As the holiday season approaches, Etsy shoppers are in full swing searching for unique and meaningful gifts. In fact, searches for Christmas gifts start peaking as early as October, meaning that you should prepare well in advance to capture this traffic. December is always dedicated to last-minute shopping. With the big influence of the Etsy landing pages on the shoppers behavior - its a must to check frequently what Etsy will promote right after the BFCM weekend. Here’s how to make your store holiday-ready and how to deal with the shopping during and after the Christmas holidays.
1.Christmas traffic peak and preparation
Christmas search demand on Etsy typically begins to rise in late September to early October, as early shoppers start planning their holiday purchases. By mid-October, interest increases noticeably, especially as Halloween wraps up and people shift their focus toward Christmas. Momentum continues to build, with searches for gifts and holiday items growing each week.
In November, demand surges, reaching a peak around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when shoppers are most active, searching for deals and securing gifts before the final rush. This high volume continues through early December, hitting its highest point at the start of the month. After mid-December, search activity tapers off as customers consider shipping times and begin to look for last-minute or digital gift options.
To capture this demand effectively, it’s best to have holiday-related listings optimized in October and active your sale events in November to maximize visibility during the peak shopping season.
Make sure to add Christmas holiday keywords that are suitable for you niche like: Christmas Stocking, Christmas Gift, Christmas Sweatshirt, Christmas Decor, Stocking Stuffer, Xmas Gift, Secret Santa Present and Christmas Ornaments.
Christmas traffic
- Picks up Sept 1
- Peaks Nov 28
- Tapers off by Jan 2
A)Optimize your Etsy Ads
Think which product to include/exclude from the Etsy Ads when you setting up your shop for the upcoming Christmas holidays. You can include holiday-specific items like Christmas decorations, seasonal clothing, and gift sets that resonate with holiday shoppers. Highlight gift-friendly products, popular bestsellers, and winter items that align with the colder season, as well as any unique, new arrivals that might attract attention.
Consider excluding from ads any out-of-season products, slow-moving inventory with low margins, and overstocked items unless they are part of a holiday sale or make great gift options.
As we already learned, during the Holiday Season, we have a few key periods:
1) Increased demand
2) Peak shopping
3) Last-minute sales
The increased traffic and conversion rates during Q4 months allow us to increase the ads budget while keeping the same or even better ROI. Based on our experience we recommend adjusting your daily budget as follows:
- Oct 13. - Nov 10 - slightly higher than the rest of the year.
- Nov 10 - Dec 5 - doubling your daily budget, especially if you have Christmas themed listings.
- Dec 5. - Dec 17 - keeping the same budget as the previous period.
After Dec 17 you can return the daily budget back to normal.
Keep in mind to monitor your Ads performance all the time to make real-time adjustments when needed.
B)Update your visual appearance
Placing relevant products into your Etsy banner and Featured area definitely helps to set the mood and position the store for the relevant occasions and holidays like Christmas and can help you increase your conversion rate.
You can update your thumbnail of your products that are catching the Christmas spirit with more festive elements. If you have a spare time you can re-shoot part of your listings with Christmas backgrounds like in this case.
Also, make sure to place seasonal/occasional listings on your store's front page. In this period it's usually a good idea to re-arrange your storefront every few weeks to make sure you always have the most relevant listings there.
C)Edit your listing's attributes and store sections
When listing products for the holiday season, it can be tempting to label them as “Christmas” items. You might think, “This would make a great Christmas gift, so I’ll mark it as a Christmas item.” While this approach seems like a good way to increase traffic to your listings, using incorrect categories or attributes can mislead the shoppers.
Depending on your product features and its design you can pick up the most suitable occasions/season and holidays that fits the product you are presenting.
Creating a Christmas-themed section in your Etsy store enhances visibility, making it easier for holiday shoppers to find relevant items quickly and boosting your search ranking with seasonal keywords. This setup encourages buyers to explore multiple items and can increase overall sales, as it showcases your store as ready for the Christmas holidays. Choose which products to include in your section and what name you will give it, because shop sections are taken into consideration by the Etsy algorithm.
