15 Last-Minute Ecommerce Tips for the Holiday Rush

As the holiday shopping season starts earlier each year, ecommerce businesses must be prepared well before the festivities begin. Once Labor Day arrives, the window for major site overhauls and feature rollouts has effectively closed, leaving little room for significant changes. However, there are still several last-minute yet highly impactful steps you can take to ensure your website is ready for the holiday rush. These simple but effective actions, which many of our customers have implemented, can help you maximize your site’s performance, improve customer engagement, and boost sales during the busiest shopping season of the year. They include:

1. Email list segmentation: Divide your email list based on customer behavior and preferences to send more targeted promotions. For example, you can segment your list into “holiday gift buyers” and “self-shoppers” based on past purchase history. Send gift guides to the former and self-indulgence promotions to the latter.
2. Website speed optimization: Ensure your site loads quickly to reduce bounce rates and improve conversion. Utilize WebP images, Google’s next-gen image format, to help improve site speed. Kalio’s platform automatically converts images into WebP format, providing our customers with a faster website experience with no additional effort.
3. Mobile responsiveness check: Verify that your site works seamlessly on various mobile devices. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify any performance issues with your mobile site, including Core Web Vitals and proper accessibility elements. Additionally, most of Kalio’s customers employ a guided, one-page, mobile checkout process so that shoppers enjoy a stream-lined and faster mobile shopping experience.
4. Inventory planning: Analyze past sales data to forecast demand and stock up accordingly. If scarves sold out quickly last Black Friday, consider ordering more this year based on that data.
5. Early bird promotions: Create anticipation with pre-Black Friday deals for loyal customers. Offer a “Black Friday Preview” sale exclusively to email subscribers, giving them early access to deals.
6. Social media content calendar: Plan your holiday-themed content in advance for consistent engagement. For example, plan to post a “12 Days of Christmas” series on Instagram, featuring a different product daily.
7. Chatbot implementation: Set up a simple FAQ chatbot using a platform like Crisp to answer common questions like “What are your holiday shipping deadlines?”
8. Abandoned cart emails: Set up automated reminders for customers who leave items in their carts. While offering a discount to complete a purchase is sometimes necessary, Kalio recommends sending the initial message as a “did you forget” reminder, then continuing a series of smaller discount amounts in subsequent emails.
9. Gift guide creation: Compile easy-to-browse product collections for different recipient categories. Create a “Gifts Under $50” guide, categorizing budget-friendly items for easy browsing.
10. Shipping policy review: Ensure your policies are clear and competitive for the holiday rush. Offer free shipping on orders over $75 to encourage larger purchases during the holiday season.
11. SEO keyword optimization: Update product descriptions with seasonal keywords to improve search visibility. Where appropriate, utilize phrases like “perfect Christmas gift” or “ideal for New Year’s Eve.”
12. Customer review solicitation: Encourage recent customers to leave reviews to boost social proof. Send an email to customers who purchased in the last month, offering 5% off their next purchase coupon for leaving a product review.
13. Cross-sell and upsell setup: Configure product recommendations to increase average order value. Raising your AOV is one of the most important ecommerce goals out there, as it helps offset your customer acquisition costs and leads to more profitable orders. In fact, Kalio made it simple for one of our customers selling pots, lids, pot stands, and paddles to quickly choose one or all these products and add them to their cart with the click of a button – organized on the product detail page under ‘Frequently Bought Together’ messaging.
14. Holiday-themed email templates: Prepare visually appealing email designs for your campaigns. For example, for your Christmas promotions, design an email template with falling snowflakes and a red-and-green color scheme.
15. Return policy prominence: To build customer confidence, make your return policy easily accessible. Add a “Holiday Returns” banner to your homepage, linking to a page that clearly states extended gift return periods.

With the right focus and a few key adjustments, you can still significantly enhance your ecommerce site for the holiday shopping season—even on a tight timeline. From optimizing website speed to creating targeted email campaigns and taking advantage of cross-sell/upsell opportunities, these strategies are designed to deliver results without requiring a major overhaul. Implementing these steps in the coming weeks can help you capture the attention of eager holiday shoppers, boost conversions, and finish the year on a high note. Time is of the essence, so act now to ensure your ecommerce store is primed and ready for the festive shopping frenzy.