← The Product Boss with Jacqueline Snyder
The Product Boss with Jacqueline Snyder
720. 2025 Holiday Sales Strategy: Dos and Don’ts for Etsy, Shopify, Wholesale & Market Sellers
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Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into a successful business, and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Oh my goodness. Friends, if you are anything like me, you probably spend more time running errands than running your business. Am I right? Like, everything needs something, we gotta run around. And I knew that this was like a major issue for me back in the day, which is why I decided to get help where I could. And I decided to let Instacart handle all of my grocery shopping. So I no longer had to worry about running all the errands and having to run out and get more alm milk for my lattes. Rather, I was like, you know what, we're just gonna let Instacart handle that. So I want you to imagine skipping the store and getting back to designing packaging, orders, making, or maybe actually taking a break, even a nap. Remember those? Okay, so with Instacart, you can get groceries and essentials delivered in as fast as an hour so you can focus on growing your business without sacrificing a meal. Plus, less stress and more focus. And here's a tip. I've actually used Instacart before to order gifts from my daughter's friend's birthday parties because I haven't had time to run out and get presents. And I've been able to get the packaging like the gift bag and the gift gift, like hello Sephora, delivered to my house while I was in the middle of coaching sessions so that I could have the present right. It's like having a personal assistant without having a personal assistant. So if you want to do what I do and get the help where you can, you can try it. Now, if you head to the productboss, dot Com Instacart. Hey, hey, product bosses. Okay, really, really quick. Are you spending more time making all your products or maybe packaging your boxes and actually growing your business? I know. Okay, so if you've ever wished that someone would just tell you exactly what works when it comes to scaling your product brand into real money, right, like the good profit and making sales and growing this business that I know you've dreamed of, then I have something really special for you. I pulled together a special bundle of our top podcast episodes that every product based business needs to hear. So think of this as your shortcut straight to the strategies that help you grow your sales, build a brand that lasts and avoid that burnout that no one is actually talking about. Enough. So we're talking mindset shifts and marketing strategies and those behind the scenes lessons. And yes, you're going to have some quick action plans and strategies that we're going to share in here as well. So it is my top episodes playlist and it's totally free. We just wanted to gather it up so you didn't have to scroll through hundreds of episodes and think, what do I want to listen to? Right? Let's make it easy. So all you have to do is head to www.theproductboss.com top or click the link in the show notes, pop in your email. I'll send over those exact episodes that have helped thousands of product based business owners like you move from the hustle to sold out. Right? I want you to go from where you are to getting you seen and sold. And that's all going to happen with this compilation of episodes for you. I just want to make it super easy. So let's start building your business with clarity, strategy, ease and freedom. Welcome back to the Product Boss podcast. It's Jacqueline here and if you're anything like me, you're probably feeling that mix of excitement and pressure as we step into Q4. Now, we know that the holidays are the biggest opportunity for, you know, product based businesses like artists, makers, manufacturers, people who source products, people who are making food products or beverages, right? It is the busiest time of year and it is the biggest opportunity of the year for product based business owners. Now listen, I remember my first year is running holiday sales and I remember staying up late. In fact, we had some major press hit during the holiday season. And I remember like I was getting like 10, 20, 30 sales, like a day, like it was just like cha ching, cha ching, cha Ching. And I had so many orders to like make and then ship out that I put all of my product, like my sewn cuffs, my like charms and things like that, my packing labels, my boxes, everything that I needed in the back of the car. And I remember making that at my in laws house and then shipping from their tiny little FedEx shop that was across the street, right? So I've literally done it where like it has exploded and I've had to take all of my stuff with me. I was like so grateful that my stuff was so small when I was making it and I stayed up late and of course I was second guessing everything I was doing from am I marketing enough? Am I selling enough? You know, am I in the right places? Are my customers even going to be there? I'm going to set up for this booth. Is it going to work right? Are my offers going to be good enough? Am I even going to sell anything? Black Friday Cyber Monday and I was always feeling like I was scrambling at the last minute because I hadn't planned it all out. So here's what I learned. Holiday success, right? It doesn't come from