Top 26 Christmas Marketing Examples in eCommerce

Many of your customers (48.59%) wrap up their Christmas shopping by early to mid-December.

This tells us how keen people are about Christmas shopping—they’re ready to splurge.

Are YOU ready to bring your A-game?

Let’s start with some inspiration: here are 26 eCommerce Christmas campaign ideas/examples from some good brands.

Top 26 Christmas marketing ideas to ring in more sales

1. Macy’s: Redesign your landing page

Alter your landing page design to get customers in the mood for Christmas. 

Don’t want to mess with your website look and code? Create a splash page like Macy’s does. 

It does two things very well: catches the shopper’s attention and displays the available offers.

Pro Tip:

• Communicate important information with large fonts. In the example above, “20% OFF” and “Ends Wednesday” immediately catch the eye

• Offer multiple discount options to choose from across the page, even if the header highlights a discount number

2. Secret Sales: Drive urgency explicitly 

Urgency fuels some of the best Christmas marketing ideas. Like this one by Secret Sales. 

With the festive season just around the corner, a bit of urgency can drive more holiday season sales. 

Just ensure you state the end date and time. 

Pro Tip:

• Avoid using urgency on every page or for every product—for example, if you have a special Christmas deal or a collection, adding a countdown timer against it can be a good nudge

• To ensure you get optimum clickthrough rate, you should keep the CTA close to your offer

3. Fortnum & Mason: Create your Christmas email campaign workflow

Email marketing needs to top your list of Christmas marketing ideas, given that email brings in insane ROI. 

Pre-Christmas email campaigns do a great job in keeping seasonal offerings top-of-the-mind. 

Fortnum & Mason creates an enticing Christmas gift ideas email  in the example below.

Pro Tip:

• Explore a variety of emails for your Christmas marketing campaign: welcome emails, product feature emails, product feedback email, Christmas promotional email, product recommendation email, etc.

• Communicate Christmas offers, send them gift guides or gift cards, host Christmas giveaways, give early-bird offers to your subscribers etc. 

You might like: 20 Brilliant "Post-Purchase Email" Examples (+ How to copy them)

4. West Elm: Announce special deals

Since every shopper is looking for good deals, this is one of the easiest Christmas marketing ideas you can try out. 

Although the 12 Days of Christmas is overused, it’s still an effective way to communicate your limited period offers and deals. 

West Elm goes one step further and creates a 24 Days of Christmas campaign.

Pro Tip:

• A/B test various offers—Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) offer, upselling or cross-selling offers, subscription offers for loyal customers, build a Christmas wishlist offer, free Christmas goodies—to see what works for each segment

5. Boots: Introduce season-only bundles

Seasonal bundles can be one of the most easily implementable Christmas marketing ideas. 

Boots helps their customers get the best deal through bundling—they even call out the price advantage!

Pro Tip:

• You can package your Christmas bundles as value packs, gift hampers, bundles for him/her/them, etc. 
• Highlight products in a bundle that are not available independently—this can increase their perceived value 

• Throw in a bit of persuasive copy to highlight the unique features of your product. 

Don't have time? Watch top brand examples to inspire your Christmas campaign!

6. Everten: Promote new arrivals

Around Christmas, customers are looking for new products and wouldn’t mind paying a high price. 

Everten promotes its all-new Christmas collection in the example below:

Pro Tip:

• Use the alert bar on your website to call attention to new arrivals—ensure you have a catchy CTA to go along with it
• Consider promoting these through email under “early access” 

7. Mulberry: Build social engagement

Christmas social media campaigns work really great for sales. This is because about 37% of shoppers resort to social media for buying inspiration. 

Mulberry's inspiring 12 Days of Christmas campaign sets the mood for Christmas while showcasing some of their hero products for the season. 

Pro Tip:

• Avoid generic overused holiday season hashtags and use ones that relate to your campaign
• Try your hand at video campaigns and share on the most popular channels: Facebook (75%), YouTube (70%), and Instagram (58%)
• Run a sweepstakes contest through Facebook or Instagram’s video tools and run a sweepstakes through a poll or guessing game for a final reward

8. Urban Outfitters: Promote what will sell

Your Christmas marketing campaign must relate to the season and your specific target audience. 

