20+ eCommerce Christmas Marketing Ideas for 2023

Soon, the happiest time of year will be here: Christmas! We need to start thinking about ways to make our brands stand out during the last big holiday before the New Year. There’s no better opportunity than this to connect with new and old customers using amazing Christmas marketing ideas, offers, discounts, and special products. Check out these 20+ Christmas marketing ideas that are sure to help your business make the most of this holiday season.

Dress Up Your Website with Christmas Design Ideas

The Christmas holidays are a time when people are full of excitement, joy, and holiday spirit. This atmosphere is present in brick-and-mortar stores, malls, other entertainment centers, and online stores. The supreme mission for merchants should be to give this atmosphere to their customers at the right time they enter the store website by trying to bring these experiences into the online space as well.

So how to do that? Essentially, what you need to do is make it obvious to visitors that it’s Christmas time when they enter your online store. To do this, there are several methods you can employ such as updating your website theme and cover images, adding new landing pages, creating Christmas posts for social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, and even editing email templates.

Establishing a connection with your potential customers is key to success. If you have an online store, look for Christmas marketing ideas that will represent your brand well. However, if you are starting from scratch, now is the time to create a brand that people will remember. Your first goal should be to grab customer attention and get them excited about what you have to offer this holiday season!

Below are some tips for decorating your homepage, as it’s the first place your customers encounter when they visit your store site for the first time. 

• Switch up your initial banners on your website. You can find a free one easily enough from Freepik or Pixabay, and use Canva for any editing needs you may have.
• Adding a Christmas slider to your website is an excellent way to get into the holiday spirit this season!
• Adding a small, festive Christmas graphic to your website can liven things up! It could be something as simple as a cup of hot cacao, a bell, Christmas lights, a gingerbread man, or even Santa Claus.
• To make your website more eye-catching, try changing the background color or adding a pattern. You could also experiment with different templates that match your color scheme.
• Create a cohesive Christmas look on your website by adding festive elements to your social media icons, footer, sidebars, forms, buttons, and navigation.
• Design a Christmas-themed logo for your business. You could make a minor edit to your existing logo, like adding a Santa hat or gloves or coming up with something entirely new.

As the Christmas holiday approaches, you can use a countdown timer widget to build up curiosity and create scarcity in your audience’s mind. A timer for the Last-minute Christmas sale on your site will help attract attention and encourage people to take action before it’s too late.

This holiday season, make sure your eCommerce offers are clear and attention-grabbing. Another great way to do this is by putting them front and center on your homepage. Your users should be able to see your best Christmas deals as soon as they land on your site.

Create and Maximize Your Digital Category Page

Next, one of the most stunning Christmas marketing ideas 2023 you should consider is making a digital catalog. Nowadays, not many people take the time to browse printed catalogs and then go out Christmas shopping at physical stores or malls. However, a digital catalog is an excellent way to get previous buyers interested again.

By combining stunning images, well-crafted photos, and quality design into your website, you can show off your products in the same way a physical catalog would without all the printing costs. If you make each product image a link to its relevant product page, you can also keep track of how users flow through your site. And when you have eCommerce web hosting that meets your specific needs, making these changes won’t be difficult for your site.

After you create your own digital category, it’s time to consider the ways to maximize that category page with relevant and in-stock products. Space on the category page is limited and you need to use and arrange products wisely. 

Keeping out-of-stock items off your pages is crucial for a good shopping experience, and here’s why: think about how frustrating it is as a shopper, trying to find the perfect gift, only to have to scroll through pages and pages of sold-out products. Or worse, clicking on an ad that takes you to a category page full of out-of-stock merchandise. No one wants that. If they do land on a such page, they’ll likely leave immediately.

An additional way to efficiently use your Category page is by pushing the products that are more likely to generate a conversion, and then moving your most popular items to the top of the page. This method has two advantages: you’re not only advertising the products shoppers interact with most, but also boosting social proof by revealing to potential customers that your products have been tested and appreciated. You also need to highlight your specific gift category if you have one.

Personalize Your Products and Use Authentic Customer Content

Before implementing Christmas marketing ideas, ensure that you have more than one customer persona created for your online store. Having multiple personas ensures that your holiday marketing campaign speaks to a wider range of customers, upping the chances that they’ll make a purchase from your store.

