How to maximize holiday sales with smart merchandising? 5 strategies to leverage Boost’s Merchandising magic

Ellie Ho

June 17, 2024

September 25, 2025

•

7 min read

Boost BFCM sales with smart merchandising

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The holiday season presents immense sales potential, but deep discounts alone are insufficient due to intense competition. Without a smart strategy, top products are overlooked, and shoppers leave empty-handed.

The solution is active, strategic merchandising. Boost's Visual merchandising tools offer just that.

This guide will show you how to use our Merchandising magic to create a curated, high-converting shopping experience that not only boosts holiday revenue but turns seasonal visitors into year-round customers.

5 Holiday Merchandising Strategies at a Glance

#1: Rearrange your digital shelves: Utilize visual merchandising tools like Pin, Boost, and Hide to arrange products and highlight your key holiday offers strategically.

#2: Create localized campaigns: Tailor promotions for different countries and B2B segments using Merchandising by Market to increase relevance and conversions globally.

#3: A/B test your strategies: Use data-driven testing to determine which merchandising rules are most effective at increasing revenue during the holidays.

#4: Leverage bundles, banners, and AI recommendations: Increase Average Order Value (AOV) by encouraging shoppers to add more valuable items to their carts.

#5: Turn search bar into a sales tool: Apply dynamic, keyword-driven rules to your site search to promote specific products to your highest-intent shoppers.

Tip #1: Rearrange your digital shelves to boost conversions during peak season

Summary table

Strategy	Holiday use cases
Pin	Manually place your holiday gift sets or doorbuster deals at the very top of a collection page so they are the first thing shoppers see.
Boost	Give a lift to your seasonal bestsellers or high-margin products to ensure they appear higher in search results without being locked in the top position.
Demote	Move out-of-season items or products with lower stock to the bottom of the page to prioritize your holiday inventory.
Hide	Temporarily remove specific products from search results, like items you want to save for a “day two” deal, without unpublishing them.
Show banners	Replace a product with an attractive sales banner to draw visitors to your curated collection, thereby increasing traffic and sales.

Your online store's layout is your most powerful sales tool. Boost’s Visual Merchandising gives you precise, rule-based control over how products appear on your search and collection pages. This allows you to guide shoppers, highlight key products, and create a curated experience that aligns perfectly with your holiday sales goals.

Valerie Simon implemented a rule that prioritized new arrival products, specifically those tagged with high-value keywords like 'Oui'. This ensured immediate visibility for their latest collections, resulting in an 11.35% click-through rate for search results.

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Instead of relying on a default sort order, you can build a strategy. For example, you can now create rules based on real-time stock levels to automatically push items with high inventory for a flash sale, or create urgency by boosting products that are running low.

Here are the core strategies you can implement to manage your holiday catalog:

Pin your doorbusters: Manually place your most important holiday offers, like Black Friday doorbuster deals or exclusive gift sets, at the very top of a collection. This guarantees maximum visibility for every visitor.
Boost your bestsellers: Give a lift to your seasonal top performers or high-margin products. This ensures they appear higher in the rankings, increasing their exposure without locking them into a fixed position.
Demote off-season items: Move products that aren't relevant for the holiday season to the bottom of your collection pages. This cleans up your digital shelves and keeps the focus on what shoppers are looking for right now.
Hide to create exclusivity: Temporarily remove specific products from a collection before a big sale. You can then reintroduce them as "new holiday drops" or "day two deals" to create excitement and bring shoppers back.
Display promotion banners to drive traffic: Strategically place banners in prominent locations within the collection and search results pages to significantly increase the visibility of your featured collections. These banners serve as visual calls to action, directing visitors directly to curated product selections.

Tip #2: Create localized holiday campaigns for a global audience

Holiday shopping is a global event, but your customers' needs are local. A generic, one-size-fits-all promotion will miss the mark in a global marketplace. With Boost's Merchandising by Market feature, you can create unique, targeted merchandising rules for specific countries and even B2B customer segments.

This is how you transform a single storefront into a collection of localized shopping experiences that convert:

Country-specific promotions: Run campaigns that are culturally and seasonally relevant to your target audience. You can boost a collection of winter coats for shoppers in Canada while simultaneously featuring festive swimwear for customers in Australia.
Localized pricing and inventory rules: When you target a specific market, any rules you set for price (e.g., boost products over $100) will automatically use that market's local currency and pricing data, ensuring your promotions are always accurate and effective.
Tailored B2B offerings: If you have a wholesale business, you can create entirely separate merchandising strategies for your B2B customers. Showcase bulk offers, specific catalogs, or tiered pricing promotions that are hidden from your retail shoppers.

