The holiday shopping season is just around the corner, and for many online stores it represents the peak of the year not only in terms of order volume, but also in terms of the expectations of customers looking for fast delivery, secure payment and a seamless user experience.
Recent research shows that the e-commerce channel continues to expand. According to data from Adobe, in the November-December 2025 season, more than 50% of all online purchases are forecast to be made on mobile devices, while the growth of online sales in Europe shows no sign of slowing down.
Quick facts for the 2025 holiday season
- More than 50% of online purchases in Europe in the November–December period will be made via mobile devices. (Source: Adobe Holiday Shopping Forecast 2025)
- In 2024, online sales during the holidays grew by 7–8% compared to an average day, and this trend is expected to continue in 2025. (Source: Ecommerce Europe 2025 Report)
- Clear messaging about delivery deadlines (“Orders placed by December 20 arrive before New Year’s”) can increase the conversion rate by 10–12%. (Source: Bain & Company Holiday Shopping Outlook 2025)
- Customers who see trust signals at checkout — secure payment badges, exchange and return policies — have a lower cart abandonment rate by about 20%. (Source: Google / Think with Google, 2025)
In this article, we will walk you through all the key steps you need to take to make the most of the holiday season: from launching campaigns on time, communicating delivery deadlines and secure payment options, to optimizing mobile checkout and ensuring internal operational readiness.
When to Start Your Holiday Campaigns
Holiday shopping doesn’t start in December, but right after Black Friday. Research shows that more than 40% of shoppers in Europe start their holiday shopping earlier, ahead of the holidays, in order to spread out their spending. This means that online stores that launch campaigns earlier and highlight their delivery and secure payment messaging have an advantage over the competition.
To make the most of the holiday season, plan your campaigns in advance and roll them out gradually, in several phases:
- 4–6 weeks before the holidays: launch teaser campaigns, collect emails from interested customers and test discounts on a smaller sample.
- 2–3 weeks before the holidays: activate “early access” offers for loyal customers and step up communication about delivery deadlines.
- 1 week before the holidays: focus on short, direct messages (“Gifts arrive on time”, “Secure payment and easy returns”), as well as remarketing to customers who have already viewed your products.
- After the holidays: extend the campaign with “post-holiday” discounts, gift cards and offers for New Year’s shopping.
In the rest of this article, we’ll share a few suggestions that are especially important for this holiday period:
Clear Messaging About Delivery Deadlines
When it comes to holiday shopping in online stores, transparency about delivery deadlines plays a key role in increasing sales and reducing abandoned carts. During the holiday season, customers don’t just think about discounts, but also about the certainty and accuracy of delivery.
When you clearly state the date by which orders will arrive on time, for example: “All orders placed by December 20 arrive before New Year’s” you are actually building trust and reducing the number of abandoned carts.
According to research by Bain & Company (2025), brands that communicate delivery deadlines transparently have a 10–12% higher conversion rate, because customers don’t have to guess whether their gifts will arrive on time.
Highlight deadlines in key places — on banners, in the cart, in email campaigns and on the checkout page. Customers love certainty, and clear communication gives them exactly that.
Secure Payment and a Clear Exchange Policy = More Completed Purchases
During the holiday season, customers spend more but also more cautiously. Research by Think with Google and and the Baymard Institute shows that as many as one in five customers abandons their cart if they don’t see clear information about payment security or product returns.
That’s why it’s important to clearly highlight the following on your checkout page and in your ads:
✅ badges of trusted payment systems (such as AllSecure Secure Payments)
✅ security symbols (SSL, 3D Secure)
✅ a product return and exchange policy that is simple and has no hidden conditions
Such “trust signals” can raise the conversion rate by up to 20%, because customers know they are buying risk-free.
In addition, be sure to check that your payment page looks just as secure on mobile devices, since more than half of customers do their holiday shopping on their phones.
Mobile Shopping: Why It Dominates in December and What to Check
During the holiday shopping season, mobile devices become just as important a sales channel as desktop, given that more than 50% of online payments in November and December are forecast to be made on mobile devices.
For online store owners, this means that mobile checkout must not be an “afterthought” but a central part of the strategy.
Key points to check:
- Do your mobile site and app load payment pages in under 2–3 seconds? Slow performance = abandoned cart.
- Is the payment step optimized for mobile: easy card entry, larger buttons, a touch-friendly layout?
- Is the security messaging clearly visible on mobile as well: “Secure payment”, “3D Secure verification”, “Card tokenization”
Fraud & Risk During the Holidays: A Shared Responsibility
During the holiday shopping season, the number of transactions and purchases in online stores rises significantly — and with it, the risk of fraud. Estimates by European payment services show that online fraud attempts are up to 35% higher in December compared to the rest of the year (source: Europol Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2025).