After you identify your target customer, it’s time to focus on them specifically. If you have been running an eCommerce store for more than a year and are seeing positive growth, consult your analytics data.

If a product on your site is particularly popular with a certain audience, it makes sense to market it specifically to that group. Doing so will help you gain attention and sales at the same time. Personalize and highlight persona-specific products based on gender, age group, and location… making it easy for customers to buy from you.

After you personalize your products according to your customer personas, you can use authentic customer content, or user-generated content (UGC) to gain trust from customers and boost sales. 

Consumer demand more user-generated content (UGC), such as photos and videos. In a recent study, 80% of consumers said they would be more likely to purchase from an online store that featured this type of content. Also, 71% admitted they would buy from a brand if it were easy to click on an inspirational image and make a purchase.

Your customers generated content is not only more authentic than what you’d find from a commercial provider, but it can also inspire people to make a purchase. Adding shoppable elements to this type of content makes it even more effective for your eCommerce needs.

Highlight Your Christmas Offers

It is common and basic knowledge that you will have to make sure your target customers are aware of any new offers if you want to attract them. 

Using tools such as social media, ads, push notifications, and email marketing is very popular nowadays. When it’s time for you to gain new customers, don’t hold back. Let your offers reach people who are ready to purchase Christmas gifts early and keep reminding them of your offer. Christmas marketing ideas should be all about presenting your brand in front of potential customers who are most likely to convert.

Additionally, on your website, the homepage is an excellent place to show the top Christmas offers to ensure your shoppers see them when they enter your site. If you include a roundup of appealing specials or focus on one particular offer, make sure this data is visible on crucial pages of your site so that your shoppers won’t miss it.

Create a Christmas Landing Page

A Christmas landing page helps increase conversions because customers can easily make decisions on what to buy with the focused objective. Christmas-themed landing pages are a great way to show off special holiday products that your customers will love. You can create different versions for different target audiences or sales, and segment your customers so that they’re directed to the page that best fits their interests.

By creating gift landing pages, you can easily improve your ROI. Plus, by promoting them across social media and email, you’ll give your customers a reason to come back to your site. This marketing idea is an easy way to help shoppers save time searching for gifts and make it more likely they’ll buy from you.

Besides, a great way to start getting into the holiday spirit is by blogging about it, even if you don’t have any specific plans yet. Having a Christmas landing page isn’t enough, customers need to know that you’re ready and prepared for the holiday season. Write something compelling and useful that speaks to your targeted customer base.

The holiday season is a great time to share your shopping tips and strategies with your followers. By sharing your blog on all social media platforms, you’ll encourage conversation and get traffic, build confidence, and perhaps inspire some meaningful conversations.

Use Pop-up Banners

While it’s true that pop-ups can be annoying, they can also be beneficial if used correctly. So which are the best pop-ups for eCommerce? Exit intent pops up when a user is trying to leave your site and allows you to regain their attention with an offer before they exit.

Another effective eCommerce pop-up is pop-up banners. Pop-up banners are a great way to effectively promote holiday discounts in your online store without being too overwhelming or intrusive. They can be placed either at the top of the page or move with the customer as they navigate the page, and are becoming increasingly popular due to their effectiveness.

Outline All Shipping and Return Information Before The Customer Purchases

If there’s something you want your customers to see while shopping in your store, it’s the last possible date to order items and receive them before Christmas.

Display reminders of the impending deadline on multiple pages throughout your website, most notably the front page, product detail pages, and checkout page. You could even show a pop-up with an important message as soon as the shopper enters your site. In this way, it will be impossible for customers to miss their final opportunity to order from you!

Additionally, you can also use an overlay pop-up to communicate any delays in shipping timelines. By displaying this information as soon as the shopper enters your website, they will see the expectation and be less likely to have unrealistic expectations.

If you can offer last-minute shoppers the option of receiving their purchase before Christmas, they’re more likely to complete their purchase with your store instead of going to a competitor. Not only that, segmenting your shoppers by location is an excellent way to deliver personalized content that includes delivery dates catered to each customer. This is especially useful if you have a global market or offer multiple shipping methods.

This rule also applies to return policies. Informing shoppers that they have more space with returns around the holidays lets them know that you value their satisfaction. This is still an effective method of Christmas marketing ideas. 