doing more, it doesn't come from creating more. It certainly doesn't come from following every trend you see online. It comes from focusing on the right things, right? Like when can you find the easy button, not taking the easy way out, but like when you start to find the right things to focus on and you avoid the traps. So many other shop owners, product based business owners, makers, artists, manufacturers, people in the fashion industry, they all fall into, right? We don't want to fall in that trap. So in today's episode we're going to talk about 2025 holiday sales strategies, okay? And we're going to talk all about the do's and the don'ts. And we're going to cover this for Etsy sellers and Shopify and wholesale and market sellers, E comm, whatever you do, we're going to cover this for you. Because listen, if you're selling on Etsy, maybe Shopify or your own E comm platform, you're selling wholesale to boutiques, maybe you're in person markets this whole season. What I really want to deliver to you in this episode is a roadmap for what to do and just as importantly, what not to do. So you can go into the season feeling confident and feeling prepared and totally ready to sell out. So here's the truth. You ready for it? Too many small businesses either scramble too late, copy what they think everyone else is going to do or are doing, or they're making costly mistakes that leave money on the table and What I'll see is they'll launch, you know, all these new products in November. They're going to rely on social posts to drive the sales. They're like, oh, I'm just going to post more on social. And they might even think, like, I'm either going to discount or I'm not going to. Going into discount this holiday season. You're not even sure, like, should I do it? Am I going to train my customers to be like, into discounts? I'm not going to do it. Can I even afford a discount? What discount would I give? I tried a discount last year and it didn't work, right? Like, all of these things that are either going to, like, wipe out your profit or your ability to have or make your first $10,000 or maybe have your first $10,000 a month or like, I've seen so many of my students have a $10,000 day, right? Maybe even a $10,000 hour. Some of you out there like, yep, that was me. So what would be possible if you could figure this out, right, so that you could have these, like, beautiful 10k days, these 10k months, and you could do that without feeling burnt out, without feeling overwhelmed. Right? And I know that what we want to do is we just don't want to scramble late. We don't want to, like, get caught in that travel, like, oh, no, where am I? So if this sounds familiar, I've been there and I know that's I'm creating this episode. I don't want that for you. So this holiday season isn't the time to reinvent your business. It's actually the time to harvest. So what does that mean? So if you think about it, you've been planting seeds all year. You've been showing up at markets, you've been building your E comm shop, maybe you're adding products to Etsy, maybe you've been testing wholesale. But Q4 is when you double down on what's already working. It's not when you start from scratch, right? We're not just like, it's hard to just kind of like bloom out of nowhere. It's like all the work you've been doing, whether you've been developing your product, you're getting ready for a new product, like everything we've done. And the thing is, is that I don't know if you realize you have so much history behind you, you have so much data to pull from, but what I want you to know is that the businesses that win aren't necessarily the biggest companies. They're not the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones with that feel, the most prepared and they're the most focused. They're just going in with a plan, they're working against a plan and with a strategy. So let's talk about some do's and don'ts for the holiday sales for 2025. All right? Do number one, lead with your best sellers. Listen, customers want clarity, right? They want to know what they should buy. If you've ever gone to a restaurant and it's a brand new restaurant and the waiter comes over and they're like, can I help you? Do you have any questions? You're like, yeah, what do you recommend? Right. You've never been there before. You want to know? Oh. And they'll be like, oh, well, I love if it's like, you know, a French winner, I love this. And you know, or someone else is like, oh, I don't know why I said French, because as I said it, it sounded like a French waiter should say it. But it's like, I love this, or the customers love that, or like, wow, this is one of the most popular dishes on the menu, right? That is a bestseller. So customers want to know, and, you know, when it does really well, you can sell more of them, right? Why does the chocolate chip cookie win everywhere? It's the best seller. Like, people will always have that thing that, you know, so if you make really, really, really good chocolate chip cookies, you want to take those really, really good chocolate chip cookies and put them somewhere else, right? Like, let more people know about it versus, like, being like, you know what? I'm going to invent a lemon cookie and see if these people like that. There's too many variables. So when you get that clarity and your customers get that clarity, you can start to spotlight hero products or what you