US shoppers are expected to spend about $275.1 billion online this November and December. The stores that boost holiday sales the most are the ones that finish their prep before Black Friday on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.
There are many ways you can use this upward trend to your advantage in the 2026 holiday season without spending a lot on marketing. From website optimization to using email marketing, we provide a laundry list of ways in which you can boost your holiday sales this year!
We’ve tested and reviewed ecommerce platforms since 2012 and constantly test them hands-on. Use these tips to improve checkout and delivery before spending more on advertising.
Website Optimization
Boosting online sales is all about optimizing your website and the shopping experience for your target market. The right website design can boost sales.
Start by optimizing your ecommerce store to add a bit of holiday cheer to your page. Consider jazzing up your logo or adding a new holiday banner to your website. It’s a quick way to add some fun to your brand for the holidays.
However, do avoid making too many changes right before the holidays. Especially when it comes to website layout and navigation. You want to make it easier for new shoppers to find everything, but you also don’t want to confuse your returning shoppers.
1. Turn Your Homepage Into a Holiday Storefront With a Countdown
Update your home page to be entirely holiday focused. Highlight sales, holiday related items or even curated gift lists for different categories.
Add a countdown timer/banner on your home page counting down the days to the holidays. This adds a sense of urgency, which can help increase sales as customers see the time slipping away.
Give your countdown a real deadline, switching to the shipping cutoff from tip 12 after Cyber Monday.
2. Build Gift Guides by Recipient and Price
Curate shopping lists for buyers. Create lists for different age groups, genders, and even in different price ranges. This allows shoppers to quickly search for multiple gifts in less time. Also highlight your clearance section so that bargain hunters can easily find good deals.
Provide holiday themed content on your blog, and link each post to the matching gift guide so readers can shop it straight away.
Build guides around Shopify collections or WooCommerce categories so you can update the featured products without rewriting each guide.
3. Rewrite Product Descriptions With Gift Buyers in Mind
Rewrite your product descriptions for holiday related products, and include gift references to products that would be good gifts.
Put these details first:
- Recipient: Who the gift suits.
- Fit: Sizing and dimensions.
- Contents: What arrives in the box.
- Presentation: Whether gift wrapping is included.
Start with your top sellers; concrete descriptions also help the AI shopping assistants covered in tip 25.
4. Put Customer Reviews Next to Every Holiday Product
Integrate customer reviews into your website. Shoppers are more likely to buy items that have been reviewed online.
Ask November buyers for feedback through a post-purchase email, using your review app’s automation where available. Display ratings on collection pages too, with customer photos that help shoppers judge size and presentation.
5. Bundle Gifts and Cross-Sell on the Order Confirmation Page
Create bundles of holiday related products. Sell decorations? Consider creating bundles in different price ranges with all necessary decorative items someone might need for their first Christmas tree. Showing products related to each other is another way to boost cross-sales.
Add holiday greetings to your “order confirmation” page, along with recommendations for other related products they may be interested in.
Use Shopify’s Bundles app to create sets priced below the items bought separately.
6. Push Wish Lists Shoppers Can Share
Push your “wish list” option through emails and call-to-actions on your website. When people create a wish list of products they like, there’s a high chance someone will actually buy the product for them if the list is shared. Win-win!
Choose a wishlist app with sharing and permission-based price-drop emails so your sale can bring interested shoppers back.
7. Design Holiday Pages for Mobile First
Ensure your mobile website is ready to go, and provides as seamless a shopping experience as your desktop site.
Mobile is forecast to account for about 57% of online holiday spending in 2026. Test on mobile data:
- Checkout: Complete payment, including supported wallets.
- Buy buttons: Check sticky add-to-cart controls.
- Banners: Keep promotions from covering purchase buttons.
8. Speed Up Pages and Fix Broken Links Before Your Code Freeze
Compress your website images and video so that it loads at the speed of light. At the same time, don’t skimp on having enough video and images for each product. Buyers want to see the products clearly before buying, and clear images and video help provide that clarity.
Scan your website for broken links and images that don’t show properly. You can use a free broken-link checker or your SEO app to make sure every link works as it needs to.
Then click through your main menu, gift guides and checkout on your phone before you freeze layout changes for the season.
Checkout and Payments
Unexpected costs and mandatory accounts can undo your storefront improvements. Hosted platforms include SSL by default; focus your checkout changes on familiar payment options and visible delivery costs.