Although payment providers like AllSecure and banks use advanced systems that automatically detect suspicious activity, security is a shared responsibility. We wrote about this in more detail in a previous blog post, read more at this link.
A few marketing suggestions:
Upsell and Cross-sell: The Easiest Way to Increase Your Average Order Value in December
Upselling and cross-selling are techniques for offering customers additional value during their purchase: upselling is offering a better, premium or larger version of the product the customer is already buying, while cross-selling is suggesting additional products that logically complement what they have already chosen. Both strategies help the customer get a more complete solution and increase your average order value.
Best practices include:
Upsell
Upselling means offering the customer a better, more valuable or more practical version of the product they are already viewing or buying. The goal is not to talk them into buying something more expensive, but to help them choose the option that truly gives them more value.
For example: a customer adds to their cart a mid-range headphone set. Before confirming the purchase, the checkout page shows them: “For just 900 dinars more, you get a model with a 2-year longer warranty + a better battery.” Why does it work? Because the customer is already buying and is already in a spending mindset. When you present a clear and concrete benefit (longer warranty, premium materials, better quality), the upsell feels like a better investment rather than an additional expense.
Cross-sell
It works best when the offer is logical, relevant and well-timed (e.g. during checkout or in a post-purchase email).
For example: a customer adds to their cart winter boots. At that moment, offer them:
- “Warm waterproofing spray – 20% off if you add it now”
- “Winter socks – the best-selling add-on for this product”
Why does it work? Because the customer is already buying a product from the same category, and the cross-sell comes across as a suggestion and useful advice, not as an attempt to sell them something at any cost.
Bundle offers
During the holidays, bundle offers (3 for 2, gift sets, family packs) often have a significantly higher conversion rate in practice than individual products, because customers see them as ‘more value for the same or a slightly higher amount’.
One-Click Payment: How It Works and Why It Increases Sales
One-click payment allows the customer to complete a purchase with a single click, without re-entering their card details. This concept was first popularized by Amazon back in 1999 with its “1-Click” patent, and today it is used by almost all major e-commerce players. The idea is simple: once a customer securely saves their card on the site (using tokenization), they can buy every subsequent product with a single click, without going through the payment process again.
You’ve seen this before in large online stores. When you shop on Temu, they give you about 20 minutes to add more items without paying again, and everything goes into the same order. Also, after you place an order, Wolt offers to add another item or dessert “with one click”, using your already saved card.
For online stores, this is especially important during the holidays: a customer who sees a good cross-sell or upsell offer is much more likely to buy an additional product if it doesn’t require new payment steps.
For a customer to be able to pay “with one click”, several conditions need to be met under the hood:
A payment provider that supports tokenization.
The customer’s card is not stored on your site, but on the payment provider’s servers. In our case, AllSecure stores the data in a secure form, as a token. This means your site only stores the token (worthless outside the system), not the card number. The next time the customer makes a purchase, you send the token, not the card – which is why payment can be done with one click.
A user account or a recognized customer
For one-click to make sense at all, the customer needs to have an account or at least be recognized by the same email address / profile. During the first purchase, you need to offer the customer the option: “Save card for faster checkout next time.” Once they accept, the card is tokenized and you link the token to their account. Your IT team needs to set up all these options on your site.
How Can You Use Email Marketing for Holiday Shopping?
Email is a very useful tool, especially in e-commerce.
The most important types of emails for online merchants during the holidays:
- Teaser email – an announcement of holiday discounts
- Launch email – the official campaign launch
- Urgency email – “only 48h left until the offer ends”
- Abandoned cart email – a reminder for customers to complete their purchase
- Order in time for delivery – “Orders placed by December 20 arrive before New Year’s”
- Post-purchase email – cross-sell / upsell + thank-you note
Operations, Logistics and Customer Support
Holiday shopping in an online store requires operations that are just as strong as good marketing. We wrote about how to make sure everything works perfectly “behind the scenes” and how to be better prepared for higher order volumes in a previous blog post – read it at this link.
Post-Holiday Analytics: How to Extract More Value in January
Once the holiday shopping season is over, January is the ideal time to analyze your results and lay the foundation for a more successful year. Instead of simply “closing” the campaign, look at the data — it holds concrete insights that can increase sales and reduce costs in the months ahead. We wrote about how to take a strategic approach to analyzing your holiday campaign in a previous blog post, read it here.
The Holiday Season Rewards Those Who Prepare
With clear delivery deadlines, a secure and simple checkout, an optimized mobile version, well-organized support and a risk prevention plan, your store can turn the December shopping wave to its advantage.
When you add a solid analysis of results in January, you create a stable foundation for better conversion, greater customer trust and a more profitable year ahead.
With the right plan, the holiday period can be the most successful part of your year, every time.