want to sell or the offers you're creating, right? And then when you know what your customers want, you can create promotions that help sell them. And not only help sell them, they get. They make it really easy for people to say yes, right? Can you create gift sets around them, bundles around them? And it's not just the kind of bundle that you're thinking, I'll just throw these things together and they're going to want it. Because I've seen plenty of my students and clients that have had really hard holiday seasons. And then they come work with me and we're talking about it and they're like, you know, I did a bundle last year. I did a bath bomb and a body lotion. And a hand soap. And I'm like, okay, but let's look at the sales data that you have and see what the bundle should actually be versus what you think it needs to be, right? So when you know what customers are going to buy, it's very easy for them to say yes. So here's another. Do I want you to plan your promotions early? Okay, this is do number two, plan your promotions early. What does that mean? That means you are already thinking about it right now in September or hopefully you're listening to this earlier in Q4. That it's this idea of what do you want to sell, right? That goes back to do number one, deleting with your bestsellers or what you're known for. You are creating offers around them. So now that you know what you're going to sell, you need to start thinking like, well, how am I going to sell it? How am I going to get people to say yes, right? And customers were shopping earlier every year. Like, you know this, you've been in stores and there's. We're not at Christmas just yet, but Halloween's been full blown since June, right? I don't want you to wait for Black Friday. What would it look like if you were to know what you were going to sell, what offers you going to create and what promotions you were going to build? Now, whether it was free shipping or gift with purchase, limited editions and knowing can you do it? Can you be profitable when you, when you do offer these promotions, can you hit your goals? Do you have the traffic or visibility of the eyes coming in to know you actually exist? Right? Like if you're promoting to no one, you're going to sell to no one. So we have to make sure that we're doing the work now so that when we are putting our promotions out there, there's people who see them, right? So you really get to decide not only what the promotions are gonna be, but starting to think like, well, how do I get in front of people, right? How do I get seen so I can sell more? All right, do number three, optimize your, your online storefront. So what does that mean? That means humans are impatient. Online holiday shoppers are impatient. You need your storefronts to be mobile friendly, easy checkouts, places that people can convert. Easy. And if you're like, what does convert mean? Cause I've gotten that question a few times. What? When a customer is standing in front of you in a way to check out, you know, they're on your website, they're in front of you on in person, they're scrolling a site, whatever it is, first we need to get them to add to cart, pick up the product, put it in their cart, and then the second thing we need them to do is actually go to purchase, click it and like the transaction goes through. But so many times we're like, well we have traffic, people are landing on the side, I'm just not making sales. We have to make sure wherever you are selling online that in three seconds your ideal customer can land there. They'll know I belong or I don't belong. And then it'll be so easy to convince them with this user experience to get them to check out. Right. So that is what conversion is. And we need to make sure that whether you're selling on Etsy, whether you're selling on your own website, whether you're sending out land sheets for wholesale retailers, whether you've got product listings, whatever it is, those have to be optimized so that people online know in three seconds that they want to be there, they want to keep looking, they want to buy from you, they want to add to cart, they want to convert. Hey friends. Okay, so I don't know if you're anything like me, but sometimes it feels like my self care routine is slipping through the cracks. Because when I'm juggling and wearing all the hats in my business and doing all the things, I mean the last thing I have to do is like really fulfill that self care routine that my daughter's talking about. She's like, mom. So listen, so when it comes to running a successful business, you can't really pour from an empty cup. And a lot of times that self care is like one of the first things to get yourself recalibrated. So that's why I want you to meet Glossy. Now Glossy is my favorite daily beauty supplement designed to transform your skin and gut health from the inside out. And I'm actually an investor in this business because I so believe in this idea of science backed ingredients for digestion and skin hydration. And Glossy makes it really easy to look and feel your best without that whole 10 step routine in the mirror. The thing I don't actually have time for, all I have to do is simply mix a stick into my water and I'm good to go. So if you want to try this because I so believe in this business, I think it's amazing. It's done so many wonders for my skin and my gut, which are two things that I need help with. And you