9. Add Express Wallets Like Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay
Shop Pay handled 32% of Shopify orders over BFCM 2025. Enable supported wallets through your payment settings:
- Shopify: Shop Pay and Apple Pay.
- WooCommerce: WooPayments or Stripe express buttons.
- BigCommerce and Wix: Supported Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal options.
Test on compatible devices, then remove unused options rather than crowding checkout with buttons your customers ignore.
10. Offer Buy Now, Pay Later for Bigger Gift Baskets
Show eligible installment amounts on product pages so shoppers can assess a larger gift purchase before reaching checkout.
Use Shop Pay Installments or a supported BNPL integration, checking merchant fees against card processing first. Skip it when small orders leave too little margin.
11. Allow Guest Checkout and Show Shipping Costs Early
Unexpected extra costs are the leading checkout-abandonment complaint. Remove surprises before asking for payment:
- Accounts: Make sign-in optional in your checkout settings.
- Shipping: Display your flat rate or free-shipping threshold on product pages.
- Estimates: Add a cart shipping calculator where supported.
Offer account creation after purchase instead of requiring it.
Shipping and Returns
One of the biggest hassles during the holiday season is shipping and returns, since the volume for both goes up at this time, plus there’s a time constraint when shipping items out for the holidays. Avoid shipping hassles by providing your customers with all relevant info, and also by improving your internal shipping processes during the season.
12. Publish Your Holiday Shipping Cutoffs
Subtract handling time and a buffer day from carrier recommendations to set your customer order deadline, including separate international cutoffs.
Display those deadlines on your homepage and product pages, then repeat them at checkout so shoppers see them before paying.
2026 holiday key dates and carrier cutoffs (contiguous US)
| Date | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Thu Nov 26 | Thanksgiving | Send subscriber early access |
| Fri Nov 27 | Black Friday | Launch your main sale |
| Sat Nov 28 | Small Business Saturday | Share your shop-small message |
| Mon Nov 30 | Cyber Monday, biggest online day | End BFCM pricing |
| Mid-December | Free Shipping Day; date varies | Offer free shipping within delivery limits |
| Tue Dec 15 | FedEx Ground Economy recommended cutoff | End slow-service orders earlier |
| Thu Dec 17 | USPS Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail recommended cutoff | Apply your standard-service buffer |
| Fri Dec 18 | USPS Priority Mail recommended cutoff | Offer eligible shipping upgrades |
| Sat Dec 19 | USPS Priority Mail Express recommended cutoff | Check remaining delivery options |
| Mon Dec 21 | FedEx Ground, three-day transit, and Express Saver recommended cutoff | Check ZIP transit times |
| Wed Dec 23 | FedEx overnight recommended cutoff | Promote digital gift cards |
Check UPS’s holiday shipping schedule separately; USPS Ground Advantage recommendations for Alaska and Hawaii fall a day earlier.
13. Offer Last-Minute Shipping and Local Pickup
Provide last minute shipping options, such as overnight shipping, to late shoppers. This will attract those shoppers who may not be able to order last minute from anywhere else.
Keep express delivery within carrier windows and charge enough to cover surcharges. If you have a staffed location, enable local pickup and publish collection hours so nearby customers can order confidently.
14. Plan Free Shipping Around Free Shipping Day
Remember Free Shipping Day lands in mid-December, and the exact date moves each year. Offer free shipping on this day to stay competitive.
Set your platform’s qualifying spend slightly above average order value, then check that the extra revenue covers delivery costs. Keep the promotion within your shipping cutoff rather than promising late Christmas deliveries.
15. Sell Digital Gift Cards After the Shipping Cutoff
Replace your homepage hero with digital gift cards once physical delivery is no longer realistic, and email customers about electronic delivery.
Shopify includes gift cards under Products > Gift cards; WooCommerce needs an extension. Where supported, offer printable cards or scheduled delivery, then plan January redemption promotions alongside tip 32.
16. Make Your Holiday Returns Policy Easy to Find
Post your returns policy on your website in a prominent location. Make sure it’s clear and easily understandable. Set deadlines for when returns have to be sent in by. Consider extending this period past the holidays to reduce some hassle over the holidays themselves.
Repeat the window on product pages and order confirmations, with matching settings in Google Merchant Center from tip 29.