2.Shipping cut-off date and processing times
Your cutoff date, also known as last orders date or Christmas delivery cutoff, is the last day orders placed in your store will be eligible for delivery before Christmas. Unfortunately, shipping times can vary but it's important to calculate your cutoff date, especially if you are offering local delivery which can be fairly predictable.
If you are shipping overseas, the key to timing your cutoff right is delivery time. You can offer express shipping for orders placed over the last week so you can tap into the last-minute rush.
If you are shipping locally, ideally you want to gear up for 1-day processing of new orders in the week leading up to December 20. The last week should be all about shipping out orders and the closer you can get your shop's cutoff to Dec 20, the bigger your advantage. In some cases, it makes sense to create a separate section with ready-to-ship listings that can be ordered well into the final week.
Once you time your cutoff strategy, communicate your cutoff dates for international and local shipping clearly in your Announcement section. If your cutoff date is very close to Christmas, you can even put it front and center by adding a couple of intro frames to your listing videos just in the last week. In this way you can grab some extra orders and outperform competitors with worse cut-off dates.
If you are usually taking longer to process orders, you can create a special shipping profile for December shipping and assign it to your ready-to-ship listings. After the holidays, you can revert to your usual shipping settings. You can find your Etsy shipping settings and set everything up from this link.
3.Plan your holiday sale events
Christmas sales go well beyond Cyber Week and discounts will keep playing an active role during the holidays. During that time shopping is very promotion-driven and the sales strategy that started with the Early Holiday Deals push remains in place at least until your cut-off date.
You can vary with discount levels across different categories but 25% remains the recommended level. Make sure discounts are factored into your price so you can maintain a healthy margin.
And of course, your best-sellers deserve the most attention - they should always carry an attractive discount to maximize conversions in the top season. You can set up your sale campaign from here.
Etsy also promotes End of Season Deals.
4.The holidays are time to rest but don't fall into the trap of Etsy vacation mode
The Holiday Season is a big push for everyone and then it's time to slowly wind down towards a well-deserved holiday rest. Just keep in mind that as we move into the slower half of the month after December 15-20, it's important to keep your store active.
Vacation mode removes the store from the algorithm and reduces listing quality-scores and rankings. Recovery from vacation mode can take months so make sure to stay away from this similar to the summer months. Just check our blog article Should I Put My Etsy Store On Vacation.
Taking some time off is only natural for everyone while orders slow down after the shopping frenzy. The best way to do this is by increasing processing and shipping times and turning on auto-reply. You can set up auto-reply from your Etsy messages here.
5. Shopping during and after the Christmas holidays
While Christmas shopping winds down in the second half of the December, the next seasonal opportunities follow immediately.
After the holiday preparations and family time are over, it is the perfect moment to relax and spend time shopping online. Shopping during the holidays is all about treating and spoiling oneself with hobbies, beauty treatment, or inspirational decor.
In particular, immediately after Christmas arrives Boxing Day, Dec 26. A big shopping day in the UK, Australia and Canada, this is the final opportunity for a strong promo push with 1-day flash sales on key categories.
The next big trend comes immediately after Jan 1 with New Year's Resolutions. New Year’s Day has come to signify a fresh start for customers around the world. From fitness to self-care, new hobbies and planning, the "New Year, New Me" audience sets-out to search for active wear, loungewear, bath essentials, soothing candles, planners, and more.
This immediately transitions into Valentine's shopping in mid-January which includes both men's and women's accessories, personalized tokens of love and appreciation, couple gifts, etc.
Optimization of products matching the trends starts as early as December and if your products are a good fit, you can get ready for a smaller peak season as early as January.
Conclusion
Preparing your Etsy shop for the holiday season is essential for capturing increased traffic and sales. Start early with strategic adjustments to listings, keywords, and visual updates to create a festive shopping experience. Implement effective ad budgeting and highlight holiday-themed products in your storefront. Set clear shipping cut-off dates and optimize your processing times to meet last-minute demand. Plan discounts and promotions that extend into January, positioning your shop for success through New Year's and even Valentine's Day. Preparation in advance is the key to be successful and make the most of the holiday season.
