Holiday Ecommerce: 11 Proven Strategies to Maximize Sales in 2025

Last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend was the biggest seasonal sales weekend of all time. During the 2024 Cyber Week (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday), US consumers spent $38.1 billion online—a 4.2% year-over-year increase.

Shopify brands helped drive that momentum, generating $9.3 billion in sales and representing more than 12% of total US ecommerce market share, connecting retailers with over 875 million unique online shoppers in 2024.

That success came from planning, not luck. The strongest holiday ecommerce strategies start months before Black Friday with smart holiday planning, detailed inventory forecasting, operational ecommerce readiness, and campaigns that build loyalty beyond Cyber Week. From forecasting inventory to mapping your holiday marketing calendar and driving post-holiday retention, preparation is what powers performance.

This guide breaks down proven strategies you can use to plan, engage, retain, and scale throughout the entire holiday season. 

1. Forecast demand and prepare your inventory

Strong holiday performance starts with planning, because nothing halts momentum faster than running out of stock before campaigns even begin. 

Smart brands use past holiday sales data, current trends, and even waitlist signups to forecast demand ahead of time—a crucial step in seasonal demand planning and overall holiday readiness. That means looking at last year’s Q4 numbers, factoring in any new product launches, and planning for the inevitable spike in returns come January. 

Take Magnolia Bakery as an example. They were juggling local pickups, keeping grocery partners stocked, and shipping treats nationwide. That’s a lot of moving parts, especially during the holidays. With Shopify’s unified tools, they could map out a clear path for each type of customer and make sure inventory flowed smoothly across every channel.

That meant fewer stockouts, less wasted product, and a shopping experience that felt seamless for customers no matter how they placed their order.

Once your operations are ready, it’s time to focus on reaching and converting the right audiences.

2. Advertise to lookalike audiences

Holiday traffic is noisy, and everyone is competing for attention. 

Instead of trying to target broadly, find people who already resemble your best customers. By uploading your customer list to platforms like Meta or by using Shopify Audiences, you can expand your reach without sacrificing relevance. 

Happy Hippo turned to Shopify Audiences, a feature that helps Shopify retailers find more customers and reduce customer acquisition costs by using data from similar brands.

In their first campaign using Shopify Audiences, 23% of Happy Hippo’s total sales came from new-to-brand customers. The campaign also recorded a 140% return on advertising spend (ROAS). The brand’s marketing team took this data to Facebook and created a lookalike audience to reach similar buyers on the social media channel.

“Shopify Audiences is a huge benefit for Plus merchants,” says Adam Biel, Happy Hippo’s CEO and lead product designer. “It has helped lower customer acquisition costs so our investments can stretch much further with Facebook ads.”

As part of your holiday marketing calendar, identify your highest-value customers—those with repeat purchases, high average order value (AOV), or frequent engagement—and use them to seed lookalike campaigns. Then test creative that emphasizes urgency and gifting to tap into seasonal buying behavior.

Once you’ve expanded your reach and built awareness, use limited product drops to turn that attention into action. Product launches with built-in urgency give new audiences a reason to buy now rather than wait.

3. Release time-sensitive product drops

Timed product drops create urgency and exclusivity—two reliable conversion-drivers during peak holiday ecommerce campaigns. They also allow you to control inventory and create natural spikes in sales without deep discounting. Tools like Shopify Launchpad make it easy to schedule drops by updating your storefront, releasing stock, and sending notifications all at once.

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Set Active is a fitness apparel retailer that diversifies its holiday marketing campaigns each year. In 2024, the brand dropped new products in the six days leading up to Black Friday, all of which had new colors or were completely original items. “We keep the discounts the same,” Set Active’s founder and CEO Lindsey Carter said in a Glossy interview. “But in terms of what we drop, how we do it and the theme, we change it every year.”

Online excitement can go further when it extends into the real world. Experiential retail brings the same energy to in-person shopping, turning discovery into memorable holiday experiences.

4. Lean into experiential retail

The holidays are an emotional time, and experiential retail really leans into that. Shopify data shows popups and in-person activations can drive billions in seasonal sales, and they work double duty by building awareness for your online store.

You don’t need a Manhattan flagship to make this work. Smaller businesses can host local maker events, offer on-the-spot product personalization, or create Instagrammable in-store moments. Experiential retail builds brand engagement and customer trust, giving shoppers a reason to share your brand, tag you on social media, and return after the holidays are over.

