Holiday Sales Prep: Gift Cards, Promo Codes and Online Orders

For most craft producers, November and December bring a big share of the year’s direct sales. Gift buyers, corporate orders and members stocking up all arrive at once, often in the same few weeks. The producers who do best start preparing in October, while there’s still time to build gift packs, set up offers and fix anything that slows customers down.

The good news is that most of the work can be done before the rush starts. This checklist covers the seven areas that matter most: gift cards, promotions, your online shop, shipping, stock, members and email. Work through it in October, and you’ll spend December selling instead of fixing.

1. Sell gift cards everywhere

Gift cards are the easiest holiday sale you can make: there’s nothing to ship, no stock to set aside, and no risk of choosing the wrong bottle for someone else. They also bring new people to you. The person who receives a card has often never visited, and redeeming it is their first reason to come in or shop online. Many recipients spend more than the card’s value when they do.

To get the most from them:

Sell them everywhere you sell: at the counter, in your online shop and over the phone, so every customer looking for “something for my dad” has an easy answer.
Offer amounts that match your products, such as the price of a favourite bottle, a tasting for two or a mixed case, as well as a custom amount.
Let buyers add the recipient and a personal message, so the card feels like a gift, not a receipt.
Make redemption easy. A card bought online should work in person, and the other way round.
Keep them visible: a gift card display at the tasting-room counter and a gift card link near the top of every holiday email.

Last-minute buyers are your biggest gift card market. In the final week before the holidays, once shipping cut-offs have passed, an electronic gift card is often the only gift you can still sell to someone who lives far away.

2. Plan your promotions

Holiday discounts are easy to overdo. A single storewide discount teaches customers to wait for sales, and gives away margin on purchases they would have made anyway. Decide your offers in October, with a clear goal for each one: bringing in new customers, moving a particular product, rewarding members or winning corporate orders.

Use promo codes so every offer has rules and you can measure it:

Start and end dates, so offers switch on and off without anyone having to remember.
Minimum quantities, such as a discount on six bottles or more, to lift the size of each order.
Rules for who can use them, so a member-only code doesn’t end up on a coupon website.
One code per offer or channel, so you can see which email, partner or social post brought in the sales.

Value-adds often work better than discounts: free shipping over a set order amount, a free gift box with any three bottles, or a tasting voucher with every case. They feel generous without cutting the price of your product.

Finally, write every offer down in one place, with its code, dates, rules and the products it covers, and share it with your tasting-room team. Nothing frustrates a customer faster than staff who haven’t heard about the offer in your email.

3. Refresh your online shop

Holiday shoppers arrive with a job to do: find a gift, quickly. Make it easy for them. Create a holiday or gift section at the top of your shop with gift packs, magnums, mixed cases, gift cards and anything that comes boxed. Add a short line to each product saying who it suits, such as “for the hop lover” or “an easy host gift”, because many buyers aren’t shopping for themselves and don’t know your range.

Then check the details that quietly cost sales:

Set maximum order quantities on limited releases, so one buyer can’t take the lot and your regulars still get a chance.
Check photos, prices and stock levels, and hide anything you can’t deliver before the holidays.
Test checkout on a phone. Many holiday orders are placed on a mobile, often in a hurry.
Show the shipping cut-off and pickup option on the shop itself, not just in your emails.

Corporate gifting deserves its own space. A separate shop link for corporate buyers, with case-sized products and clear lead times, keeps large orders out of your regular shop and makes it easy for an office manager to place one order for twenty gifts.

4. Publish shipping cut-off dates

Late delivery is the most common holiday complaint, and it’s almost always avoidable. Work backwards from the holidays for each shipping zone: your carrier’s transit time, plus your own packing time, plus a buffer of a day or two, because carriers run late in December. That gives you a “last day to order” date for each zone.

Then make the dates impossible to miss:

Put them at the top of your shop, in the header of every holiday email, and on a sign at the tasting-room counter.
Send a “last chance for delivery” reminder two or three days before each cut-off.
After the last cut-off, switch to gift cards and pickup instead of taking orders that will arrive late.

Plan your packing capacity, too. If you normally pack twenty orders a day and expect a hundred on the busiest days, line up extra hands, boxes and carrier pickups now. Remember that alcohol deliveries often need an adult signature, so a missed delivery can mean a trip to the depot for your customer.

Offer pickup as an easy alternative for local customers: no shipping cost, no risk of a missed delivery, and one more chance to sell them something when they collect.

