Ecommerce Trends: 3 ways online retailers are preparing for the 2026 holiday season

For online retailers that expect to see peak sales arrive during the 2026 holiday season, preparations in the months and year ahead can make or break their end-of-year results.

As the back-to-school season gives way to Labor Day weekend, Halloween and eventually the Cyber 5, which includes Thanksgiving and the four days that follow, retailers are already making important choices.

Digital Commerce 360’s new report, “Ecommerce Trends Shaping the 2026 Holiday Season,” uncovers which decisions — related to marketing, fulfillment, artificial intelligence (AI) and more — are top of mind for ecommerce leaders.

Those findings, which accompany new online holiday shopper survey results for 2026, highlight some of the priorities and tradeoffs that companies are making to set themselves up for success.

Based on lessons learned during the current calendar year, as well as past holiday shopping seasons, here are three ways online retailers are maximizing their chances at conversion when shoppers arrive on their websites this year. What are retailers doing to prepare for the 2026 holiday season?

First and foremost, online retailers are not waiting for November to begin holiday planning — and that runway encompasses more than just inventory. It extends to marketing and promotions as well.

Garrett McMartin, the founder of Canada-based jewelry seller Draco Diamond, spoke to Digital Commerce 360 about some of the dynamics his company faces handling made-to-order items.

When considering the timelines necessary to craft and fulfill orders, Draco Diamond plans to make its pages for holiday-timed promotions live well in advance of the Cyber 5 with the goals of delivering holiday orders on time and leaving shoppers satisfied.

Improving conversion for traffic from AI channels After seeing traffic from AI sources such as ChatGPT and Perplexity rise in 2025, Adobe Digital Insights reported it observed conversion rates improving for AI traffic on retailers’ websites during the first quarter of 2026.

Whether that trend continues to play out through the holiday season, merchants see AI platforms sending visitors to their ecommerce sites — and they are actively working to convert them at higher rates. These strategies may include optimizing catalog data and website content to reach the right shoppers using third-party AI platforms.

But they can also mean studying and understanding the patterns that emerge from the shoppers relying on AI recommendations to discover products and gift ideas. Ayden Lin, founder of the online furniture retailer Povison, shared that AI-associated traffic makes up about 5% of its inbound referrals.

He believes that share could rise to 10% in 2027, and the company wants to see those referrals translate into new sales. And at Draco Diamond, McMartin said he accounts for multiple visits after AI users discover his brand and continue performing research.

Making in-store stock statuses visible Retail chains consistently find that in-store stock statuses are one of the most effective features for omnichannel conversion. In fact, Digital Commerce 360’s own data showed that while Retail Chains in the Top 1000 Database had an average conversion rate of 2.

9% in 2025, those with in-store stock statuses on their ecommerce sites enjoyed an elevated conversion rate of 3. 1% by comparison. When holiday shoppers arrive online and find out they can shorten fulfillment times by picking up items or having them delivered from local physical stores, their purchasing decisions can become easier to make.

To go deeper with data, reporting, charts and more, access the new report “Ecommerce Trends Shaping the 2026 Holiday Season,” for free. Editor’s note: Subscribe to our retail newsletter to make sure you see each weekly edition of Ecommerce Trends. Do you rank in our databases? Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

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