The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and many brands are already planning how to boost their ecommerce sales, reconnect with old customers, and gain new ones along the way.

This holiday season is your perfect opportunity to set a sales record. But the conversions won’t just fall into your lap—you’ll be competing with other online businesses and will need to be in prime form.

Be aware that there are dueling forces converging on your business this holiday season. First, global supply chains are still being pinched, so the sooner you can stock up, the better. Customers are generally aware of these challenges but are stubbornly reluctant to accept any of the impact on their own lives.

The other force you’ll need to account for is the holiday shopping season starting earlier and reaching a higher apex.

Don’t worry. We’ve got your first holiday gift right here: a detailed guide on how you can bring in the sales this holiday season. Here, we will discuss what you should consider as part of your marketing campaign, how to connect with new customers, and ways to manage delivery expectations in the event of a delay.

Grab your milk and cookies, and let’s jump straight in.

7 Ways to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales During the Holidays

Handling these challenges while simultaneously harnessing the opportunities will require proven strategies. Here are 7 tips to consider:

1. Deals Still Reign Supreme

Much like last year, due to the rising costs of inflation, consumers will be looking for deals more than ever. Of course, this is not abnormal during the holiday season, but customers are going to be price-tag shopping more than usual.

But how do you find the fine line between enticing deals that lure potential customers to your brand and price slashes that leave you with minimum to no profit margin?

One option to consider is a free shipping promotion, as it can motivate your customers to make additional purchases. Another popular tactic is to bundle complementary products.

While socks, hairbrushes, batteries, and cheese make for an odd bundle (then again, we all have that one peculiar relative to shop for), you could make a holiday package that includes a hairbrush, a hair straightener, and a bottle of your famous dry shampoo. Call it your “Holiday Hair Rescue Kit.”

One final tactic to think about is including a free gift with orders that meet a certain threshold. For example, as an online jewelry shop, you could offer a complimentary jewelry cleaning solution with all orders over $75. When making this plan, be sure to offer something that you have enough stock to fulfill and that doesn’t leave you offering more value than you should.

2. Get Your Products in Reviewers’ Hands

With the rise in AI, we have also seen a significant rise in AI-generated reviews. As a result, it is more difficult than ever for a consumer to truly garner whether or not a product is worth purchasing or not. However, influencers and content creators still hold the key to consumer bias.

We know influencer reviews have an impact on customer purchase behavior—that’s why we call them influencers.

But due to the economic downturn and inflation challenges, external voices will be key in consumers’ decision-making process. Don’t be passive in this trend. Research product reviewers and publications and give them samples of your latest and greatest products for the holiday season. Another trend during the season is holiday shopping guides. Content creators are already working on these, so don’t wait to get in touch.

Even if they don’t give you a perfect review, getting your product in front of an audience desperate to buy will only help you gain exposure. You may not get every person watching (or reading) a product review to make a purchase, but they’re potential customers you wouldn’t have in the first place. In a world where AI can help businesses create a fake perfect record, the odd blemish on your brand’s record may actually be a benefit, as it shows authenticity and transparency.

3. Join Forces with a Friendly Business

As we have already touched on, you are not the only ecommerce brand trying to leverage the holiday period for sales.

But not all of them are your enemy. Just like Rudolph needs the support of the other reindeer to achieve his destiny (best Christmas song by far), teaming up with non-competitive partners can take your brand to the next level.

While you can generate buzz simply from a quirky collaboration, it wouldn’t be sustainable enough to result in substantial sales. Instead, find a partnership that provides unique value to customers.

For example, if you sell beauty products, you could collaborate with a business that sells high-end vanity mirrors. When customers purchase 3 or more products from your new line of lipstick, they will get a 25% discount on the mirror of their choice, plus free shipping on their entire order.

4. Slow and Steady Wins the Ad Spend Race

Remember that many of your customers have already entered holiday shopping mode. So it would be ineffective to ration your ad spending during the coming weeks in anticipation of a big blitz in December. You need to reach them now because they’re already making decisions on gifts and beginning to place orders.

Your optimal spend will depend on the distinct habits of your customer base, so you should be wary of anybody who tells you there’s a one-size-fits-all when it comes to how to manage your holiday ads. To get the best results, pay attention to traffic to your site and the rates of new orders. The sales trend is probably rising right now and will peak somewhere in the window of time around Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

5. Offer a Giveaway

Nothing beats a brand contest, especially during the holiday period! Contests often heighten engagement, perhaps because the gift-giving mindset makes it seem more plausible that you might win a prize for simply entering your information into an online form.

