6 Festive fixes for product listings that drive holiday e-commerce sales

1. Deck your listings early — shoppers are already shopping

Holiday shoppers are checking their lists—and your product pages—earlier than ever. According to Adobe’s report, buying begins well before Black Friday as consumers chase early deals and try to avoid stockouts. If your listings aren’t live, optimized, and consistent across channels by then, you’re already a step behind.

What you can do now to prepare your listings for early demand:

• Refresh seasonal titles and imagery. Add subtle Christmas cues to product names, descriptions, and visuals to capture attention in search results and gift guides, enhancing your online presence.
  
• Launch teaser promotions in October. Use “early access” or “holiday preview” messaging to create urgency and build momentum without heavy discounting.
  
• Bundle for gifting. Create gift-ready product sets or add-ons that increase value without reducing price.
  
• Build a data-driven “stair-step” calendar. Track clicks, wishlists, and conversions to identify when engagement peaks, then adjust pricing and messaging accordingly.
  
• Create dedicated holiday landing pages. Deloitte’s retail survey shows retailers who prepare content early outperform those who wait. The sooner your listings go live, the longer they have to build visibility and rank in search.

“We had the ambition to expand internationally. E-commerce was becoming top of mind, so we needed to digitize and centralize our product data to leverage it more. We needed to break down the silos of information inside our organization, simply to scale better.”

– Jesper Arvidsson

E-Commerce Director at Samsøe Samsøe

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2. Polish your listings before the rush

Even the best holiday campaigns can fall flat if your product listings aren’t ready to perform. Enriched product content drives more sales, while incomplete, inconsistent, or outdated product data stalls conversions. 

Adobe found that during the 2024 season, shoppers spent nearly 60% of their time reviewing details across multiple retailers. In a season where speed matters, inaccurate or incomplete listings can cost both sales and credibility.

To strengthen your listing’s e-commerce holiday readiness, start with a focused audit:

• Run a content health check. Review product titles, images, and descriptions for consistency, accuracy, and SEO readiness.

• Use PIM to centralize updates. A PIM helps your team correct errors, enrich listings, and publish updates instantly across all channels. Using AI for product content creation supports faster content enrichment, improves speed-to-market and helps your team to create conversion-ready listings at scale.

• Check stock and listing accuracy. Connect PIM with your inventory systems so that availability is reflected in real-time, preventing overselling and lost trust.

• Update seasonal keywords and metadata. Keep metadata consistent and optimized across listings so your products stay visible in search throughout the holiday period.

• Document recurring issues. Track data gaps or listing inconsistencies now to refine your process before next year’s rush. 

“Accurate product data is critical. Inaccuracies can lead to lost sales, especially when customers make split-second decisions online. Ensuring consistency and quality across platforms was a growing concern.”

– Jenne Maes

Global PIM Manager at Fjällräven

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3. Wrap your store in a seamless mobile experience

It’s projected that mobile devices will drive 56.1% of all online holiday sales this year, so your product listings must be optimized for finger-first interaction. 

Here’s what you can do to make your mobile listings sparkle:

• Run performance stress tests. Use tools like Lighthouse or WebPageTest to fix slow-loading pages or oversized assets that can delay your listings from appearing quickly.

• Simplify layouts for thumb navigation. Keep product pages, CTAs, and pricing within easy reach. Collapsing lengthy descriptions or reviews helps shoppers focus on what matters most. 

• Optimized product images. Use modern file formats like WebP, enable lazy loading, and apply the “srcset” attribute so images adjust smoothly across devices.
  
• Streamline mobile checkout. Minimize form fields, use smart defaults, offer one-tap/autofill where possible, and test the experience across Android and iOS.

“In a world where digital experiences are increasingly interactive and immersive, we must continuously evolve how we handle and integrate our data and assets. The Inriver PIM is central to this evolution.”

– John Fister

Senior Digital Product Manager at New Balance

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4. Let AI sprinkle magic on product discovery

Generative AI is changing how shoppers discover products, and your listings need to keep up. Adobe found that AI-powered shopping surged by 1,300% during the 2024 holiday season and is expected to peak again in the ten days leading up to Thanksgiving, especially in high-interest categories such as toys, electronics, jewelry, and personal care.

More than a third of U.S. consumers now use AI tools to research products (53%), find deals (36%), and get gift inspiration (30%) before they ever reach a store. As AI continues to transform the holiday retail landscape, your listings must be complete, structured, and optimized for algorithms and digital assistants to interpret them accurately.

Here’s what you can do now to make AI work for your listings:

• Feed algorithms with complete data. Ensure product attributes, variants, and specs are accurate. AI relies on organized data to effectively recommend products across various channels.
  
