Year after year, we know how to prepare for the holiday season. Grandma’s annual family dinner? Bring something for the heartburn. The friend who returns every gift? Give a gift card. 

When it comes to those we’re close to, there are few surprises. But when planning for those we know less—like millions of online shoppers—each year brings something new. 

Shopping trends, disposable income fluctuations, supply chain risks, you name it. Each year there are new factors that influence holiday season sales. And for online store owners focused on inventory and orders, they need your help. 

To help you (and your clients) with eComm holiday readiness this season, we’ve analyzed the market’s challenges and opportunities—and got some pro tips from Art West, founder of professional community NoCodeDevs—to provide an action plan that you can scale across all of your eComm clients. (We’ve also included a few fully designed website templates built on Wix Studio’s eCommerce platform for some inspiration.)

Build an online store on Wix Studio for real-time shopper analytics and insights. 

Your guide to eCommerce holiday readiness in 2024

1. Launch your sales content earlier. Holiday shopping starts in September.

2. Prepare for a longer buying cycle with less spontaneous shoppers

3. Over-deliver on perceived value, because shoppers are spending less

4. Spotlight self-indulgence and self-trial—shoppers are also buying for themselves

5. Build a smooth shopping ecosystem across all devices and all platforms

6. Give buyers checkout flexibility, with more options for payments and shipping

7. Manage your (and your shoppers’) expectations for an unordinary season

01. Launch your sales content earlier. Holiday shopping starts in September.

Preparing to go big on Black Friday? Well, you’ll be late. According to Salsify, over 50% of shoppers are buying gifts earlier. But it doesn’t mean they’ll finish earlier too—shopping will continue through the weeks up until the holidays. 

Plus, the sooner you go live, the sooner your holiday pages can collect data. Use this extra time to test, optimize and remove points of friction, or what Contentsquare calls “visitor frustration,” which negatively affects 40% of all online retail visits. In the words of Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

As for branded buying days, like October’s Amazon Prime Day, past Numerator data shows that smaller retailers lose out when also trying to push sales on the same days. Instead, plan your promotions for after these sales, when buyers continue to run down their gift lists. 

Get ready:

• Get your client’s website live with the first phase of holiday offers as early as September. They’ll capture visitors who are already shopping, and can analyze and optimize site performance over the following weeks when buying continues. For example, check the site’s bounce rate in Wix Studio’s analytics dashboard to see if you should revise the hero messaging on the homepage. (Watch this video to learn more about creating eCommerce SEO reports on Wix Studio to enhance your analysis.) 

• Start email campaigns in September. Past customers are your strongest bet for return buyers, so consider how to target them with powerful, relevant messaging. Create highly segmented contact lists, automations and email flows using Wix Studio’s email marketing tools to reach relevant past customers for repeat purchases.

• Use email campaigns to communicate the sales schedule for the holiday season. Big sales shouldn’t come as a surprise, so let subscribers know exactly what to expect and when.

Launch your clients’ promotions fast with an attention grabbing, animated sale banner for the site’s homepage, like on this bag store responsive template.

Check out these eComm design tips for more inspiration.

02. Prepare for a longer buying cycle with less spontaneous shoppers

Going hand in hand with a longer shopping season, Contentsquare shows that the buying cycle—the time from which someone sees your product and then purchases it—is longer. By spreading out their shopping, buyers have more time to search for and compare products. And data from Numerator shows that this leads to deeper research and more preparation before clicking to buy, such as assembling wish lists, reading up on companies, scouring reviews, comparing deals, and joining mailing lists to receive promo codes. 

Get ready:

• Enrich the site with all the content buyers are looking for: introduce the store owner and their motivation for starting the business; showcase the faces behind the manufacturing and production; zoom in on the ingredients and materials that make up the products.

• Prompt and incentivize loyal customers to review products. Send an email early in the shopping season, like September, that offers customers a discounted or free product to write a review on the website. By the time shopping increases in October or November, new site visitors will see compelling content that can drive a purchase. The Wix Reviews plugin enhances an online store with starred reviews, detailed testimonials and customized design options. 

• Build email campaigns that warm up loyal buyers. Go deep on best selling products and shout about the newest releases. Even better, personalize those emails using a “lookalike” strategy: feature individual products to contacts who resemble past buyers based on the store’s data. 

• Allow shoppers to create wish lists—like with Wix Studio’s wish list plugin—to save and come back to their favorite products. Shoppers invest time in researching products from different companies, so make it easy for them to go from research to purchase. Consider adding an automated email notification that reminds shoppers to come back and buy their wish list items.

Art West’s pro tip: Build personalization into your email marketing, tailoring follow-up content based on browsing behavior or abandoned carts. Use customer segmentation to address specific concerns—like sustainability or affordability—during this longer research phase.

This eyewear store responsive template allows visitors to add items to a personalized wish list for easy curation and purchase.

