Let the holiday shopping begin! Q4 remains the biggest opportunity of the year for most businesses, and Black Friday through Boxing Day still delivers some of the largest sales days on the calendar. Building strong holiday marketing campaigns in 2026 means planning your promotions, content, and customer experience well before the first flash sale goes live, and following through all the way to January returns and gift card redemptions.
Canadian shoppers are still spending, just more intentionally. Shoppers in Canada are planning to spend an average of $1,646 on gifts, experiences, and other holiday costs this season, an 8% increase over last year, according to JLL Canada's annual Retail Holiday Survey. Deloitte Canada's latest holiday outlook points to a similar 3% rise in spending, though value is doing the heavy lifting, with 78% of Canadians saying they're actively shopping around for the best deals.
The holiday period is the perfect opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience, increase sales, and create lasting impressions. With the flood of promotions and campaigns hitting consumers on every platform and device, standing out takes more than just a discount code.
Here are our 2026 holiday marketing tips for building campaigns that convert browsers into loyal customers.
Why Holiday Marketing Campaigns 2026 Look Different This Year
A few shifts are shaping the season ahead:
- Value beats volume. Canadians' priorities are shifting away from brand loyalty and towards prioritizing savings. While the country of origin remains important, the preference for “Made in Canada” products is softening. Affordability is taking precedence as Canadians open up to global alternatives, according to NIQ's 2025 consumer insights.
- AI is part of the shopping journey. Half of Canadians have used AI tools in the past three months, up from a third last year, and Gen Z shoppers are nearly three times more likely than Baby Boomers to use AI for product research (Deloitte Canada).
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren't going anywhere. 78% of Canadians plan to shop on Black Friday, and 31% call it their single biggest spending day of the season (JLL Canada).
Because more shoppers are turning to AI assistants and chat-based search to research gifts before they buy, your content needs to work for people and for the algorithms and AI models reading it. That's part of why we’re providing clear, direct answers that are good for your customers, good for search engines, and good for the AI answer engines that may end up summarizing your brand.
Best Practices for Holiday Marketing Campaigns
Here are 10 best practices for holiday marketing campaigns that continue to drive results, based on how Canadians are shopping in 2026.
1. Promote "Last-Minute" Deals
There will always be a segment of shoppers who wait until the final days to finish their holiday shopping. Offering special deals or added incentives for last-minute shoppers can drive meaningful sales through the end of the holiday shopping period. Highlight expedited shipping, in-store pickup, or instantly delivered digital gift cards to reassure procrastinators that “last-minute” doesn't mean “too late.”
Tip: Plan these promotions well in advance so they're built into your calendar, not scrambled together at the last minute.
2. Run Holiday-Themed Promotions & Flash Sales
Everyone loves a deal, no matter the time of year. Lean into the season with themed promotions, anything from simple flash sales on best-sellers to a multi-day countdown. For two years running, Le Creuset has run a 12-day holiday gifting campaign across ads, email, and social that's proven highly successful. Check out our breakdown of Le Creuset's holiday marketing strategy for more insider tactics you can borrow.
3. Create Special Holiday Bundles
Shoppers want ease and convenience, especially in December. Bundling best-sellers with new arrivals into ready-made gift sets simplifies buyers' decisions and gives newer products more exposure.
4. Build Out Gift Guides
Create and promote gift guides tailored to different shopper segments across every channel you use. A few reliable categories to start with:
- Gifts for Him
- Gifts for Her
- Gifts Under $50
- Stocking Stuffers
5. Offer Gift Wrapping Options
The number of online holiday shoppers keeps climbing every year, and larger retailers like Amazon have made gift-wrapping a standard convenience. Customers appreciate being able to ship gifts directly to a recipient, already wrapped, without the extra time or cost of doing it themselves.
6. Offer Extended Returns
Few things sour a gift faster than a size that doesn't fit and no time to exchange it. Extending your returns window reduces that stress for the purchaser. Since holiday shopping starts earlier every year, push your extended-returns period earlier as well.
You can also reserve it specifically for gift-receipt purchases and mailing-list members as an added incentive to opt in.
7. Plan and Promote Festive Content
Keep your audience engaged with seasonal social and email content; gift ideas, promotions, behind-the-scenes prep, and more. Festive ads and creatives that use holiday visual cues (wrapping paper, string lights, seasonal colour palettes) tend to spark more curiosity than generic promotional graphics.