17. Stock Up on Best Sellers and Turn On Back-in-Stock Alerts
Use last year’s BFCM sales report to reorder your best sellers in early November, rather than spreading inventory spending equally.
- Low stock: Enable alerts before products sell out.
- Restocks: Notify subscribers through a supported app.
- Preorders: Require confirmed replenishment dates.
- Gift guides: Remove unavailable variants.
Email Marketing, SMS and Promotions
Email marketing and online promotions are important to a successful holiday marketing strategy. With mobile shopping on the rise, and customers keeping an eye out for discounts and such during the holiday season, there are many ways you can boost sales using email marketing.
18. Send Abandoned Checkout Emails Within Hours, Not Weeks
Send reminders to shoppers with abandoned carts within a few hours to encourage them to come back. Consider adding a discount for carts still abandoned after a certain period of time.
Use recovery automation for two or three messages over roughly three days, saving discounts for the last message. Disable overlapping platform emails if a dedicated email tool handles recovery.
19. Grow Your List Now With Early Access Offers
Boost your email list by actively building it during the pre-holiday season.
Offer Black Friday early access through a signup popup, tagging subscribers so they receive the promised invitation. Schedule follow-ups around:
- Black Friday’s public launch.
- Cyber Monday’s final reminder.
- Your shipping cutoff.
- Digital gift cards after cutoff.
20. Add SMS for Time-Sensitive Offers
Collect explicit SMS consent separately from email permission, and use your email tool’s supported SMS feature for urgent deadlines:
- Sale opening.
- Cyber Monday’s final call.
- Your last shipping day.
- A digital gift-card reminder.
Prioritize engaged subscribers to control messaging costs, and make opting out straightforward.
21. Reward Bigger Orders With a Gift Card
Encourage shoppers to shop more by offering promotions on larger purchases. For example, if they spend $100, they get a $10 gift card. This is a great way to get a customer back into your store after the holidays as well.
Use a gift-card-with-purchase app to automate the reward rather than issuing each card manually.
22. Run a Charity Campaign
In a giving mood? Consider adding a charity campaign, where a percentage of sales go to a local charity, and use this for PR.
Launch on Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Cyber Monday, displaying the donation amount before purchase and sharing the total with customers in January.
SEO, AI Search and Social Media
Online marketing nowadays is all about social media and utilizing SEO properly. Don’t ignore your online followers. In fact, reward them for following you throughout the year by offering discounts and promotions directly to them. At the same time, make the most of SEO and target holiday keywords to attract new customers.
23. Check Google Search Console Indexing for New Holiday Pages
If you’ve made website changes or added products, check them in Google Search Console as soon as possible to ensure the pages are indexed before the holidays.
Use URL Inspection > Request indexing for new gift guides by mid-November, but remember that submission guarantees neither indexing nor rankings. Fix any reported indexing restrictions.
24. Target Holiday Keywords in Titles, Meta Descriptions and Copy
Refreshing your website copy for the holidays? Do so with SEO in mind. Look up holiday related keywords you can add to draw those people who are online only for holiday shopping.
Use your platform’s SEO fields to add specific gift language, such as “stocking stuffers under $50,” to collection titles and descriptions. Google ignores the meta keywords tag.
25. Make Product Data Readable for AI Shopping Assistants
Eligible US Shopify merchants have default ChatGPT product discovery without an extra app. Keep your catalog complete:
- Identity: Descriptive titles, brand and applicable GTINs.
- Offer: Current price and availability.
- Policies: Shipping and return details.
Elsewhere, maintain the Google feed from tip 29 for Google’s shopping surfaces, including Gemini. Use “Men’s merino wool socks, 3-pack,” not “Cozy Bundle.”
26. Run a User-Generated Content Campaign
Engage your customers in social media campaigns where you ask them to submit videos or photographs of them using your products, giving a selected few (or all of them!) a discount code. You can use these images in your holiday advertising next year.
Request written permission before advertising reuse, and add suitable customer photos to the product reviews covered in tip 4.
27. Share Your Codes on Social and Test TikTok Shop
Share all holiday codes and discounts freely during the month before the holidays on all your social media accounts.
Sync a small bestseller selection through a supported TikTok channel integration, then test affiliate creators before committing to paid ads. Include creator commissions and platform fees when calculating whether each bundle leaves enough margin.
