The challenge of the Christmas campaign in retail

For many retailers, the Christmas season is the busiest but also the most stressful time of the year. In just a few weeks, marketing, logistics, and sales must work together perfectly. Even small mistakes can lead to lost sales, delivery problems, or dissatisfied customers.

Typical challenges for retailers

One of the biggest challenges is data chaos between sales channels. Product information, prices, and availability often differ between online stores, marketplaces, and brick-and-mortar retailers. These inconsistencies lead to incorrect offers, unsettle customers, and cause additional support costs. In addition, many systems suffer from high traffic loads during peak seasons – slow loading times or even outages are not uncommon and can significantly reduce conversion rates.

The coordination of marketing campaigns is also a critical phase. If product promotions or discounts are not coordinated across channels, this leads to inconsistencies in customer communication. It is not uncommon for items that have long been sold out to be advertised – a classic and costly mistake. At the same time, there is often a lack of transparency in inventory and supply chains, meaning that bottlenecks are only identified once customers have already placed their orders. The result: cancellations, complaints, and negative reviews.

Under the pressure of rapid price and content adjustments, manual errors can easily occur. Product descriptions get mixed up, discounts are entered incorrectly, or outdated image files are displayed. In addition, brand communication often becomes inconsistent: while social media uses a modern, emotional approach, shop texts appear factual and distant. This inconsistency weakens brand perception and thus customer trust.

Another bottleneck arises from unclear responsibilities within the team. In the critical phase, improvisation is often the norm, leading to duplication of work, misunderstandings, and delayed approvals. Technical interface problems between ERP, shop, or CRM systems further exacerbate the situation. If data is not transferred cleanly, duplicates, empty fields, or incorrect inventory levels can occur – all factors that can quickly become costly during the Christmas season.

In addition, many retailers are wasting valuable potential by not using personalization and AI-supported segmentation. Campaigns remain too general instead of targeting different audiences with relevant offers. This means that cross-selling and upselling opportunities are lost. Finally, there is often a lack of centralised performance measurement: when KPIs are spread across different systems, performance is only analysed after the fact. Opportunities for optimisation thus remain unused while the campaign is already running.