12 Examples of How to Update your Shopify Store for the Holidays 2024
Why is it important to update your ecommerce website for the holidays?
When we say the holiday season, we're talking about November and December, going into Christmas and Hanukkah. Many shoppers do their holiday shopping during November when Black Friday Cyber Monday promotions are live, so it's important to have ecommerce stores holiday ready by then.
The holiday season is so important for most brands as it often brings in the most revenue of any time of the year. Many brands rely on this seasonal income to survive slower sales periods during the rest of the year.
It’s important to update the homepage to show customers how products fit into their holiday plans. Keeping a website homepage fresh and updated is a way to keep customers coming back to check what’s new. By updating at least the hero image, they know the brand is active and may have new products or promotions.
By adding a holiday twist to the store design, you'll get customers excited about shopping. Whether a brand has special holiday products or not, there are ways to present products in a way that frames them perfectly for the holidays. Just make sure that any holiday flair still aligns with the usual branding so that customers instantly recognize the brand.
Let’s take a look at some examples of how ecommerce brands have done this.
Holiday E-Commerce Store Designs
1. OHME!
Ohme has gone with a red and green color scheme to represent Christmas colours. We love how they styled a product they always offer with pine trees, a bow, and a cocktail to show you how their product would fit perfectly into your next holiday party.
2. Milkjar
Milkjar has multiple holiday scents that they promote during the holiday season. Their photography has a mix of gifting bows and holiday decor, and the use of a snowflake emoji helps set the vibe. Under the holiday hero image, they feature the holiday collection so that it can be shopped straight away.
3. Rocky Mountain Soap Co
Annually releasing holiday scented beauty products, Rocky Mountain Soap Co highlights the seasonal scent in the hero section, and below this, they feature the products in that collection.
4. Rapha
Rapha doesn’t have any holiday products but they used ribbons in a holiday photoshoot to put a holiday spin on their photos. They’ve also made suggestions of different ways their products can be gifted depending on the budget (stocking fillers, generous gifts and VIP selections).
5. Island to East Side
Island to East Side offers holiday stockings and tree skirts. We love that they’ve stayed super on-brand with colors, sparkles and stickers to create their own version of a holiday hero section design.
6. Pretti.Cool
Pretti.Cool has found a way to put all of their products into the spotlight by curating 9 gift guides to help customers find the perfect gift for the person they're looking for.
7. Revoderm Pharma
Revoderm Pharma uses a Christmas tree background and giftboxes to show that their luxury skincare products are giftable too! They've digitally added a bow to their packaging to create that feel as well. In the second image, you'll see how any brand can add a seasonal image to create a vibe without any special product imagery.
8. Vuori
Vuori offers their usual selection of clothing, but clearly state that they offer great gifts, by using CTAs to shop for women or men. They've also added "Gifting" to their main navigation and highlighted it by using a different font color. I like this example because it’s a simple thing that any brand can do, even without a holiday specific photoshoot. But if you’ll notice, they’ve chosen to have the models wear brown and green – colors of the Christmas tree, which does put a small holiday spin on the photo.
9. Holly Sparks Gifting
Since Holly Sparks Gifting is a year-round gifting business, this hero image isn’t specific to the holiday season but it perfectly demonstrates how just putting products into a gift box for a photoshoot is sufficient to showcase how products can make a great gift.
10. Lush
Lush has a slider of ten slides (a bit much if you ask me) showcasing different products and promotions. Their holiday promos demonstrate 3 different ways of using language to promote gifting. That's something any brand can do:
- Gifts by price range
- Gifts by category
- Gifts by recipient
11. David’s Tea
David’s tea uses a pile of gift boxes to highlight that their products make perfect gifts. Rather than showing off their products, they subtly show a tea bag label poking out of the mug. This makes it an image they can use in future years.
12. Bloom Wellness Spa
Bloom Wellness Spa uses their navigation to bring attention to their giftable products for the holidays. By placing "Deals & Holidays" and "Gift Cards" in the main navigation, and using emojis to draw your eye to these items, it brings attention to the fact that their products and services are giftable too.
How should I prepare a Shopify store for the holidays?
Here are some things you should prepare to get an online store ready for the holiday season:
1. Incorporate seasonal elements with specific imagery that reminds the customer of the season or the theme of gifting, and create holiday-specific messaging to support that. Together, these should guide customers to the right products for the person they're looking for.
2. Consider creating a holiday related menu item in the main navigation. This could be called "Gifting", which links to different ways to shop (by budget, by recipient or by category).
3. Make discounts and promotions super clear. Customers are looking for a reason to buy, and by offering incentives around this time to make a purchase, they're more likely to take you up on that offer. One promotion that I love to see in December is online advent calendars, where brands release a new irresistable promotion every day. This is an excellent way to keep customers returning to the site every day, and they're likely to make repeat purchases.
4. Take the guesswork out of buying by helping customers feel confident in their purchasing decision. This means answering any FAQs on the product page, including accurate size charts, clearly displaying customer reviews as well as displaying customer photos of the product in use. You may want to reach out to previous customers in the months leading up to this period to collect this UGC.
5. Be extra responsive through any support channels offered. Consider adding online chat support during this period. This is a season when customers are faster to make purchases than usual, and so they want their questions answered quickly too. Providing online chat support during this period can definitely boost conversion rates.
6. Make shipping and return policies very clear. It should be obvious to customers how much they'll pay for shipping or what threshold they need to reach to get free shipping before they get to the checkout. Additionally, make sure the returns policy is very clear so customers know what to expect.
I hope that helps you Shopify designers when helping out your clients during the holiday season!
Hana Drdla