want to simplify your wellness and Your beauty. All you have to do is click in the show notes and you can use the code Jaclyn Snyder. So it's my full name. Use the code Jacqueline Snyder, and I'm hooking you up with 15% off your order. So cheers to glowing skin and a thriving business. Okay, do number four. This is one of my favorites, opa, right? You get to use other people's audiences. So what does that mean? Well, my story is when I launched Cuffs Couture, which is sort of around this time of year, I had launched my own website to crickets. No one knew it existed. How would they? They were never searching wearable wrist wallets. So no sales. Built a site, no sales. And I was like, this is nuts. How am I ever gonna get people to know I exist? So then I decided, well, I need to get to where my customers are. So I went to a local market in Los Angeles and I sold right at an in person market. And that's because the market I picked to go to was going to have my ideal customer avatar sitting there, walking around the stores, like, walking around the shops. Young people, fashionable people, LA people. People who would wear what I had to sell. So I used this in person market's audience, not mine, theirs, to bring people in front of my products so that I could convert, so that I could sell. So not only did in person, which was using other people's audiences, start to make sales for me, start to drive traffic back to my website because I knew how to email them and market to them, right? Not only that, I thought, okay, well, now that this is working, where else are my ideal customer avatars hanging out? And I was like, oh, they're shopping at all these stores, all these boutiques. Well, then what would it look like if I tried to sell wholesale so that retail stores are also responsible for their own marketing, also responsible for their own customers. So they will bring the customers to me, right? I just have to sell to the retail store and customers will discover me in those shops. And that's exactly how Kim Kardashian and Carrie Underwood discovered my products, like, literally bought from me. And it wasn't a thing where I gifted it. It was a real discovery in a retail shop that I have a photos of those of you who come to the Rock youk Holiday promotions challenge. I will share with you some of those photos if you've never seen them. So with that said, this idea of other people's audiences, where else can you do it? Well, I did it in person. I did a wholesale, and guess what? Boutiques are needing to stock up. They're also getting busy. They want to sell and are you selling to them early enough and in a way that's not fair, where they're looking for you versus well, where they're just looking for something random versus you getting in front of them. Okay. Other people's audiences also go with, you know, thinking about Amazon, right? That's a platform 1 in 4 households or Amazon prime, whether you're thinking of in person markets like I did, and then you can have your own website like I did too. But how do we start to leverage our reach through selling to other people. And instead of like exhausting ourself thinking, we just need to make more content for social. Right. Okay, do number five. I want you to keep a simple marketing rhythm. What does that mean? Well, that means email is your mvp, your most valuable player. You must be building your email list and sending emails. And I highly recommend at least weekly and in the season, right? You must have followed someone on Instagram once and never found them again because there's no way to search that. You have to save them or forward it somewhere for you able to find that one post that you remember somewhere some time ago. Okay, Email, though, you are landing in their inbox. They're either deleting you or opening you, right? You're landing in their inbox. They're seeing your subject line, they're seeing your name. So this is the thing that's going to be like a billboard that operates in, in your inbox. And what can you send, right? People are like, well, okay, I can grow my list, but what am I even going to send them? You can send them gift guides under 50 roundups of like what you sell. Last chance to ship on time for the holidays. Reminders, right? There's so many things that you get to do in your marketing. And when I say marketing, it's not solely I'm going to post on social media. Marketing is visibility in an active and a passive way. Active is creating things like social, for example, like developing your own audience. Passive is when you're sending emails or maybe influencers are talking about your product, right? But we need to get seen by other people. We need to get more eyes on our business. And then we need to have a rhythm of marketing to them. And when you know what you're going to promote, right? When you build your promotions for the holidays, when you know what you're going to do, when are you going to send those emails, what does the rhythm look like? When are you going to Run your promotions. When do they start, when do they finish, what's good enough, what needs to change? And then can you build a plan that you know the entire month of November you've got marketing for every single week? You know what your promotions are, you know what your Black Friday Cyber Monday promotions are, right? That's how you're gonna have that incredible feeling at the end of the year where you're making more