Oh, how time flies! As the 2025 holiday selling season approaches, it’s time to start gearing up to ensure your business is fully prepared. With a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season this year, there’s no room for missed steps. Whether you’re in B2C, B2B, B2B2C, or D2C Commerce, careful planning is key to making the most of this critical time.
To help you prepare, we’ve compiled some essential resources from Salesforce:
- Month by Month Guide for Holiday Preparation
- Columbia Trailblazer video on How to Prep for the Holidays
- Holiday 2025 Planning Guide
Key Considerations for a Successful Holiday Selling Season
At Acxiom, we’ve supported brands through every type of holiday environment—from supply-chain volatility to explosive digital growth. Heading into the 2025 season, several new market dynamics will shape planning: more price-sensitive consumers, aggressive competition for first-party data, and rapid adoption of AI to personalize experiences and protect margins.
Here are the most important updates to consider for 2025:
1. Review Last Year’s Performance
Go deeper than last year’s wins/losses—evaluate how shifting consumer behavior will impact strategy this year.
- How much discounting did you do, and will that change this year?
- Do you have enough inventory depth for Top 20 products, especially with shorter purchase windows and stronger buy-online-pickup-instore expectations?
- If certain items or events from last year aren’t part of this year’s plan, how are you compensating?
2. Campaign and Promotion Cadence
Your holiday calendar is still critical, but in 2025, AI-driven content variation and dynamic audience segmentation matter even more.
- Ensure all contributors are clear on their commitments and that coverage plans and escalation contacts are in place.
3. New Integrations and Load Testing
If you added any new components, load test end-to-end, not just individual systems.
- Be sure to simulate traffic volumes beyond what you expect to handle this year.
4. Shipping and Delivery Windows
Remember to clearly communicate your shipping windows to customers, including regular, expedited, and rush shipping options to ensure delivery before the holidays.
5. Product and Site Optimization
- Ensure your product content (names, descriptions, images), pricing, and categorization are optimized.
- Every item should be on the correct page(s), with all necessary information for onsite shoppers and external search engines.
6. Limited Lifespan Products
For gift buys with limited lifespans, ensure your inventory allocations and merchandising plans are tested and ready.
7. Sorting Rules
New items may end up at the bottom if you use sales velocity or product views as sorting rules. Adjust your sorting rules if necessary.
8. Site Search
Holiday shoppers enter broader, less-specific terms — and in 2025, an increasing share use natural language or voice search. Remember that holiday shoppers are often less patient and use different search terms, so test last year’s holiday phrases to ensure relevant results from this year’s assortment.
Prepare for Pent-Up Demand
This year, based on data from last year’s holiday season and this year’s Prime Day sales volume, there is industry understanding indicating constrained consumer spending, with shoppers waiting for the best deals. This pent-up demand could drive higher-than-expected inventory turnover during the early days of Cyber 5, leading to more aggressive discounting.
By optimizing your operations now, you can capitalize on this demand surge and ensure a smooth, successful season.
Acxiom is Here to Support Your 2025 Holiday Readiness
Whether you need help with load testing, marketing optimization, personalization, search tuning, system readiness, or operational planning, our team can support every stage of your holiday strategy.
Here’s to a highly-optimized—and smooth—2025 Holiday Season!