8. Focus on Gift Cards
Gift cards solve the hardest gift-shopping problem: the person who's impossible to shop for. They also work well as last-minute purchases, corporate gifts, or an easy upsell at checkout. Promote them across every channel and lean into the flexibility angle.
9. Optimize for Last-Minute and AI-Assisted Search Traffic
As the holidays close in, shoppers turn to search engines and, increasingly, AI chat tools to find gifts and deals fast. Optimizing your site for holiday-intent keywords, think “gift ideas for her,” “last-minute gifts,” “fast shipping available”, still matters. But it's now just as important to structure your product pages and FAQs so AI answer engines can read and cite them clearly: concise answers, clear headings, and up-to-date shipping and return information.
Getting both right is one of the most effective ecommerce marketing moves inside any holiday campaign strategy, since it captures shoppers at the exact moment they're ready to buy.
Pro tip: feature your shipping cut-off dates prominently on your website as banners & on product pages. National carriers publish annual holiday shipping deadlines so that customers know exactly how late they can order and still receive gifts on time. See eShipper's Canadian holiday shipping guide for typical timelines.
10. Engage in Post-Purchase Marketing
Black Friday and the holiday season bring in a wave of new customers, and retaining them is where the real long-term value lies. Email remains one of the best tools for this: it builds relationships and adds ongoing value through complementary product suggestions, early access to sales, and exclusive discounts.
A well-timed post-purchase flow, paired with a strong welcome series, is one of the highest-return lead gen marketing tactics you can add to your holiday marketing campaigns in 2026, since it turns one-time holiday buyers into subscribers you can market to all year. If you don't have a welcome email flow yet, this blog is a good place to start.
Holiday Marketing Campaign Ideas to Try in 2026
Looking for a fresh holiday marketing angle beyond the basics? Here a few holiday marketing campaign ideas worth testing this year:
- An AI-powered gift finder quiz on your site or in ads
- A "12 Days of Deals" countdown across email and social
- A give-back or cause-marketing campaign tied to a percentage of sales
- A livestream shopping event featuring your bestsellers
- Double loyalty points on weekends to reward existing customers
- User-generated content contests around gift unwrapping or styling
Best Holiday Marketing Campaigns to Learn From
Studying the best holiday marketing campaigns from other brands is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own strategy. Le Creuset is a strong example: its 12-day holiday gifting campaign runs consistently across paid ads, email, and social every year, giving shoppers a reason to check back daily rather than a single one-and-done message. Read our full Le Creuset marketing case study for tactics you can adapt to your own brand.
Standing out isn’t simply about offering the deepest discount; it's about creating memorable, meaningful experiences for your audience. As the holidays near, your marketing should reflect the spirit of the season. Implementing these tips can help you boost engagement, drive sales, and build brand loyalty during one of the most competitive marketing periods of the year.
Need a hand with your holiday marketing this season? <imajery> is always here to help.
Frequently Asked Questions About Holiday Marketing Campaigns 2026
What are holiday marketing campaigns?
Holiday marketing campaigns are the coordinated promotions, content, and customer-experience initiatives a business runs during the Black Friday-to-Boxing Day shopping window (and beyond) to increase sales and build customer loyalty during the year's busiest retail period.
What are the best practices for holiday marketing campaigns?
The best practices for holiday marketing campaigns include:
- Planning promotions early
- Offering gift guides and bundles
- Extending return windows
- Focusing on gift cards
- Optimizing for last-minute shoppers and AI-assisted search
- Following up with post-purchase email marketing to retain new customers.
What are some holiday marketing campaign ideas for small businesses?
Small businesses can try low-cost holiday marketing campaign ideas such as a 12-day countdown promotion, bundling best-sellers into gift sets, extending return windows on gift purchases, and building a simple email welcome flow to retain new holiday customers.
When should Canadian businesses start holiday marketing?
Most Canadian retailers begin holiday marketing in early-to-mid October, well ahead of Black Friday, since planning, content creation, and extended-returns policies all need lead time, and shoppers increasingly start researching gifts earlier each year.
How is AI changing holiday shopping in Canada?
AI is increasingly part of how Canadians research and shop for gifts: half of Canadians have used AI tools in the past three months, according to Deloitte Canada, with usage especially high among Gen Z shoppers researching products before they buy.
Author
Senior Email Account Manager
Interested in working with Us?
We'd love to hear from you!