The festive season brings so much pressure on e-commerce directors and marketing teams to convert as many transactions as humanly possible before Santa has his well-deserved rest and January arrives. While you might have impressive quarterly reports from the short-term sales spike, it often masks a more troubling reality… the customers aren’t sticking around. And no, they aren’t rocking around the Christmas tree…
We love this time of year, the mulled wine, mince pies and all the sparkle. You might think of it as joy, chaos, or even the annual festive meltdown. But with the glitter and panic lies an opportunity. With everyone frantically hunting for gifts, flapping at deals, and last-minute miracles (the ones who wait until Christmas Eve to start shopping, we see you and we are judging you!), there’s no better time to rekindle relationships and win your customers back.
This Christmas, the smart CRM and marketing strategies aren’t focused solely on how many people buy. They’re focused on how many people come back.
Conversion-Only CRM at Christmas
Modern CRM tools make it incredibly easy to segment, target, and automate your holiday campaigns. We’ve been there, we’ve had the chats with our clients… it can be tempting to use all that power to blast customers with discount codes and urgency-driven messages in the hope of squeezing out every last December sale. We don’t recommend doing this.
The numbers can look great, too: higher open rates, more clicks, better conversions. But those metrics only tell part of the story.
Why Discount-Driven Customers Don’t Stay
A customer gained through aggressive discounting is statistically far LESS likely to become a loyal advocate than one who connects with your brand’s values. It’s like re-gifted presents, great for a moment, but don’t expect long-term love. Those who joined your data through discounts have 30-40% lower lifetime value, and that’s because they’re chasing the deal, not the relationship. Come January, the bargain hunters will disappear, taking your customer acquisition costs with them.
Reframing Your Christmas CRM Objectives
The brands that build lasting customer loyalty take a different approach to CRM during the festive season. We recommend:
Instead of asking:
“How do we sell more this Christmas?”
Ask:
“How do we become part of their Christmas story?”
The best people who have nailed this approach are John Lewis, and the good news for you is that we’ve already written an article on emotional marketing and how it can transform your holiday CRM campaigns here – “What John Lewis Can Teach Us About Emotional Marketing.”
For CRM platforms, this is more of a long game. Instead of just chasing clicks and conversions, your campaigns should focus on building emotional resonance. When you capture attention through feeling, it sticks, and that connection is far more likely to drive action, both now and in the future.
CRM Strategies Examples for Different Customer Segments
Not all customers are the same, and neither should your CRM campaigns be. Tailoring your approach to different segments can make your holiday marketing feel personal, relevant, and meaningful. Here’s how to put this into practice.
1. Reactivation Campaigns for Lapsed Customers
Your CRM contains valuable data about customers who’ve drifted away. Christmas marketing provides the perfect excuse to reconnect—but do it thoughtfully:
- Acknowledge the time gap without guilt-tripping
- Share what’s new since they last engaged
- Offer a genuine value proposition beyond discounts
- Make it easy to update preferences or opt out
This approach to CRM respects the relationship and gives customer loyalty a chance to rekindle naturally.
2. First-Time Buyer Welcome Journeys
New customers acquired during Christmas need special attention in your CRM. Create automated welcome journeys that:
- Thank them for choosing you during the busy festive season
- Share your brand story and values
- Provide tips for getting the most from their purchase
- Invite them to join your community
- Set expectations for future communications
This CRM strategy transforms one-time Christmas shoppers into loyal year-round customers.
Measuring Customer Loyalty: Metrics That Matter
The challenge with connection-focused CRM strategies is that standard Christmas marketing metrics don’t capture their true value. Open rates and immediate conversion remain important, but they’re incomplete measures of customer loyalty.
Key Performance Indicators for Loyalty-Driven CRM
Brands committed to customer loyalty need to track different indicators:
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Trends: Are customers acquired during Christmas worth more over time?
- Repeat Purchase Rate: What percentage buy again in Q1 and Q2?
- Referral Rates: How many loyal customers recommend you to others?
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Would customers recommend your brand?
- Customer Effort Score: How easy is it to do business with you?
- Engagement Rate Post-Holiday: Who stays active after discounts end?
These CRM metrics reveal whether your Christmas marketing strategy built customer loyalty or simply extracted transactions.
The Psychology of Customer Loyalty at Christmas
Understanding why people develop loyalty during the festive season helps inform your CRM strategy.
Christmas amplifies emotional responses. Customers remember how brands made them feel during this period more vividly than other times of the year. Your CRM and marketing should tap into:
- Nostalgia: Connection to cherished memories and traditions
- Generosity: The spirit of giving and gratitude
- Belonging: Desire for community and shared experiences
- Joy: Genuine celebration and positivity
These emotional connections, facilitated through thoughtful CRM strategies, create customer loyalty that transcends rational purchase decisions.
How WeDoCRM Can Help You With Retention
This Christmas, the most successful marketers won’t be the loudest in the inbox… they’ll be the ones who make their customers feel seen, valued, and part of something worth returning to.
So now’s the perfect time to rethink your approach, reconnect with the customers who matter most, and set yourself up for a loyal customer base that sticks around well into the new year (and not just when there’s a sale on). The amazing team at WeDoCRM are here to help you turn festive chaos into long-term retention — minus the novelty jumpers and forced office sing-alongs (although we are lovers of Mariah Carey here!)
Get in touch with us; we would love to talk to you about your retention strategy.
