Ah, the golden quarter, the “most wonderful time of the year” stretching from Halloween all the way to New Year’s. It’s exciting, it’s chaotic, we secretly love it, and the opportunities are huge for retailers, but so is… the competition.
Whether you are gearing up for this holiday season, planning those spring/summer bookings, or thinking about those industry-specific busy periods, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, you name it, then it’s time to practice the art of juggling as you try to deliver exceptional customer experiences while managing increased volume.
When we think of “peak season”, what does the data actually tell us? And why is it important? If we take Black Friday, for instance, in 2024, it surged to $10.8 billion, making a massive increase over 2023, while global sales soared to $74.4 billion, with Cyber Monday following suit, hitting £13.3 billion in online sales. So what do we have in store (pardon the pun) for 2025?
Winners Are Focused on Loyalty and Retention
Holiday email marketing can make a huge increase in your annual sales. Imagine squeezing a quarter of your year’s revenue into just a few weeks! One of the things we advise our clients is that it’s not about blasting out every campaign and hoping for the best (we call it the spray and pray); the winners and losers are separated by those that roll out a smart CRM strategy focused on loyalty and retention.
Because at the end of the day, numbers are just numbers. During peak season, the real difference between winners and also-rans isn’t who participates, it’s how they connect with their customers.
As we explored in our blog “Why Your Loyalty Strategy Needs an Upgrade”, we mentioned – instead of pouring most of your budget into acquiring new customers, focus on retention and advocacy. Turn your existing customers into loyal ambassadors who not only stick around but also inspire others to join in.
CRM Strategies to Maximise Your Results
How do you get the most out of your efforts? The answer lies in your CRM or ESP platform. It’s all down to preparation and the use of tech. Whether you’re on HubSpot, Salesforce, Bloomreach, Klaviyo or any other system, it’s not just a place to store data. It’s your holy grail for turning chaos into strategic success. Here are the top strategies to help you maximise results this peak/spooky/festive season. (listening to Spooky or Christmas music in the background is optional).
1. Start Building Segments Now
We recommend not waiting until Black Friday week to figure out who’s who in your database. Take a look at your engagement and purchase history to build dynamic segments. One of the segments we see most benefit from is rewarding high-value customers with early access or exclusive deals. They’ve already shown their loyalty and spending power, so reward them with exclusive access to sales, deals or VIP perks that make them feel genuinely valued. Your CRM data will show you exactly who these customers are, based on lifetime value and purchases.
We aren’t saying to neglect your new customers completely; they are important, too. The new customers are in that crucial window where first impressions matter most. Nurture them with welcome offers to convert before big promotional days.
2. Leverage Behavioural Triggers
Peak season means shoppers are browsing at all hours. I know that we are guilty of it, comparing prices, adding items into carts during lunch breaks, and constantly scrolling, watching people sell bits and bobs on TikTok shop. Your CRM platform needs to be working around the clock, responding to customer behaviour with perfectly automated triggers. If you haven’t set these up yet, pause everything and make it a priority; now’s the time to get them running.
One of our favourite tools? Wishlists. Items that customers save or add to their wishlists are a clear sign of future purchase intent. These shoppers are planning ahead, waiting for the right moment or usually… the right price. As we always say in marketing, it’s all about reaching your customers at the right place, at the right time, on the right channel.
We’ve talked about the power of WhatsApp marketing for exactly this kind of engagement. Your CRM should be tracking these signals and triggering targeted campaigns when the timing is perfect. A price-drop alert or limited-stock notification can turn wishlist browsers into loyal buyers.
Timing matters; make sure these emails or push notifications land within hours, not days.
3. Plan Around the Sales Calendar
Peak season isn’t a single event; it’s a series of distinct moments, each with its own audience mindset and purchasing behaviour. Treating Black Friday the same as Christmas is a fundamental strategic error. Your CRM campaigns need to reflect the psychological and practical differences between these dates. Each date has a different audience mindset. Here are our tips:
| Period | Customer Mindset | CRM Strategy |
| Halloween (October) | Fun, impulse-driven, last-minute | Lean heavily on urgency and FOMO. Short lead times, bold creative, playful tone. Segment by previous costume/party purchases. |
| Black Friday/Cyber Monday (November) | Deal-hunting, comparison shopping, big-ticket items | Lead with your strongest discounts. Create countdown sequences. Segment by price sensitivity and product category interest. |
| Christmas (December) | Gift-giving, emotional, quality-focused | Shift to gift guides, curated bundles, and storytelling. Segment by relationship to recipient (gifts for him/her/kids/colleagues). |
| New Year’s (January) | Fresh starts, self-improvement, value-conscious | Focus on wellness, organisation, and productivity. Segment by New Year’s resolution categories. |
4. Test Before Peak Hits
By the time November rolls around, you don’t want to be testing subject lines or worrying about deliverability. We recommend running A/B tests in September and October to identify the best-performing copy, designs, and send times so you can scale confidently when volumes spike.
At WeDoCRM, we run an always-on test and learn program for our clients, providing actionable insights and tracking changes in customer behaviour to continuously optimise performance. From there, we map the entire customer journey, identifying key touchpoints, gaps, and opportunities to improve the overall experience. You can learn more about what we do for our clients here: CRM Strategy at WeDoCRM.
Testing is about strategy, such as finding out what time of day drives the highest open rates. Does a three-email abandoned cart sequence outperform a five-email one? Should promotions go out Tuesday morning or Thursday evening? The answers depend on your audience, industry, and product, which is why testing is so important, and can be fun… you find out so much!
5. Don’t Let The Relationship End
We see it all the time, when brands treat peak season as the finish line. The sale is just the start of a customer relationship, not the end. There are tactics you can use to your advantage here, especially within your CRM platform. Thank you flows should be in place immediately after checkout; they don’t need to be salesy at all. They are simply showing that your brand appreciates them. You can even offer product care tips or suggestions for items they might like.
When it comes to Black Friday, you should look at purchase behaviour. Someone who has made lots of purchases is clearly willing to spend with your brand. This is the perfect opportunity to get them into your loyalty programme and lock that relationship for the long term!
How WeDoCRM Can Help You
Your CRM contains everything you need to know about your customers, their preferences, their purchase patterns, their price sensitivity, and their browsing behaviour.
The question isn’t whether the data exists (because it does), it’s where to find it and start using it strategically.
Whether you need a full CRM audit, help implementing automation workflows, or simply want expert eyes on your peak season strategy, we’re here to make it happen. You don’t have to sit and let another peak season pass, wondering what could have been.
Get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you!