5. Plan stock for the rush

Running out of your most-gifted product in mid-December is painful, and being left with a pile of unsold gift boxes in January is almost as bad. Start with last year’s numbers: look at holiday sales by product and by week, and note what sold out, when it sold out, and how many sales you may have missed.

Then plan for this year:

Set reorder points on best sellers and gift packs, so you get a warning while there’s still time to bottle, can or order more.
Count your packaging, not just your product. Gift boxes, tissue, shipping cartons and labels often run out first.
Build gift packs early. Assembling two hundred gift boxes in October is easy; doing it in the busiest week of the year isn’t.
Hold back stock for members and the tasting room, so a big online promotion doesn’t empty the shelves your visitors see.

From November on, check your stock levels every week, and decide in advance what happens when something runs low: offer a similar product, make it pickup only, or mark it sold out early so you don’t oversell.

6. Look after your members

Your club members are your most loyal customers, and the holidays are a chance to show them they’re valued. Give members early access to holiday releases and gift packs a week or two before everyone else, and let them use their member pricing on gifts for friends and family. Members often buy gifts in bigger quantities than other customers, so a smooth member experience pays off.

A few ideas that work well:

A members-only holiday release or gift pack they can’t get anywhere else.
Loyalty points redeemed against holiday purchases, as a simple thank-you.
A members’ holiday pickup party, where they collect their orders, taste the new release and bring a friend who might join.

Check the timing of your regular club shipment, too. If a club release lands in November or December, plan it alongside your holiday offers, so members aren’t hit with a club charge and a holiday promotion in the same week.

7. Email with a plan

Holiday inboxes are crowded, so each email needs one clear purpose. Plan a short series instead of sending something whenever you remember:

Late October: early-bird offer for members.
Early November: gift guide, organized by budget or by who the gift is for.
Early November: corporate gifting email to business customers.
A few days before each cut-off: shipping reminders.
Final week: last-minute gift cards.
January: a thank-you, with an invitation to visit or join the club.

Send each email to the right segment. Members, recent buyers, corporate customers and people who haven’t bought in a year all need different messages. Keep subject lines specific (“Order by December 15 for holiday delivery” beats “Holiday news”), and put the most important link near the top.

After each send, check opens and clicks, and use what you learn for the next one. If the gift guide got plenty of clicks but few sales, the products were right but the shop may need work.

A holiday sales timeline

When	Task
Early October	Plan offers, gift packs and promo codes; order gift boxes and packaging
Mid October	Build the holiday shop section; set up gift cards and codes
Late October	Members’ early-access email and holiday release
Early November	Gift guide email; corporate gifting outreach
Late November	Biggest promotion week; stock check on best sellers
Early December	Shipping cut-off reminders by zone
Mid December	Last-minute gift cards email; pickup reminders
January	Review results; note what sold and what to change next year

Holiday mistakes to avoid

Starting in December. By then, many buyers have already chosen their gifts.
One big discount for everyone. Targeted offers for members, first-time buyers and corporate clients protect your margin.
Unclear shipping cut-offs. Late orders that miss the holidays become complaints and refunds.
Gift cards that only work in one place. A card bought online should be redeemable in person, and the other way round.
No plan for January. Gift-card recipients and first-time buyers are your best leads for club sign-ups in the new year.

Holiday sales FAQs

When should we launch holiday offers?

Members’ early access in late October, wider offers in November, and gift-card pushes in the final two weeks before the holidays.

Are gift cards really worth promoting?

Yes. They’re easy to sell, need no shipping, and bring new customers through your door when they’re redeemed.

How do we handle corporate gifting?

Give corporate buyers a dedicated contact, a simple order form or shop link, and clear deadlines. Large orders need more lead time for packing and shipping.

After the holidays: keep the new customers

The holiday rush brings in people who have never bought from you before: gift recipients, corporate contacts and first-time online buyers. Don’t let them disappear in January. Send gift-card recipients a friendly reminder of what they can buy and an invitation to visit. Thank first-time online buyers with a club invitation or a spring release preview. Ask corporate buyers when they’d like to start planning next year’s gifts. A short, well-timed January email often turns a one-time holiday purchase into a regular customer.

How QUALO helps

QUALO sells electronic gift cards in person and online, with a recipient and message, redeemable anywhere you sell. Promo codes support dates, minimum quantities and eligibility, and branded shops can have holiday sections, maximum order quantities and separate shop links for corporate orders. Shipping rates follow each customer’s zone, members get their pricing and loyalty points online, and the built-in email designer tracks opens and clicks.

See E-commerce & Reservations · Book a demo

← Older Post