See how Urban Outfitters markets keeping in mind the gender and preference of the shopper. 

Pro Tip:

• Segment your customers based on demographics, location, seasonal celebrities, previous purchases, etc. 
• Email can be an effective and interactive medium to employ. You can send targeted emails to your specific customer segments
• Identify customer behavior before targeting—if you’re launching a new line, target those who’ve bought similar products before

Check this out: eCommerce Customer Segmentation: 10 critical mistakes businesses make

9. Matalan: Focus on mobile responsiveness

84% of eCommerce holiday season growth came from mobile users in 2019—according to Google, there's a 27% YOY increase in this area.

Customizing your Christmas eCommerce ideas for mobile will help. 

See how Matalan customizes their Christmas collection page for mobile: 

Pro Tip:

• Categorize your mobile product pages under Christmas decorations, season specials etc. for better discovery 
• Keep your content crisp and use blocks or drop-downs 
• Optimize search for the season and keep the icon big on mobile

You might like: How to write product descriptions for mobile: 27 proven ideas (with examples)

10. Sephora: Reward loyalty

You can use the holiday season to foster more loyalty in your high-value customers. 

Like Sephora does. 

Pro Tip:

• Use eCommerce personalization to boost loyalty and create returning customers
• Offer a surprise upgrade on products they’ve been buying—for example, if they’re on autoship you could send them a larger size of the same product or offer one free

11. Ivory Ella: Bring the gifts to the front

Christmas is officially “gifting season,” so most of your shoppers will be looking for gifts. 

In 2019, around 90.5% of consumer’s spending was on gifts making it the highest spending category. 

Ivory Ella gets the visual and copy just right to entice shoppers looking for gifting. 

Pro Tip:

• Add a gift price filter on your product or category pages to help customers find products for gifting easily
• Use a pop-up to draw attention to gifts—feature coupon codes and quantity offers to get clicks
• Publish a gift guide on your blog or a landing page . Alternatively, use it as a lead magnet

• Offer sample products as free gifts to improve your checkout rate

12. Puma: Offer free shipping

Absence of free shipping is a major reason for cart abandonment.

Puma offers an an irresistible deal to their customers with overnight shipping. 

Pro Tip:

• Increase average order value by introducing a free shipping threshold
• Drive the free shipping offer using limited time urgency

13. Coco Village: Create a fun Christmas quiz

A great way to spice up your Christmas marketing ideas is by adding a quiz. 

Quizzes work on two things at the same time: engagement and personalization. 

Coco Village creates a fun Christmas quiz campaign and offers gift recommendations along with a $10 bonus.

Pro Tip:

• Curate your questions to answer specific things that can help you send targeted emails
• Tail the quiz with a discount, especially if you’re collecting email addresses

14. Xpelair: Get traction through giveaways

Shoppers wanting to complete their Christmas shopping won’t mind engaging in giveaway contests. 

So, building traction this way becomes fairly easy, and if you can come across as trustworthy conversions improve too. 

Xpelair used Facebook to share their Christmas giveaway contest. They simply requested their customers’ comments and offered a reward to one lucky commenter.

Pro Tip:

• Use both your website and social channels to host giveaways—ensure you have the right analytics to capture the audience data
• You can also add a gift for every purchase that crosses a payment threshold you specify for profits

15. Applegreen: Introduce a charitable cause

When you’re considering Christmas marketing ideas, definitely think in the direction of charity. 

Many customers who can afford your products may afford to donate to a charity too.

Partnering with charities can help attract and retain customers who want to shop AND create positive impact. 

Applegreen created an impactful Christmas donation campaign by partnering with 3 charity organizations. 

Pro Tip:

• Choose the charity based on your brand’s values and target audience—for example, if most of your customers are local, then choosing a local charity makes more sense than a global one

• Add the donation option at the checkout stage—highlight the amount being deducted clearly 

16. John Masters Organics: Spin around the packaging

Around 72% of US customers agree that packaging influences their purchase decisions. So, if you have the resources to create a Christmas-specific packaging, you should go for it. 