Provide Live Chat Services

People are generally more stressed during the holiday season, and your customers are no exception. They might have more questions and doubts about your products, services, and delivery times, and they’ll want to get faster replies so that they can make decisions and finish their Christmas shopping on time. If you’re not providing a quick answer to your customers’ inquiries, they will leave your website.

Integrating a live chat on your website is an excellent way to connect with customers, making them feel more comfortable and cared for. Don’t forget that you could lose customers and prospective sales if they cannot quickly find answers to their questions. By having a live chat on your site, you can develop stronger relationships with your visitors and turn them into customers, especially during times of increased traffic, such as Christmas.

Offer Product Bundles as a Gift

If you want your Christmas marketing ideas to be truly successful, don’t forget the gifts! We all know how tough it can be picking out presents for people, but a thoughtful present is always appreciated. 

In this situation, eCommerce stores like yours can improve customers’ experience by Christmas gift guides and bundling products together. This permits customers to choose one or two bundles of items instead of picking out each product separately. Consequently, they can finish their Christmas shopping more quickly. Additionally, you can package together complementary products on your website to make the offer even more appealing and noticeable to your desired customer base. 

To ensure that you are making the most money possible, you must promote your product on social media and other channels. A great way to do this is by creating gift sections for your customers based on various categories such as popularity, price, personality, gender, age, or hobbies. This will allow them to easily find the perfect gift for their loved ones.

Another attractive strategy is to release special Christmas editions of some of your most popular products. This could be a new color, flavor, scent, or design that’s only available for purchase during the holiday season in your online store. By making your product special for Christmas, you will be feeding into a sense of scarcity. This will encourage people to buy before you run out and they miss their chance at getting a unique edition.

Flash Sales

Promoting special deals and seasonal discounts is one of the most effective Christmas promotion ideas to attract shoppers and boost sales around this time. By advertising that these deals are unique and only available during this season, you’ll be more likely to interest potential customers.

Flash sales are a great way to get people interested in your product. By offering a crazily lower price for a limited time, you create a sense of urgency and excitement that can help boost engagement and conversions. When planning a flash sale, focus on creating hype around the event. The more buzz you generate, the more interest you’ll see, even when the seasonal peaks have passed.

Remember that people spend a lot of money during Christmas on gifts for friends, family, and loved ones. They would surely appreciate getting a good deal when doing their holiday shopping. To show your appreciation, you could offer buy 2 plus 1 discounts, heavily marked-down prices on selected items, free shipping, or discounts for post-Christmas shopping.

Appealing Giveaways

Although Giveaways are one of the best Christmas marketing ideas, you will need to take it a step further by ensuring all participants share the news of the giveaway with their followers. This way, you can grow the buzz even more!

If you want to take your eCommerce business to the next level, start using Instagram. You can use the story function to captivate your entire audience. Create a fun, Christmas-themed template that your audience can fill in and share within their own Instagram stories. Additionally, you can utilize Tiktok, this platform is a rising star and you can create attractive and hilarious videos with a Christmas vibe for your audiences. TikTok’s algorithm is really special and your videos will easily be viral on this platform, or even they can be trending.

Because people are always looking for new deals and opportunities to connect with brands, sharing a single story shouldn’t be difficult if the template is designed well. Furthermore, these platforms will help your brand gain reach that paid ads might not even be able to provide.

Offer Free Shipping

Nowadays, many customers love free shipping. We think that the main barrier preventing them from deciding to make a purchase is the shipping fee, especially during the holiday period. To get around this, some businesses include the shipping fee in their product price and then offer free shipping at checkout.

Although the price increase may seem daunting, your customers will often overlook it when they see that you offer free worldwide shipping. By having good Christmas campaign ideas, you’ll be able to attract plenty of last-minute buyers in the week leading up to Christmas. That’s why it’s so important that you start offering free express postage as soon as possible. Why? Because last-minute buyers know they can trust you to get the product to them before the big day.

Customize Your Christmas Packaging

The presentation of your products is always important for your brand, but this becomes especially true during the holiday season. Good packaging can make all the difference when selling physical goods, so consider Christmas-themed wrapping paper as one of your Christmas marketing ideas.

