday Planning?

Peak season ecommerce kicks off right after Halloween and planning should begin well before then. The season extends through January 2nd. Here’s a snapshot of major holiday shopping milestones:

• Halloween (October 31) – First significant sales peak, early holiday shoppers are already shopping
• Singles’ Day (November 11) – Global shopping event that often predicts Black Friday performance
• Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November) – U.S. holiday that kicks off the “Cyber Five” shopping days
• Black Friday through Cyber Monday (Day after Thanksgiving – Monday) – The biggest online shopping days of the season, with Cyber Monday bringing in $13.23 billion in 2023 alone
• Chanukah (Sometime in December) – In 2024, Chanukah overlaps with Christmas, but the dates change every year because it’s based on the Hebrew Calendar.
• Christmas (December 25) – The grand finale, but many consumers start shopping before their kids are back to school in August and September
• Boxing Day (December 26) – You think this is over? Think again. Boxing Day is a major shopping day, especially for gift card redemptions and returns

Ecommerce Holiday Planning Ideas

1. Start your holiday cheer with great site search 

We’re starting with site search because, well, that’s where shoppers typically start. Site search should accommodate the way your customers look for items (namely, on their phones in between meetings, play dates, or while in line at Starbucks). 

When a customer types “knitting gifts for mom”, they’re trusting that you’ll show them relevant items based on trends, their own session behavior, or past purchasing behavior (or all of these things). AI search helps you deliver relevant results by understanding intent, analyzing patterns, and recommending the perfect gift suggestions. It uses machine learning to improve results as the season progresses, getting better at matching shoppers with must-have items.

2. Mobile is the new Santa

If you think mobile shopping was big last year, buckle up. Mobile devices are currently dominating the 2024 holiday shopping landscape, driving three-quarters of holiday digital traffic and 56% of digital orders. Mobile shoppers want instant results, easy checkout, frustration-free experiences, and a peppermint mocha while they shop (or maybe that’s just us). Incorporate thumb-friendly navigation, quick-loading pages, and search results that pop up faster than you can say “is this on sale?” 

3. Personalize your holiday promotions

Generic holiday discounts are like fruitcake – everybody’s got one, but nobody’s excited about it. Your promotions should feel like they were wrapped for each shopper. Use your customer data to personalize deals, customize discounts, and keep product bundles relevant to the individual. When a customer who typically buys yoga gear visits your site, they might see yoga pants paired with a yoga mat and water bottle (for example), with the entire bundle offered at a discount. 

4. Keep holiday shoppers informed

Shoppers appreciate transparency, particularly as they close in on the busiest shopping season of the year. Show them real-time inventory levels, highlight shipping deadlines that ensure on-time delivery, and provide clear updates about product availability. Let shoppers know exactly when they need to order to get their gifts on time. Be upfront about shipping costs and delivery windows. A clear, well-communicated buying journey builds trust and reduces cart abandonment.

5. Expect returns—and plan for them

According to NRF data, nearly $150 billion in holiday merchandise was returned in 2023. Returns are just part of the process – the sweater doesn’t always fit, the air fryer was an ill-advised choice, those $260 shoes from Italy were a huge fail. Planning for returns is an important part of holiday readiness. Make your return policy clear and accessible before shoppers hit the buy button. Consider extending return windows for holiday purchases and make the process painless for gift recipients. Easy returns often lead to exchanges or new purchases.

6. Fortify your customer service approach

Holiday shoppers have questions. They’ll want to know when to expect their items, what your return policy is, if you have gift wrapping options, if they can ship to the store, and on and on. Make sure your customer service team is ready to handle the influx. Plan by hiring temporary help, if possible, and using technology to make it easy for customers to self-serve with tools like AI-enabled chatbots, detailed FAQs, and smart search that connects customers to content, people, and products quickly. 

7. Let data drive the sleigh

Your holiday data is the real gift of the season. Use insights from customer behavior to personalize everything from search results to product recommendations. Track what happens this year including the promotions that resonate, the items people want, the way shoppers move through your site (including where they get stuck), and how they interact with your content. Then use this information to inform how you prepare your ecommerce experience for the coming year.