9 Holiday Marketing Mistakes E-Commerce Stores Should Avoid

Holidays are like gold rush periods for ecommerce marketers. Consumers go on a purchasing spree for many reasons, like cheaper product bundles, volume discounts, and one-off offers. Businesses roll out mouthwatering deals to stand out from the competition and reach an all-time high in ROI. However, avoiding common holiday marketing mistakes is crucial to maximize success.

According to Statistica, retail holiday sales increased to as much as $979.5 billion in 2024 alone. That’s almost a trillion and comparable to the GDP of the Netherlands. Yet, despite the immense opportunities the holiday season offers, some holiday marketing mistakes can jeopardize your chances of turning a profit via your e-commerce store. Understanding these holiday marketing mistakes can guide your strategy and lead to improved results.

In this article, we’ll outline what mistakes to avoid and provide solutions to scale your ROI during upcoming holiday sales.

(1) Starting Too Late or Too Early

Holiday marketing leverages proactive engagement to create buzz around your product and build anticipation before sales start. But starting too early could destroy that element of anticipation and cause excitement to wane faster.

Starting too late also limits your visibility. Visibility is essential for drawing leads, and you need leads to make sales.

To achieve your sales goals, launch your holiday campaigns at least three to four weeks in advance but no more than two months. This allows enough time to attract leads, build interest, and adjust your marketing strategy.

(2) Ignoring Mobile Optimization

E-commerce revenue from mobile shopping reached almost $2 trillion in 2024, with Temu, an online marketplace, topping the list of the most downloaded apps. Thus, failing to optimize your web and app store for mobile users means neglecting a significant percentage of achievable revenue.

During holiday periods, there is always a surge in traffic, most times double or more than usual. This can lead to technical issues like lags, login problems, bugs, and so on. You need to prepare for these and bump your server up.

Shoppers are also less patient than ever, especially when competitors offer similar or better offers. So, reduce mobile navigation touchpoints, enable one-time sign-in and guest checkout, and use modern, responsive designs.

(3) Neglecting Email Segmentation

According to a GetResponse study, only 31% of businesses use basic email segmentation and 13% use advanced segmentation for email marketing purposes. That means more than half run untargeted marketing. Sadly, 74% of online buyers feel frustrated when you send them offers or deals that do not align with their interests.

Frustrated recipients can, in turn, unsubscribe from your list, blacklist you, or report your domain in the worst cases. On a lighter note, you lose potential customers.

An effective strategy will help you steer clear of the most detrimental holiday marketing mistakes.

Max Tang, CMO at GEEKOM, suggests outplaying such outcomes by “segmenting your email list based on demographics such as age and gender. Consider income, interests, location, occupation, online behavior, and other factors. For instance, a Gen Z male shopper who is a Tiktoker might be more interested in tech deals like discounts on gadgets than outfits compared to a non-Tiktoker of the same generation.

Employ AI-optimized email platforms to use customer data and automate the segmentation if you have enough resources.

(4) Offering Overly Complicated Discounts or Promotions

For e-commerce stores, offering discounts, promotions, and time-limited offers are good lead magnets during holiday sales. But that’s only if you do them right. Adding excessive or vague instructions, a dozen tasks to complete before claiming discounts, unreasonable referral programs, or untransparent deals can yield the opposite result.

Avoid this by providing concise information about your offers and full transparency, including T&C. Make entry requirements as simple as possible—don’t scold your customers just because of a discount or deal. See how an ecommere brand Blendjet perfectly executed theirs.

Don’t promise discounts you can’t offer. Clickbait can severely damage your business reputation.

(5) Failing to Personalize Marketing Campaigns

Personalization provides 40% more revenue, according to McKinsey. But only a fraction of ecommerce brands personalize their marketing campaigns, thus largely missing out on this benefit.

It’s also important to highlight that personalization goes beyond using the first name in an email introduction. While that’s part of it, you need something much more significant, like tailoring promotional content to your audiences’ holiday preferences, traditions, or past interactions with your brand.

For instance, you could reference their favorite products, offer curated gift guides based on their shopping history, or provide exclusive deals that resonate with their festive spirit.

Ultimately, minimizing holiday marketing mistakes can lead to a significant boost in customer satisfaction.

(6) Underestimating or Overestimating Inventory Needs

Holiday periods cause a surge in purchasing volume. Sometimes, demand outstrips supply, and not planning your inventory ahead can lead to underdelivering. Underdelivering leads to consumer disappointment and dissatisfaction, which can impact your business beyond the holiday season.

To avoid this pitfall, analyze your previous holiday sales data manually or with AI to predict or forecast possible demand.

Just as you can run out of stock in the middle of your campaigns, you can also end up with too much supply. So, consider market trends, especially for certain products, and analyze consumer purchasing habits during peak shopping periods. This will help plan your inventory efficiently. If you don’t want to continue selling during the holiday season, you may also choose to pause your e-commerce store.

(7) Skipping Social Media Engagement

Over 5 billion people use social media, with more than 72% using social platforms to discover products and deals. Failing to engage your customers on these platforms cuts a chunk off your potential buyers during the holiday season.

Utilize platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to build demand and excitement for your holiday deals. Respond to comments on your campaigns, address complaints, and build a good PR. This boosts your brand’s credibility and visibility ahead of the shopping period.

(8) Not Preparing for Increased Customer Support Demand

“Increase in product demand also comes with a surge in customer support. This could be technical complaints about your store, problems with the discount, clarifications on product delivery, and so on. Not preparing for this can lead to support crisis, overwhelm your customer service team, and result in a bad experience for your buyers”, Jonathan Feniak, General Counsel at LLC Attorney, adds.

More than half of consumers will ditch a brand after one bad experience. And only one in five consumers will purchase from a brand with a poor customer service rating. So, it’s not a mistake you can afford to make.

You can prevent such outcomes by embracing AI-powered chatbots to handle routine requests and escalate only complex ones to your human agents. This reduces ticket load and enables faster response.

(9) Ignoring Post-Holiday Marketing Opportunities

Post-holiday periods are the most sensitive moments to capitalize on your holiday gains. But most businesses ignore it because it’s nothing like the original in terms of traffic surge and buying frenzy.

You have new leads from previous campaigns to engage, tons of complaints to address, and, most importantly, late shoppers to appease. Proactively equip your support and sales team to handle these opportunities.

The support team should be ready to effectively address refund and return issues and offer a good customer experience. Your sales team should be trained to nurture new leads into potential buyers.

Wrapping

Holiday seasons are one-way tickets to boost your ROI, expand your business reach, and attract more leads. But that’s depending on how you do it. For a start, avoid starting too early or late. Don’t ignore mobile optimization, email segmentation, and personalization.

Proactively plan your inventory based on market trends and historical sales data. Utilize social media platforms to gain more visibility and leverage post-holiday opportunities to keep the steam rolling.