Your product’s packaging is essential to creating a memorable unboxing experience for your customers. Not only will it help to build customer trust and convince them to buy your product, but it is also the first step in defining your brand message clearly.

How your product is packaged, and the unboxing experience matters. If you’ve ever waited for a Christmas gift that came in poor packaging, you know how disappointing it can be. Products with good packaging will create personal interactions to generate a positive brand image.

Remember that the Christmas season is also the peak unboxing season. After all, gifts are a big part of why we celebrate. You want to create something that your consumers can easily pass on to the recipients without needing any extra help. Plus, getting positive reviews never hurts.

Offer Free Gift-wrapping

Because gifts make up a majority of Christmas spending, it’s beneficial to offer a gift-wrapping service. Customers who want to save time and effort will be glad to see this available.

By providing gift-wrapping services, you will encourage customers to make additional purchases to meet the wrapping threshold and receive their product wrapped for free. This in turn will save customers the time and hassle of having to wrap and ship the product themselves.

You can also complete this service by offering a gift receipt. A gift receipt instills confidence in the customer’s purchase. Even if the receiver does not want the gift, it can be exchanged for something they would prefer.

Many popular online stores always offer this to their buyers. For example, Apple offers a $5 signature gift-wrapping service that includes a red ribbon and greeting card with your message. Meanwhile, L’Occitane gives customers the choice of paying $5 for gift-wrapping or receiving free tissue paper, gift box, and ribbon to assemble themselves.

Remarketing is a Powerful Tool

People viewing your website during the holidays are potential customers, so your goal should be to capture their attention. Remarketing is a powerful tool to achieve this.

Perhaps you’ve experienced remarketing in the past without even realizing it. If you ever see online ads for products that you were just looking at, that’s what we call remarketing. And while it may be a little unsettling to think about how brands can get into your head like that, the truth is that these kinds of advertisements convert very well.

People are always looking for their desired products, and your store may have some apps or extensions installed for suggestions for the best relevant items. However, if every store has those apps or extensions installed, including your competitors, how will you stand out? 

You need to remind customers of your products and offers so they come back to your store instead of someone else’s. The best way to do that is by using remarketing techniques to remind them of your products and offers.

In email marketing, remarketing comes in various shapes and sizes. For example, have you ever received an abandoned cart email or an email with products similar to what you just bought? Those are types of remarketing.

Christmas Card for Loyal Customers

Did you know that loyal customers are essential to a business’s real profit? It costs less to convert a customer into a loyal one than it does to attract new customers. Plus, they already know and trust your brand, and their cart value is typically higher than that of new customers. With all this in mind, it makes sense to include Christmas marketing ideas for eCommerce returning customers.

You can send your customers a Christmas card with a special offer that they can use on your website. All shoppers do not expect this type of thoughtful gesture, but it would be greatly appreciated. You could also run ads, but simply reaching out to your customers and building engagement between you and them will result in better conversion rates.

It’s critical to stay consistent with your marketing brand if you want to convert eCommerce browsers into lifelong customers. Share your best offers and remind them of their last purchase using targeted marketing automation tools. These simple steps will build long-lasting connections, hence helping you grow your eCommerce store at a steadier pace.

Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

One of the most crucial and effective digital marketing channels is email, so make sure to include it in your Christmas marketing ideas. The work is pretty easy, you’ll contact customers who have already given you their information, and you can send them more details. Always make sure that your email database is updated regularly, as out-of-date lists can cost your businesses much more than just lost sales. We highly recommend using email finder tools to get updated contact information for free.

Email marketing campaigns during Christmas allow businesses to be more explanatory about their products and services. With email, you have more space than other channels, so you can include large images, countdowns, social media links…

You should begin preparing your Christmas email campaign workflow at least one month before the start of your eCommerce sale. The following types of Christmas emails should be included in your campaign:

• New customer welcome email
• Feature Email products 
• Christmas Feedback Email  
• Review email post-holiday sale (Customer satisfaction)
• Services provided by your company (Customer service)
• Upselling related product Emails 
• Blog Subscription Emails

After preparing these types of emails above, you need to create targeted content for each customer group. Your customers can be broadly divided into three groups: lapsed customers, loyal customers, and new business leads. By creating Christmas email content specifically for each group, you will see a significant boost in your Christmas eCommerce sales.