28. Get Into Gift Guides From Bloggers and Creators
Network with bloggers and online magazines relevant to your audience and see if you can get into their gift guides.
Pitch by early November with:
- A concise description and price.
- A usable product photo.
- A creator discount code.
Prioritize audience fit over follower count, using an affiliate app if you want commissions tied to sales.
Pay-Per-Click and Google Shopping
While most of our suggestions so far have been easy to implement, and relatively cheap, we would be remiss not to include Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertisement in this post. Here are some ways you can utilize PPC to boost sales.
Start with free Google listings, which use the same product feed as Shopping ads.
29. Turn On Free Google Listings in Merchant Center
Google’s free listings are enabled by default for approved products, although approval does not guarantee placement.
- Connect your store: Use your platform’s Google integration.
- Complete product fields: Supply required attributes and applicable brand and GTIN details.
- Set policies: Add shipping and returns in Merchant Center.
- Measure clicks: Filter the Performance report to free listings.
30. Update Keywords With Google Trends and Add Negatives
Adjust your PPC campaign keywords so they are holiday friendly, including terms like gifts and presents. Use Google Trends to come up with relevant keywords.
Utilize negative keywords to avoid paying for traffic that won’t convert into shoppers.
Check your search terms daily during Cyber Week, excluding irrelevant searches such as “DIY” or “jobs” where appropriate.
31. Add Urgency to Ads, Match Landing Pages and Raise Cyber Week Budgets
Create urgency in your advertisement text, and consider adding shipping deadlines on the ads themselves. Plenty of people will be tempted to buy something if they know they’ll get it before the holidays.
Update landing pages so they are consistent with your ads. If your ads mention a discount, the landing page should mention it too.
Increase your daily budget on PPC to take advantage of the holiday shopping rush. Don’t scrimp this time of the year.
After the Holidays
Prepare exchange options and follow-up emails before December ends so January customers can find replacements or redeem gift cards without shopping elsewhere.
32. Turn January Returns Into Exchanges and Store Credit
Use a supported returns app to make exchanges easy, offering a small bonus when customers voluntarily choose store credit.
Keep eligible refunds equally visible, and run a January gift-card redemption promotion that recommends complementary products recipients can buy with their remaining balance.
33. Re-Engage Holiday Buyers in the New Year
Once the holidays are over, re-engage your shoppers by emailing them a new year’s greeting, and stay in touch with them over the course of the year by offering promotions and discounts.
Send first-time buyers product-use advice, followed by a replenishment offer about a month later. Our guide to reducing churn on Shopify covers longer-term retention.
How We Put This List Together
We’ve tested and reviewed ecommerce platforms since 2012 and continue testing them hands-on. Our platform testing covers:
- Checkout and supported wallets.
- Abandoned checkout emails.
- Gift cards and promotions.
- Shipping rates and pickup.
- Google channel integrations.
Every tip on this list uses a feature that ships with the major platforms or a widely available app, so most small stores can set them up in an afternoon. Check what your plan already includes before paying for an extension.
Final Thoughts
Boosting holiday sales is all about being prepared for the rush and planning ahead. Start early with your website optimization and online marketing efforts so you can take advantage of the holiday sales season in the best way possible.
If you have one weekend, prioritize:
- Express wallets.
- Published shipping cutoffs.
- Shorter abandoned checkout delays.
FAQ
When should you start preparing for holiday sales?
Start by October if possible, finishing major site changes by mid-November. Prioritize inventory and subscriber growth before advertising; if you’re starting late, improve checkout and delivery promises instead of redesigning your store.
What are the last shipping dates for Christmas 2026?
See tip 12’s table for USPS and FedEx recommendations, which vary by service and transit time. Check UPS’s holiday schedule separately, and set customer order deadlines earlier to allow for handling.
Is free shipping worth it for a small store?
Usually, if a minimum-order threshold protects your margin. Set it above average order value and check delivery costs before launching. Free Shipping Day falls in mid-December, but your own shipping cutoff still applies.
How can you boost holiday sales with no budget?
Start with Google’s free product listings and available abandoned checkout emails. Build gift guides from existing products and request permission to share customer photos. Check plan inclusions before promising digital gift cards.
Do you need to do anything to show up in AI shopping results?
Keep product information complete and current; discovery is not guaranteed. Eligible US Shopify merchants have default ChatGPT discovery. On other platforms, check supported catalog integrations and maintain your Google product feed.
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