During the 2023 holiday season, Ashley Furniture transformed their Los Angeles storefront at The Grove into an immersive, shoppable musical experience called Listening Rooms in collaboration with Grammy-winning group Pentatonix. 

Over two festive days in November, visitors wandered through three themed environments, each designed to align cozy holiday music with Ashley’s furniture lines: a “Yule Log” space featuring the Lombardia leather sofa, a pink-hued silent disco area showcasing the sleek Maimz sofa, and a bright, whimsical “Winter Wonderland” room spotlighting the textured Lindyn sectional.

Whether it’s an in-store activation or a popup moment online, these experiences build anticipation and trust—creating a smoother path to conversion when your holiday offers go live.

5. Be transparent about upcoming sales

Shoppers are savvier than ever, and many hold off until they know a sale is coming. Transparency about your discount schedule builds trust, improves customer retention, and helps shoppers with their holiday planning. This is especially important when shoppers juggle multiple wishlists.

Brands who communicate openly tend to see fewer abandoned carts and reduced customer service questions. Try a tiered approach: Give your loyalty or SMS subscribers first access, then widen the offer. Not only does this reward your best customers, but it also drives signups ahead of peak season.

HiSmile launched their Black Friday campaign early to promote some of the offers they had coming up. In a series of TikTok videos, they shared screenshots of the products on sale and how much of a discount shoppers could get. 

Transparency earns attention—but authenticity keeps it. Once shoppers trust your brand story and value, it’s time to amplify that message through voices they already follow.

6. Partner with influencers and creators

Influencers give your products cultural credibility and reach highly engaged audiences when people are actively looking for gift inspiration. The key is picking creators who align with your niche rather than chasing follower counts. A smaller creator with deep trust in your target demographic can drive more conversions than a celebrity shout-out.

Take Peace Out Skincare, a brand that regularly partners with TikTok influencers for product launches and holiday campaigns. 

For your holiday strategy, line up creator partnerships early so content can roll out before shipping deadlines. Mix formats (like unboxings, tutorials, and gift guides) and always give creators freedom to use their own voice.

Influencer campaigns expand your reach—but to convert that attention into lasting relationships, you need to understand who those new shoppers are and what they’re looking for.

7. Gather data with quizzes

Holiday shoppers often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for because they’re buying for friends and family. A product quiz bridges that gap and collects valuable zero-party data, helping you build stronger personalization strategies. By asking questions about preferences, budgets, or lifestyles, you can point shoppers toward the right gift while learning more about them for future campaigns.

Brands like Obvi use quizzes year-round, but they’re particularly powerful in Q4 when decision fatigue is high. You can plug quiz results into segmented email campaigns, personalize onsite recommendations, or even inform your ad targeting.

The insights you collect from quizzes become even more powerful when you put them to work—especially in personalized email campaigns that keep shoppers engaged after their first purchase.

8. Personalize email marketing campaigns

Generic holiday emails will absolutely get lost in crowded inboxes—there’s a lot of competition. Personalization is where you’ll stand out. Start by segmenting based on past purchase behavior, average order value, or engagement level. Then craft campaigns that speak directly to each group: gift guides for first-time buyers, early access for VIPs, replenishment reminders for consumables.

The holidays are also a chance to strengthen storytelling around your products. 

Instead of a flat 20% off, frame your promotions as solving a problem, like “Last-minute gifts they’ll actually love” or “Your skincare routine wrapped up.” Combine segmentation with timing (like sending reminders around shipping cutoff dates) and you’ll capture more of the customers who would otherwise slip through the cracks.

Represent, a British streetwear brand, used Klaviyo to take a three-pronged approach to their Black Friday email strategy:

1. Launch a new product to coincide with discounts: These launch emails had a countdown timer to instill a sense of urgency. They got three times the industry average click rate and generated$229,000 in revenue.
2. Automated cart recovery emails: Not everyone who visited the Represent ecommerce store purchased—no matter how enticing the discount seemed. The online retailer used data they had already collected on customers to run cart abandonment emails. This campaign had an 8.3% purchase rate during Black Friday.
3. Loyalty program invitations: When Black Friday came to a close, Represent maximized value from their holiday campaign by inviting subscribers to join their loyalty program.

“After the Black Friday sale, we educate our customers on the benefits of our loyalty program,” Represent’s ecommerce development manager, Ricky Jennings, said in an interview with Klaviyo. “This keeps them engaged and more likely to return to our brand to shop again, which is the most valuable thing that can come from Black Friday.”