John Masters Organics succeeds well in this aspect.

Pro Tip:

• If Christmas specific packaging is expensive, consider Christmas specific gift-wrapping because this can add to customer experience
• Use appropriate labels if the package contains multiple parts or is fragile

17. Pandora: Bring in influencers

The holiday season is one of the busiest and most profitable business periods—and investing in influencers can be one of the most revenue-generating Christmas marketing ideas. 

Pandora uses the reach of local fashion bloggers to build brand awareness about their Christmas jewelry collection. 

Pro Tip:

• 3 important metrics to consider are how engaged the audience of the influencer are, if the influencers have a valuable personal brand, and the performance metrics of their social channels
• Create interesting unboxing experiences by using the right influencers for each customer segment 

18. Bryan Anthony’s: Target last-minute shoppers

Not every shopper who doesn’t buy from you is uninterested in your products. They may be busy or just procrastinating. 

Hence you shouldn’t give up on your last-minute shoppers. 

Bryan Anthony’s appeals to its last-minute shoppers persuasively with this email. 

Pro Tip

• Last-minute shoppers are more concerned about timely delivery—so bring in multiple delivery options including expedited delivery
• Make your messaging about shipping benefits as most last-minute shoppers aren’t too interested in discounts

19. Mahabis: Target those who missed out

You can still land Christmas sales even after the Christmas period is over.

Targeting your campaigns for those who missed out buying during the peak helps.  

Mahabis does that with their email campaign. 

Pro Tip:

• Pay special attention to your copy—Mahabis uses Unboxing Day and extend the holiday feeling to retain the mood

• Alternatively, declare a SURPRISE FLASH SALE end of the year to make up for not running such a campaign

20. Moore & Giles: Promote your Christmas catalog

Coming up with a special catalog could well be one of the best Christmas marketing ideas. 

Moore & Giles created an interactive one to influence their customers to buy. 

Pro Tip:

• Segment your digital catalogs to address previous purchase and browsing history
• You can use it as a lead magnet too to get customer details like Moore & Giles does

 21. Chewy: Initiate shoppers on Autoship 

Christmas can be a good time to nudge customers to move towards automatic purchases & payments. 

Chewy offers auto shipping as part of its Christmas marketing campaign. 

Pro Tip:

• Reinforce the offer. The header mentions the 50% offer while above the fold content reinforces the offer by mentioning 5% on all subsequent offers
• Follow the 60:40 ratio: text occupies 60% space while the image occupies the remaining 40%

Check this out: eCommerce Subscriptions: 15 Amazing Examples (+ Ways to Increase Subscription Sales)

22.  Buck Mason: Experiment with 2-day shipping 

90% of customers expect 2-3 day shipping as the standard. Plus 33% of last-minute shoppers look for options on how soon they can get their purchases delivered. 

Buck Mason offers 2-day shipping as part of its Christmas marketing campaign. 

‍Pro Tip:

• Include easy and free returns to send greater trust signals—67% of customers read the returns policy before a purchase

23. TWOTHIRDS: Highlight sustainability

With 80% of customers concerned about sustainability, highlighting it as a brand value improves reputation & brand recall. 

Also, 70% of customers are willing to pay a higher price for sustainable products. 

Twothirds highlights sustainable products in its Christmas marketing email campaign.

Pro Tip:

• To make it more believable, use UGC in your email— it increases clickthrough rates by 73%. 
• Highlight customer support details so that customers can reach out with questions about sustainability specifics

24. Boden: Evoke positive emotions

Christmas is a time when shoppers want to let their hair down and feel like life’s still worth it. 

Drive that home with emotional marketing like Boden does here:

Pro Tip:

• Make use of scarcity—words like limited-time only, fast selling, and Only 1 left create a sense of urgency 
• Add the ‘Find a Store’ option for apprehensive customers—those who researched an eCommerce website online spend 13% more in-store than other omnichannel customers

25. Harry’s: Put the shopper “in focus”

Selling a limited edition product based on scarcity alone is not enough. Storytelling is a brilliant way to forge connections with customers, more so during Christmas!

