According to the National Retail Federation, holiday retail sales will grow between 2.7% and 3.7% over 2024 to between $5.42 trillion and $5.48 trillion.
The 2025 sales forecast compares with 3.6% annual sales growth of $5.29 trillion dollars in 2024. This year’s forecast is also in line with the 10-year pre-pandemic average annual sales growth of 3.6%.
Non-store and online sales, which are included in the total figure, are expected to grow between 7% and 9% year over year to a total of between $1.57 trillion to $1.6 trillion. By comparison, non-store and online sales grew 8.1% to a total of $1.47 trillion last year.
ShipWizard, we partner with e-commerce sites to make sure every order is fulfilled as quickly, accurately and efficiently as possible. With a front-row seat to the e-commerce holiday bonanza, we are aware of the importance of a well-functioning website, during the holiday shopping season as well as every day.
Why Website Speed Is Important For holiday sales
The holiday season is the time when consumers have the most buying options, with everyone from big-box stores to up-and-coming Etsy sellers vying for the holiday dollars. If you are counting on holiday sales, it is crucial that your website is optimized to load quickly and run flawlessly. A smooth online experience keeps customers happy and encourages them to stick around instead of bouncing away. Plus, easy navigation and clear calls-to-action can really help boost your sales during this busy time. A slow website will see an increase in bounce rate and a decrease in time on site. Research shows that even a one-second delay will reduce conversions by 4.42% for each second lost to slow servers or unnecessary cumbersome website code. This means that for every second your site takes to load, you’re potentially losing nearly 5% of your conversions.
How To Improve Website Speed and Holiday-proof your e-commerce business
The holiday shopping season is incredibly busy for e-commerce websites, and adding one more task to the list seems impossible.
As online orders surge, even minor website slowdowns can impact conversion rates and strain your fulfillment process. That’s why proactive testing, up-to-date software integrations, and clear communication between your web and logistics teams are key. Fortunately, there are steps you can take quickly to improve your website performance:
- Learn from last year’s e-commerce traffic: Review the reports on your business’s performance during the previous year’s holiday rush. Google Analytics is a free tool, with a few different metrics. You might have a file report on sales, new customers, website traffic, etc. Use this information to make rough projections about the level of holiday traffic you can expect this year. Looking back at last year’s trends can help you spot when shoppers are most active and what items they loved the most. Plus, understanding who your customers are and what they like can really help you craft promotions that hit home and grab their attention!
- Make sure your website host is ready for spikes in traffic: Can your website handle sudden spikes in traffic? How about 3-5 times your regular pageviews? Nothing can kill an e-commerce transaction faster than a slow site (or one that crashes suddenly or doesn’t load at all). To prevent this, start by evaluating your current hosting plan; if you’re on shared hosting, consider upgrading to VPS or dedicated hosting for better performance during busy periods. You may need to go up to a slightly pricier hosting plan, which is a worthwhile investment if you are expecting more traffic. If you are a GoDaddy customer, you can check the amount of bandwidth used by your site by going to GoDaddy’s Web Hosting & Manage > Bandwidth. After that, compare GoDaddy’s bandwidth limits to yours. Other hosting providers have similar tools. If you are aware that your site might experience an upturn in traffic in a few days or weeks, discuss it with your hosting provider.
- Shrink your images: You have a beautiful, show-stopping image as your main header or background on your homepage. You might also have smaller images that showcase your products, seasonal offers, social media posts, or other images that aim to attract users and encourage them to place an order on your site. These images all take up space on your web page. So when a user visits your page, that data needs time to load. According to Google, optimizing images for page speed is important for rankings and user experience. You can use any number of free tools to shrink your images, or install a plugin that compresses the images automatically. Optimizing your image file sizes is fast, easy and has the potential to generate additional sales by reducing the number of bounces on your website.
Quick load times, Quick Delivery
As a premier fulfillment services and third-party logistics (3PL) company, ShipWizard works with companies of every size from a variety of industries to get things done with efficiency, flexibility and the highest level of service. Nothing makes us happier than being part of our customers’ success, during the holiday season and beyond. Just like ShipWizard matches your growth and keeps up with you, your website should be able to scale up, not cause a loss of sales. A high level of communication and data sharing is necessary for an effective partnership when managing complex logistical relationships. When your website runs smoothly, everybody wins.
Taking steps to holiday-proof your website isn’t just about preventing problems—it’s about creating a foundation for growth and success. By ensuring your digital storefront is as robust and reliable as your fulfillment operations, you set the stage for a prosperous holiday season and beyond. Ready to make this season your smoothest and most successful yet? Let’s get started.