Create a Wix Studio online store and connect your favorite eComm plugins. 

03. Over-deliver on perceived value, because shoppers are spending less 

Sellers should expect a different vibe this year, with shoppers expected to spend less. Consumers are experiencing higher levels of financial stress than the past few years, according to research from FedEx. Firstly, inflation leads to more restrained, budget conscious shoppers. Plus, the 2024 presidential election offers uncertainty. This means buyers will be cautious with their money since they don’t know how the next government’s policies will affect their pockets.

Shoppers want to go into the holidays with less stress and more value. “Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy in their search for the best deals,” says Sara Thomsen of Vericast. But keep in mind that perceived value isn’t only financial, such as offering coupons. There is also emotional value, like being rewarded within a loyalty program. 

Get ready:

• Create offers that add value. Give free shipping to customers who spend over a high threshold. Gather multiple products into competitively priced bundles that increase the amount purchased per customer and the value of the basket. Wix’s App Market includes third party plugins to enhance your store with customized, bundled offers. 

• Create and distribute content as a value-add that enriches the buyer’s experience. Consider that the transaction is just the first step in a buyer’s integration into the brand. For example, an eCommerce site for kitchen tools can include cooking videos. 

• Start or expand loyalty programs to reward shoppers immediately. Send new buyers a coupon to incentive more purchases, give loyal buyers free shipping, and increase award earnings on sale days. The loyalty program on Wix Studio lets sellers customize their loyalty program to fit their business needs. 

Art West’s pro tip: Invest in updating the design of product badges and notifications for your clients, such as “Best Value” or “Exclusive Holiday Bundle” markers. This helps visually communicate extra value and create a sense of urgency.

Creating helpful content that complements the store’s products—like the plant care blog on this plant store template—adds value to a purchase at no cost to the business.

Add a text marquee to your site to announce discounts and new products.

04. Spotlight self-indulgence and self-trial—shoppers are also buying for themselves

Holiday marketing efforts focus on buying for others—with thoughtful campaign messaging, and options like gift wrapping and special deliveries—but shoppers are also looking to purchase for themselves. “61% of [holiday] shoppers will treat themselves,” says Salsify. Look at it this way: when your messaging is so compelling that a site visitor completes a purchase, it’s not hard to imagine they’ll want to enjoy the product, too.

Get ready:

• Bulk buying discounts help shoppers check more people off their gift lists, and leave room for them to add a product for themselves. Wine and chocolate brands are particularly tempting—offer a volume discount over three products, and shoppers are sure to indulge. Turn on the “Buy X, Get Y” automation in your Wix Studio online store to create these offers.

• Include relevant messaging in marketing tactics, like email campaigns, to encourage self-gifting or self-trial. Why should your loved ones have all the fun when you can enjoy the product too?

• Create checkout-screen messaging to add additional products “for you” before payment. The ReConvert plugin for Wix Studio online stores will help upsell and cross sell at checkout.

Art West’s pro tip: Add design elements like countdown timers or “limited stock” alerts on self-care or indulgence-related products to nudge shoppers toward treating themselves before it’s too late.

Enhance product pages, like this coffee company template, with product recommendations, which can be pre-set manually or managed by Wix Studio AI based on real-time buying behaviors. 

No gift is complete without a cool holiday card design. Here are 3 ideas. 

05. Build a smooth shopping ecosystem across all devices and all platforms

Shoppers use a mix of screens to research and buy products, according to data from Contentsquare. Don’t let any one of those screens underperform, and remove all points of friction from all site versions across all devices. Shoppers who experience friction—for example, unoptimized mobile sites or form field errors—are likely to abandon carts, which means they’ll spend the money elsewhere.  

When visitors land on a new website, it can be overwhelming to learn about the brand, explore the different product categories and lines, and break down the shipping options. Make it easier and create prompts that direct visitors to what they’re looking for, such as bundled gift packages or best-selling products.

By the way—just like purchasing across all screens, shoppers are purchasing across all platforms, including social media and online marketplaces like Amazon. Take note: social media purchases, or “social commerce,” will be a leading shopping channel for Millennials and Gen Z this holiday season, per eMarketer research. And this includes the boom in live stream shopping. Rather than try to pull shoppers into a website, meet them at their convenience where they are: extend the storefront off-site to increase sales potential. 

Get ready:

• Review a site’s responsiveness before holiday shopping takes off. Check that across all breakpoints the text is legible, the links work, the images fit, the checkout form is mobile friendly, form submissions are error-free, and navigation is smooth. (Reference these mobile landing page examples for creative small-screen solutions.)

• Extend product visibility to social networks and online marketplaces. With third-party applications from the Wix App Market, an online store can perform transactions on places like TikTok and Amazon and update the sales data in the Wix Studio site dashboard to consolidate visibility and fulfill orders. (Watch this video to see how to get the store’s products to appear in Google Search listings from the Wix Studio dashboard.)