If you want to learn how to boost your ecommerce sales with a giveaway, focus on these priorities:

Have a goal. Simply giving away a prize won’t move the needle much for your business. But if you use the contest to build your email list or to promote a new product, the positive results can be long-lasting. Having a goal will also help you ensure your tone of voice and CTA’s are consistent throughout the campaign.

Choose a prize that’ll get noticed. Holding a giveaway with a lousy prize can actually hurt your brand, as it implies that you either don’t think your customers are worth a good prize or you lack the resources to afford one. The best prizes have a desirable value and are relevant to your audience.

Make it convenient to enter. The easier it is to enter, the more entrants you will get. There should be very few hurdles in the process of entering your contest. If your goal is to build your email list, then the entry form should definitely ask for an email. But you shouldn’t bother them further by asking for their age or mailing address.

Set a clear timeline. As for the contest timeline, make it long enough to attract a large number of entries without dragging it out to the point that interest begins to wane. An effective length often falls between 15-28 days. Also, avoid the temptation to extend offer periods for more entrants. While this might gain a few more customers in the short term, it can severely harm trust going forward.

Make a big announcement. It’s important that you let everyone know who won the contest, so they aren’t left wondering. A contest without a firm conclusion can only be considered a missed opportunity.

One final note on contests: You will sometimes see a brand get hundreds of entries for their social media giveaways of tiny prizes like a $20 gift card. It’s true that a lot of people might have entered, but the low quality of the prize correlates to a low quality of entries. The people who signed up were only interested in a gift card and probably entered dozens of other contests that same day.

It’s not a bad thing to spread some brand awareness to these individuals, but they probably have no intention of ever becoming a customer. Your priority should be to offer a prize that energizes your customers, as well as future prospects. When they engage with your giveaway, customer loyalty happens.

6. Get In the TikTok Game

Since its inception, TikTok has risen to become one of the most profitable social platforms, especially in the younger demographic, easily usurping options like Instagram and even Facebook.

If you’re not already on TikTok as a business or individual brand, then you’re missing out on an engaged audience looking for holiday gift inspiration.

Because of TikTok’s unique language, knowing the trends on the platform is critical to breaking through the noise. Although we don’t know yet what holiday TikTok trends will emerge, establishing an organic presence on the platform will set you up to take advantage when the seasonal trends arrive.

In coordination with your organic presence, start researching TikTok ads. There’s going to be more potential to reach new customers this holiday season than in the saturated ad markets of Facebook and Instagram. Check out our TikTok ads guide and get started.

7. Take Advantage of AI Tools

You really thought you’d get through an article on ecommerce in 2023 without talking about Ai, did you?

All jokes aside, while the term AI has been hastily slapped onto just about anything marketers can find, it does have some very tangible benefits for ecommerce, especially during holiday sales.

For example, an AI chatbot can help keep your customers somewhat satisfied while you work through queries and answer their questions. It can also help you tidy up any spelling or grammar errors, not to mention help you plan out marketing strategies or content structures for product pages.

While we recommend writing content yourself to ensure it meets your brand’s tone of voice and evokes a personal look and feel, AI tools like ChatGPT can be a great sounding board for anyone working alone or in a small team.

Also, you can use AI to do product research and see what trending holiday items are working or have worked in the past.

Be Prepared for Holiday Sales

The only predictable aspect of this holiday season is its unpredictability. There will be as many delights as there are delays. And you will excel if you can provide amazing customer service throughout the coming months.

What this means is that you take care of your customers in a way that lets them know you value them as much as their money. If an issue arises, promptly validate their concern and then communicate how you intend to seek a resolution.

Customer service must be at the forefront of everything you do, prioritizing customer experience and transparency.

Consider adding self-help resources to your website as a way to address the low-hanging fruit, then make sure you have an artificial intelligence chatbot that can steer customers in the right direction to get answers.

But the nerve center of your customer service won’t be AI–it will be the humans who respond directly to customers. Your people need to be equipped with resources and prepared to help customers.

As long as your service is empowered and willing, the majority of issues can actually be converted into positive opportunities to show your business’s superior support.

Want even more ideas for how to boost your ecommerce sales this holiday season? Visit our library of free ecommerce training. Each course is taught by proven entrepreneurs who know what it takes to carve out a niche, attract customers, and set sales records.

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This article was updated with support from Graeme Whiles.