• Use PIM to keep listings consistent. Structured data helps search engines and shopping assistants interpret your catalog correctly, improving visibility in AI-driven search. Well-governed data also enhances AI for e-commerce personalization, enabling your shoppers to see the right products at the right moment.
  
• Support conversational journeys. Build listings that answer natural questions like “Is it in stock?” or “Does it come in red?” so AI chatbots can surface your products more effectively. 

• Automate with human oversight. Use AI tools to draft or refine product headlines and short descriptions, applying review workflows to ensure brand accuracy and tone. Then subject them to human review to ensure accuracy while leveraging proven AI for content marketing strategies.

• Create discoverable gift guides. Build AI-ready product collections using relevant tags and metadata to match holiday search patterns and shopper intent.

“The PIM system makes it easy for us to guide customers with images, text and videos, so we can provide the best service. The information is of really good quality. You can rely on the text and the images, and you can easily use the information from print to web to social media.”

– Pia Upola

Media Manager at Stadium

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5. Make checkout a smooth sleigh ride

You’ve guided shoppers through discovery, now let’s make it effortless for them to buy. Adobe projects Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) spending to exceed $20 billion this year, as shoppers seek flexible payment options to manage their budgets. 

The same expectation extends to fulfillment, with buyers favoring retailers that offer clear delivery timelines, same-day or next-day shipping, and buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) options.

A seamless checkout experience is just as important as your product listings. If it’s slow or confusing, even the most polished content won’t convert.

To keep checkout as smooth as a sleigh ride:

• Offer flexible payments. Integrate BNPL, PayPal, and digital wallets directly into your checkout to reduce friction and abandoned carts.

• Be clear about delivery. Display estimated shipping times and cutoff dates on product pages and in emails so your shoppers know when gifts will arrive.

• Keep listings and stock aligned. Integrate PIM with your inventory systems to show real-time availability across every channel, thereby avoiding oversells and out-of-stock surprises.

• Communicate order tracking clearly. Buyers expect transparency from purchase to delivery, so make sure your confirmation messages inspire confidence, not confusion.
  
• Test your checkout flow early. Fix broken buttons, lagging load times, or unclear promo codes before peak traffic hits.

“We actually have been able to build in-store studios. These are screens where customers can render their products in-store. In the past, we would not have been able to do that because the data was just not reliable. Now, colleagues can keep track of inventory themselves and be sure that it is correct.”

– Kevin Hunzker

E-Commerce Quality Assurance Analyst at Living Spaces

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6. Keep the holiday glow alive after checkout

The holidays don’t end when the wrapping paper hits the floor. Smart brands know that post-purchase engagement can turn one-time shoppers into lifelong customers.

According to Circana (reported by FDRA), discretionary retail sales increased 9% in the five weeks ending January 4, 2025, with unit demand up 5% year-over-year, before spending normalized in mid-January. This makes the post-holiday period a golden opportunity to re-engage gift buyers, redeem gift card users, and refresh product listings for the next wave of shoppers.

What you can do now to extend your holiday momentum:

• Keep campaigns light but active. Promote “New Year” offers, product restocks, or accessories for popular holiday purchases to capture continued interest.

• Segment by shopper behavior. Retarget customers who are making exchanges or searching for complementary products to keep them engaged in your ecosystem.

• Request reviews early. Ask buyers to share feedback while enthusiasm is still high. Fresh reviews help your listings stay visible and credible into the new year. 

• Update listings quickly. Use PIM to revise product details, imagery, and inventory, so new variants or best sellers appear accurately across all channels.

• Analyze returns and restocks. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), retailers expect 16.9% of their annual sales to be returned in 2024, with online return rates averaging about 21% higher. Use this insight to refine product data, sizing information, and overall listing quality.

“We successfully streamlined operations while keeping our ambitious e-commerce strategy and KPIs on track. The SAIL team embraced the challenge of redistributing responsibilities and improving processes. Now, we are more efficient than ever, achieving better results with a leaner team.”

– Francis Laroche

Product Experience Specialist at SAIL

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End the season with listings that shine brighter

During the holiday rush, your product listings serve as your conversion engines. Every title, description, image, and attribute fuels how shoppers find, trust, and buy your products. From early preparation and AI-powered discovery to mobile optimization and post-holiday refreshes, precision across every detail defines success.

When a robust PIM platform like Inriver powers your listings, you can deliver speed, consistency, and confidence across every channel without losing the creative spark that makes your products stand out.

As the next shopping wave approaches, make your product listings your greatest advantage. Book a demo and see how Inriver PIM helps you turn every product page into a high-performing, customer-winning experience—holiday after holiday.