See how Harry’s makes the customer the protagonist: 

Pro Tip: 

• Use stunning product images—75% of customers base their purchase decisions on product images
• Use a 60:30:10 principle—60% should be the dominant color, 30% the secondary color, and the remaining 10% the accent
• Use a larger font for readability, as it helps in highlighting the message and context

26. Fossil: Feature early access 

Early access is a tested Christmas marketing idea that you can play with. 

Interestingly, 60% of customers stated that early access is the key condition to joining a loyalty program. 

Fossil uses early access as a nudge to compel users to click.

Pro Tip: 

• Use the PAS framework of copywriting to create immediate impact for the 8-second attention span
• Offer BNPL payment options
• Insert a referral link where customers are rewarded if someone they know sign up using the link

4 brilliant eCommerce Christmas advertising campaigns

Whether or not you immediately have the budget to run an advertising campaign, it’s worth it to learn from the greats in eCommerce—we’ve handpicked 4 Christmas advertising campaigns that set the bar. 

1. Macy’s “Speechless”

‍

Why it works: The emotions around Christmas shopping are given full importance in this advert campaign, making it highly relatable for shoppers. 

2. Marks & Spencer “Gifts that Give”

Why it works: Inclusivity and support in this campaign offer the right reasons for shoppers to keep buying from M&S—the right hooks to get people to convert. 

3. Boots “Joy For All” 

Why it works: A magic pair of glasses leading to gift personalization—this much loved Boots Christmas advertising campaign blends the regular with the imaginative and makes people think. 

4. Hobbycraft “Moments We Make”

Why it works: The good old feeling of making gifts with our own hands comes back with this Christmas advertising campaign. The result? A feeling of warmth and wellbeing that stays and makes shoppers go over to Hobbycraft. 

Christmas Marketing 101

1. How do you market for Christmas? 

Christmas Marketing involves a series of steps which include — 

a) Setting goals using the CLARITY method 

You need to set well-defined goals before you start your Christmas marketing campaign. Here’s the CLARITY method which can help you in goal setting- 

Crystal clear — Is your goal clearly expressed? 

For instance, increase the AOV for men’s apparel by 30% in the next 30 days

Linked — Is your goal linked to a bigger goal or a long-term vision? 

Say, you plan to increase the product category sales of Pants & Jeans by 20% for Christmas using limited edition apparel. Will that carry over to the next year?

Actionable — Do you have a plan of action to achieve this goal? 

To build interest in the Christmas campaign we will focus on creating Christmas contests and early bird offers by offering 20% off. 

Realistic — Is your plan achievable? 

Increasing your Sweater category sales from $10,000 to $15,000 in the next 30 days is unrealistic. So, keep the deadline 90 days instead. 

Important — Is it a top priority? You should decide if this is critical and not just because you’re emotionally attached to the goal. 

Time-bound — Have you set an achievable time-bound deadline? 

Yours Consciously — Is it something you want and not driven by populist campaigns? 

b) Start the 12 days of Christmas Marketing 

Start with early bird offers, free shipping, and BOGO offers. Offer limited time coupon codes. Adding a price guarantee badge assures customers of getting the best prices. 

Your SEO strategy should consist of finding search terms that are high on search intent. Your on-page SEO, page speed, and content should be up to speed. Scroll through your Google Search Console and find the search terms your eCommerce site is getting high impressions. 

Focus on pages which have the highest average time on page. 

And social media strategy must engage users to take action. Create content that your audience relates to. Sort your demographics and identify the large majority of the audience. 

Decide the type of content you want to work on. 

Instagram reels receive 22% more engagement than normal Instagram video posts. 

In a Salesforce study, 68% of customers said that they pay more attention to Christmas emails from brands during the holidays.

Here’s a Christmas promotional email from Fleur&Bee that hooks attention with its copy. 