In the last step, you need to figure out the right time for sending your emails based on what type of business you have. This will ensure that you’re getting the maximum conversion rates from your email marketing campaign. Pre-planning or post-send? You gotta decide that for yourself. If you think setting up all of these is much more troublesome than you can handle, take a look at our HubSpot solution, which includes a robust email marketing automation system. With straightforward admin panels and easy-to-config logic, HubSpot can reduce the time you need for tech-configuration tasks dramatically, which grants you much more time to focus on expanding your business and serving your customers.

Social Media Christmas Campaign

If you want to communicate with potential customers, promote your deals, hold contests, advertise, or simply attract new buyers during the Christmas season, then social media is a great way to boost sales. Plan thoroughly and pay special attention to detail for your social media marketing campaign this holiday season.

The first thing you can try is to give your social media profile a Christmas feel and spread the Christmas atmosphere. You can achieve this through some actions that we list below: 

• Change your cover image and display your profile with a Christmas vibe. 
• Showcase Christmas offers on social media 
• Ask your loyal customers to help promote your content
• Offer rewards for those who share your posts

By using social media, you have the ability to reach a large number of people. If you include offers, discounts, and rewards in your posts, it will make your Christmas marketing ideas more successful and bring in more potential customers.

Along with other factors, you should consider using popular Christmas hashtags to increase your exposure and get some great ideas for promoting Christmas. Some of the popular Christmas hashtags that you could use in your social postings are: #christmasmood, #christmasjoy, #christmasday, # christmaseve, #christmasparty, #Christmasgifts, #santaclaus, #christmas2023, etc.

Most social media users only interact with the posts of close friends and family. This year, ensure your company is one of those that customers regularly engage with by maintaining consistent contact. Customer loyalty leads to more sales, so spending a little extra time online this holiday season could lead to greater profits down the line.

Always aim to increase engagement on your social media stories by using interactive features like polls, resharing, countdown timers, Q&As, locations, music, and stickers. And never forget to engage with your followers in every possible way!

Interactive content is a great way to engage your audience, so why not try hosting some contests, giveaways, or polls & quizzes? A Christmas giveaway is a great way to encourage customers to interact with your brand. Everyone loves getting presents during the holidays, so give your followers something they’ll love. Brainstorm some fun and festive ideas for your Christmas social media contest.

Furthermore, giveaways always capture more attention because who doesn’t love free stuff? This increased traffic can help you expand your reach and even bring in new leads. And fortunately, holding a social media giveaway or contest is much simpler than it looks. All you need to do is create a short list of guidelines and post it on your profile. Just be sure not to make the rules too restrictive, you don’t want to turn customers away.

Multichannel Selling

With globalization, Christmas has become a global holiday that is celebrated by people all around the world. This makes it an ideal time for businesses to expand their reach and attract more customers from different places. With online businesses, no borders or language barriers are preventing you from reaching new markets.

You can, therefore, take advantage of this opportunity to sell your products on various platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy while also selling on comparison shopping engines that are used often by online shoppers searching for good product deals. These include Google products and Amazon Product Ads.

Support a Charity

This holiday season, remember that Christmas is about more than just presents and marketing. It’s a time to express love and kindness and to give back to those in need. If you’re looking for ways to help make a difference this year, consider reaching out to your local community or supporting a charity. By giving back, you can help make Christmas feel truly happy for everyone involved.

By partnering with a charity for a public profit-sharing campaign, your customers will be able to help others with every purchase they make through you. Not only is this simple act of kindness good for society, but it also creates engagement and builds trust between you and your customer base. People generally prefer doing business with companies that are aware of social responsibility and are taking steps to address them proactively, so by being that brand, you can not only grow your business but also make a difference in the world at the same time.

To Conclude,

We hope that these 2023 Christmas marketing ideas for eCommerce can help your business increase sales. By following the tips above, you can create a campaign that is both engaging and effective. Plan your strategy ahead of time to make the most of the holiday season! If you are currently looking for any help preparing your eCommerce store for the Christmas period, then don’t hesitate to connect with us. We have many experts with years of experience in the eCommerce field that help you plan out and implement successful Christmas marketing campaign ideas.