• Make the priority actions for visitors easy, to minimize a navigation spiral and maximize gratification. The hero fold on the homepage can drive to a gallery of signature products at discounted prices, or a carousel can highlight the top-quality ingredients that distinguish the products from the competition.

Art West’s pro tip: Encourage clients to offer integrated cart solutions, so that a customer can start on one device and complete the transaction on another. Also, highlight mobile-friendly features like single-click checkout and progressive web apps (PWAs) to ensure conversion rates stay strong on all devices.

This kids clothing store template leads visitors straight from the homepage to a purchase thanks to a promotional banner in the hero fold. 

Build a store for all devices with Wix Studio’s AI-generated responsive layouts.

06. Give buyers checkout flexibility, with more options for payments and shipping

In addition to a convenient mobile shopping experience, shoppers want more convenient mobile payments. Although traditional methods like credit cards aren’t going away, newer payment methods are quickly rising, particularly digital wallets with younger shoppers. According to FedEx, 55% of merchants offer three to four payment options—don’t lose out on the transactional ease that competing stores already offer, with options like Venmo and Apple Pay.

Similarly, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers, like Klarna and Afterpay, have increased in popularity, allowing buyers to spread out payments in installments. Not only are these the preferred payment option for some shoppers, FedEx reports that they encourage larger checkout totals. 

And finally: shipping. Shoppers want cheap shipping options, but your clients need to manage increased shipping costs. The compromise: increase the threshold for free shipping and offer slower, cheaper options for those shopping earlier.

Get ready:

• Add more payment options to the store checkout. With Wix Payments, one of the business solutions available on Wix Studio, online stores can accept major credit cards, BNPL providers (Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm), and PayPal or cryptocurrency payments via pre-built integrations. 

• Communicate to shoppers—via email promotions and your homepage—that the store accepts all these payment options. From the start, they’ll see they can complete a purchase with their preferred payment and can confidently invest time exploring the products.

• Offer broader shipping options. Free shipping can apply to larger cart totals, but when it comes to lower thresholds, let buyers choose the option that fits their budget and timeline. Wix Studio’s online store gives you the option to manually set and control all shipping details, or to connect to shipping and delivery apps via the Wix App Market. 

Prompt site visitors to sign up for your special offers—like this electronics store template—and then send email updates on new payment options, shipping deals and other limited offers.

Join Wix Studio’s Partner Program and earn revenue share from clients’ store sales.

07. Manage your (and your shoppers’) expectations for an unordinary season 

Kevin McCallister’s Home Alone Christmas wasn’t the first, or the last, unordinary holiday season. This year, pay close attention to two irregular factors.

Disruptions in global shipping throughout the year have had a domino effect, causing setbacks with suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. And depending on the location of your clients’ customers, their shipping times could face delays too. 

In addition, the US presidential election in November—and its uncertain outcome—leads to more conservative spending. Shoppers don’t know how the next government’s policies will affect their pockets, so they’ll proceed cautiously. 

Get ready:

• Prepare stores for a potential peak in shopping after the election. Well-timed promotions could activate buyers out of an election hibernation, and those orders will need to be quickly fulfilled. 

• Communicate shipping concerns to clients’ subscribers and customers, especially when launching sales campaigns. This can incentivize them to purchase earlier in the season to minimize delivery risks. 

• Stay on top of inventory updates: product pages must reflect real-time inventory levels. Also consider giving buyers the option for notifications when out-of-stock merch is refilled. The Wix Studio analytics dashboard includes a store inventory report with hyper-detailed product insights like Conversion by Product, Most Abandoned Products, Slow-moving Inventory and other metrics. 

Organizing products by price point makes it easy for buyers to find items on this gift shop template that are exactly within their budgets. 

What to do after the holiday season?

As you know, an eComm strategy is always-on. With the end of the holiday season, comes the next wave of activity to drive sales and customer loyalty. 

Encourage repeat buyers: The best customers are current customers. Capitalize on the holiday’s success and send a smartly-timed, personalized email encouraging buyers to purchase the same or similar items.

Promote exclusive offers: Turn top holiday customers into loyalty club VIPs. Reward their patronage with exclusive offers and be creative. Sure, everyone loves a coupon but try asking them to submit ideas for future products or inviting them to relevant, in-person events.

Get those product reviews: Prompt buyers to gush about the store’s products or services with a well-timed email campaign that drives reviews. Emphasis on well-timed: set email automations for a few weeks after the holidays, when it’s safe to assume the packaging is off.

For post-holiday campaigns and year-long buyer engagement, harness the tools and marketing integrations in Wix Studio’s eComm suite including email personalization, audience segmentation, comms automations and loyalty programs.

Get started on Wix Studio and create powerful, data-driven eComm campaigns.