Tip #3: Stop guessing, start A/B testing to know which merchandising strategy actually works

During the high-stakes holiday season, you can't afford to guess. With Boost's A/B Testing for Merchandising, you can let real shopper data guide your decisions. This feature was built to help you sell more by showing you what actually works.

Instead of wondering which promotion is more effective, you can test it directly and get a data-backed answer.

Test your hypotheses: Not sure if boosting "Bestsellers" outperforms boosting "High Margin" products? Create a test to find out. You can experiment with different product orders, visibility rules, or promotional banners to see what resonates most with your holiday shoppers.
Optimize for your goals: Set a clear goal for your test, whether it's increasing conversion rates or maximizing revenue. Boost will automatically split the traffic, track performance, and show you a clear winner, taking the guesswork out of optimization.

Learn more: How to A/B Test Your Merchandising and Get Valuable Insights to Grow Revenue.

Tip #4: Increase your store's Average Order Value (AOV) with predictive bundles and product recommendations

Getting a customer to your site is expensive during the holidays; maximizing the value of their cart is essential. Effective bundling and merchandising can significantly increase your AOV by making it easy for shoppers to discover more products they'll love.

“We use Boost daily to optimize merchandising with AI-driven product recommendations. It automatically personalizes what customers see, saving us time and improving conversions and AOV,” said Tom Marshall, Okanui’s Marketing Manager.

Product recommendation widget powered by Boost on the Okanui online store. This brand achieved a remarkable 29% conversion rate from AI recommendations and a 30% increase in AOV thanks to Boost.

Holiday AOV-boosting strategy	How to implement with Boost
Promote product bundles	Use Predictive Bundles to create “Frequently Bought Together” offers using AI. You can also manually create curated holiday gift sets and display them directly on product pages or in search results to encourage larger purchases.
Upsell with banners	Use the Banner strategy within a merchandising rule to display an eye-catching inline banner on a collection page. Promote a “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” offer or advertise free shipping thresholds to incentivize customers to add more to their cart.
Cross-sell related items	When a customer views a product, use AI-powered recommendations to show them complementary items. For example, if they are looking at a camera, you can display lenses, memory cards, and camera bags.

Tip #5: How to make your search bar drive more holiday sales?

Up to 30% of shoppers use your internal site search to find products, and they convert at a much higher rate. Your search bar is one of the most powerful merchandising tools at your disposal. With Boost, you can set dynamic rules that turn your search bar into a sales engine.

Keyword-driven Merchandising: Promote specific products when a user searches for a certain keyword. For example, when a shopper searches for "Christmas gift," you can pin your curated gift guide collection to the top of the results.
Use banners in search results: Display a promotional banner directly on the search results page. If a customer searches for a brand you have on sale, you can show a banner that says "Up to 40% off all Brand X items!" to immediately grab their attention.

Start merchandising for your holiday sales now!

This holiday season, success isn't just about driving traffic; it's about creating an intelligent and persuasive shopping experience once that traffic arrives. With Boost's powerful and intuitive merchandising tools, you have everything you need to guide shoppers, increase order values, and turn a busy season into your most profitable one yet.

Ready to take control of your holiday sales? Explore Boost's Visual Merchandising features today and build a strategy that wins.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. How can I use inventory levels in my holiday merchandising strategy?

Boost allows you to create merchandising rules based on specific stock levels. For the holidays, you can create a rule to automatically boost products with high inventory to move stock during a flash sale. Conversely, you can create another rule that boosts products when their inventory is less than a certain number (e.g., under 50 units) to create a sense of urgency and encourage shoppers to buy before the stock runs out.

2. How do I prepare my merchandising for international customers during BFCM?

With Boost's Merchandising by Market feature, you can create specific rules for each country you sell to. Start by identifying your top international markets. Then, create rules that boost products relevant to their local holiday season (e.g., warm-weather apparel for Australia) and ensure all pricing conditions in your rules reflect the local currency.

3. What kind of merchandising rules are best to A/B test for the holidays?

The holidays are a great time to test strategies that drive urgency and higher-order values. Consider A/B testing a rule that boosts "high add-to-cart" products versus one that boosts "high-margin" products to see which one increases your overall revenue more effectively. You can also test different product arrangements on your main "Gifts" collection page to see what drives the most engagement.

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Ellie Ho

•

Content Marketing Specialist

June 17, 2024

•

7 min read

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How to maximize holiday sales with smart merchandising? 5 strategies to leverage Boost’s Merchandising magic

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