The three-step campaign helped Represent generate $1.5 million on Black Friday alone. Just over a third was directly attributed to email marketing.

Email keeps your brand top of mind—but loyalty grows when communication feels personal and instant. That’s where SMS comes in, turning one-way messages into real conversations with your most engaged customers.

9. Launch an SMS loyalty campaign

SMS is personal, immediate, and often overlooked during the holidays. Beyond sending flash sale alerts, use SMS to reinforce loyalty: exclusive perks, early access codes, or fun seasonal giveaways.

Til You Collapse, a fitness apparel brand, partnered with Shopify partner Yotpo to create an SMS campaign that encouraged customer loyalty. The goal was to create an exclusive community where loyal customers could talk to the brand more directly—with the added bonus of more revenue from repeat customers.

The brand’s SMS loyalty campaign was a success across the board. Not only did Til You Collapse get direct access to their loyal customers, but their SMS campaigns helped the brand learn more about each online shopper’s interests and preferences.

“If we launch a campaign for a new product, not only are we seeing almost immediate revenue via SMS, but our customers also respond directly, thanking us for the update,” says Andrew Ridley, the brand’s head of marketing. “It’s these types of messages that we want to receive—it shows us that we’re really engaging with them on the channel they prefer.”

Yotpo reports that Til You Collapse has an average engagement rate of 70% across their entire SMS strategy, achieves 16 times return on investment (ROI) on new product launches, and sees a 15% conversion rate on win-back campaigns. For their Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns, this skyrocketed to 21%.

Once your direct-to-consumer channels are thriving, the next stage of growth is scaling your reach. Many brands use the same operational strength and customer insight that drive loyalty to expand into B2B ecommerce.

10. Expand into B2B ecommerce

The holiday season is consumer-heavy, but don’t ignore wholesale opportunities. Many retailers, boutiques, and corporate buyers are sourcing holiday inventory months in advance—making B2B sales a core pillar of your holiday scaling strategy.

al.ive body, a premium personal care brand, took this approach with their holiday ecommerce strategy. The brand already had two storefronts—one for DTC, another for B2B—and soon found relying on third-party applications and integrations too overwhelming, not to mention overly complex and cost intensive.

The brand unified their DTC and B2B operations on Shopify. This meant combining the two storefronts into one back end with a separate password-protected portal for suppliers to register, view bulk deals, and check out. al.ive body also used Shopify Scripts to customize the B2B checkout process—a move that increased conversion rates by 47%.

“There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be an international brand now that we have Shopify,” says al.ive body’s CEO and cofounder, Alisa Fraser. “Its powerful customization features have empowered us to prove our business model and it gives us the confidence to take the next leap in our business journey.”

As a result, al.ive body achieved their best sales period to date. The brand brought in over $643,000 during the four-day BFCM weekend.

As your sales channels multiply, efficiency becomes the key to sustaining growth. Automating your holiday operations ensures every part of your business keeps pace with new demand.

11. Automate holiday promotions

The holidays move fast, and manual campaign management can quickly spiral out of control. Automating your holiday promotions means you won’t miss key moments, like capturing abandoned carts, inventory-restock alerts, or a scheduled flash sale. With tools like Shopify Flow or Launchpad, you can set campaigns in motion ahead of time and let them run while you focus on customer service and fulfillment.

Within the first month of moving to Shopify, pet brand BARK saw conversions climb by 6%, the kind of lift that really matters when heading into the holidays. During Black Friday and Cyber Week, they saw subscription growth jump 8% year over year. 

Shopify’s tools gave the BARK team the confidence to roll out fun, customer-facing campaigns—like a holiday quiz for dog lovers—without worrying that the site would crash or checkout would glitch. By automating the heavy lifting behind the scenes, BARK freed themselves up to do what they do best: surprise and delight pet parents. 

Get ready to lead this ecommerce holiday season

The best holiday ecommerce strategies aren’t built on one campaign—they’re built on connection. Planning, engagement, retention, and scale all work together to create a seamless experience across every touchpoint. When your systems and data flow in sync, you’re not just managing the rush—you’re maximizing it.

These retailers prove that holiday campaigns don’t have to follow a formula. Ditch the out-of-the-box templates and get creative with the holiday deals and promotions you’re running.

Shopify’s role is to simplify commerce. We help brands unify tools and processes so they can focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional customer experiences all season long.