This email contains three persuasive elements  — 

• Looking for a last minute gift that doesn’t feel last minute? Tough to beat that
• Free priority shipping before the holidays
• Promo code EXPRESS to avail discount

2. When should I start marketing for Christmas? 

The answer lies in seeing your Christmas marketing strategy in two parts: planning and action.

So starting with the first part—planning your Christmas holiday marketing needs to start in July, as this will allow you to assess several things including:

- budgets

- channels of communication

- audience segments to convert most easily

- effective rules around segmentation and personalization 

In terms of action, which in other words is “promotion”, start no later than September. 

This will include:

- releasing teasers on social media

- offering previews in what’s coming up

- lining up your email campaigns 

- leveraging influencers & affiliates to start promoting on their handles

By giving two months to promotions, you avoid bombarding shoppers at the last minute. This time frame also allows you to stagger your communication across several topics, including transactional and informational. 

Research after all says that 38% of shoppers start stocking up on Christmas gifts by October itself. 

3. How do you plan an effective strategy for Christmas marketing in 2023? 

a) Revisit last year’s campaign

Find out how emails performed, which pages received the highest traffic, and which product categories received the highest sales. 

b) Create a timeline 

Since Christmas is the goal, the timeline should start from other holidays that come before Christmas such as Hanukkah, Three Kings Day, Winter Solstice, St.Lucia Day, and St. Nicholas Day 

c) Refine your target audience 

Not every demography is going to buy from you. Go scan through your analytics data to which age group occupies the larger piece of the revenue pie. 

It could be Gen X, Gen Y, Millennial, or GenZ. Refining your target audience helps you know whom not to sell to. 

d) Determine what channels to focus  

Depending on the ROI, select the top 4 channels you want to invest your time and effort in. Social media, email, SEO, paid ads, and video marketing are some of the channels. 

Choose the ones which closely fit your goal, budget, and audience. 

Push Notifications are super effective with an ROI of 3500%. 

Here’s a Christmas push notification from The Body Shop that nails the headline.

Engaging headlines are necessary to draw the user’s attention. Using Emojis(20%), industry-relevant send times(40%), and rich formats(25%) can significantly increase open rates.

4. How can I increase my Christmas sales? 

Here are 3 tips that can help you increase your Christmas sales — 

a) Dress your website in Christmas

As they say, dress as per the occasion, your brand’s website shapes the perception of your customers.  

Visuals influence a greater part of the human mind since 90% of the information transmitted to our brain is visual.  

Colors have special importance since they stimulate different emotions influencing behavior and decision-making.

It influences purchase decisions since 85% of customers buy solely due to color. 

A Christmas tree, reindeer, or gifts are the bare minimum but put your creative brains to work and come up with something that will just wow your customers.

b) Offer special deals, discounts, and more 

Christmas is the season when shopping is at its peak. While special deals and discounts are the norm, other factors determine your pricing strategy. 

You need to factor in production and supplier costs, partner fees, staff salary, shipping costs (free shipping comes at a price), and marketing & advertising costs. 

Offer a wide variety of deals such as BOGO, festive discounts, promo codes, loyalty discounts, and product bundles. 

If you can’t offer heavy discounts include referrals and offer a live tutorial or guided sessions. 

c) Upsell and Cross-sell 

The goal should be to increase AOV because small wins do count. You can promote your best sellers, latest arrivals, seasonal offers, FOMO deals with countdown timers. 

Use scarcity and social proof to trigger impulse purchases. 

5. What should I post on social media for Christmas? 

When it comes to social media for Christmas, you can create content such as how-to guides, DIY guides, recipes, tips and tricks, product demonstrations, and the like. 

Or maybe something different?

Butterball Turkey teamed up with Lug Tread. Both created a new beer gravy with the hashtag #LugTread and directed users to visit the website to get the recipe. 

Unique and special initiatives create curiosity among customers. The CTA is a website visit that takes minimal effort. This is sure to increase website traffic and conversions. 

Recommended reading:

23 Christmas Email Examples & Templates for eCommerce (2023)

eCommerce Marketing Strategies (and Brilliant Examples) for Thanksgiving

2023 eCommerce Calendar (& Expert Marketing Advice for Businesses)

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