sales, you're making money and you're like, oh, I feel so strategized. I feel so planned. Okay, so the thing is, is nothing's gonna beat systems and repetition and plans and knowing how you know nothing's gonna beat that. You don't need to be scattered and in chaos. Like, you get to make that plan. You get to figure out what, what promotions you're going to promote, when you're going to do it, when you're going to sell it, and have that plan that you get to just go, okay, press go. Let's go. All right, so now let's flip it. Okay. You want to move to the don'ts? Well, the don'ts are. One is I don't launch too many new products. Oh my goodness. I know some of you are like, but I have so many ideas. Or you make one of something only and so you have like all these one of a kinds or one offs or, or unique items. And then there's those people who are sourcing. I just talked to a client this morning who has 120 SKUs and realized the top 10 to 20 are the ones that actually sell. So it's not about more, more, more. It's about really connecting between the customer and the product and why the customer need, wants and desires the product in the season. So more skus are just going to lead to more overwhelm for everything for you. So stick to what sells, niche down, narrow down. Right. And add only if that is what gets to happen. And so my students, the people who come through the Rocker holiday promotions challenge and those of you who move on into the sales accelerator and all the other places that we've worked together, what my students know is you're going to ask this question, well, am I just doing one thing? One necklace, one candle, one T shirt? No. But let's put it this way. If you're known for T shirts and sweatshirts, you don't necessarily need to then also be making jewelry and keychains and dish towels, Right? If you're known for sweatshirts and T shirts, stick to that. If you are a jewelry brand, which means you got earrings and necklaces and rings and all the things. You might just have a ratio of. You're really known for your bracelets. So you might have a ratio that it's like 40% of your collection is more bracelets. And then you know your second best selling style is earrings, and they're like, great. Then you know, 20% is earrings, and then maybe it's 10% or necklaces and 10% are toe rings. Right? So the idea there is that I'm not saying you only need one product, but I want you to be known for something. To have collections, I think people have to scroll pages and pages and pages through. They're never going to get to the third page. Okay, don't. Number two, don't wait until November to start. I know, but don't do it. All right? You're hearing this now. It is now. Is now. So don't wait until November. Wholesale buyers are still buying. They're going to be buying up until like mid October. Customers are shopping earlier and earlier and earlier. You just need to market to them so they know what you have to sell. If you wait to plan to create your promotions to start going to know what your offers are, if you wait, you are going to miss it. So let's not miss it, okay? That's why you're listening right now. Okay, don't. Number three, don't rely only on social media. Sounds like Oprah, right? Posting isn't a strategy. I mean, it is a strategy, but posting just to post, to post or scrolling and consuming, it's not a strategy. When you're pairing it, though, as a marketing strategy with email and thinking about collaborations and newsletters or working with influencers. Right. Or launches into stores or the seasonal change, and you're talking about posting and social, then you're starting to build a strategy. They're all working together. Okay? So don't rely fully on social. And like I said, you can do this with other people's audiences. All right, don't. Number four, don't over discount and then don't not discount. Right. Double negative there. Because when you over discount, meaning, like, you're trying to be really, really, really competitive, you're gonna kind of erode your profits. And when I say that, I mean, some people can do 70% off, right? 20% off is not enough. 70% off. Some people can do it. But, like, are we giving a good discount? 40% feels pretty good. Extra promotional offers, which we're gonna talk about in the challenge, or we're Going to dig deep into what those things could be. Those are the things that are going to move people. Right? And so the other thing is that some people are like, I'm not going to participate at all. Well, your customers are not buying full price during that season either. So you got to play in the same playground where it's like, all right, they're going to wait to buy your stuff till later unless it's something so coveted that you can't get. And they're always going to pay full price for it. It's really not going to be a time that you can't offer some version of a promotion. And it doesn't always have to be discount based. And that's. We're going to dig into. Okay. My don't. Number five, forget about operations. So what does that mean? It means do you have your product descriptions and your website ready? Do you have great product photos? If you're selling wholesale, do you have line sheets created? All of my people who sell on marketplaces, like, again, it goes back to photos, product descriptions, knowing who your ideal customer avatar is, what they're looking for, right? And then also pricing. Are you pricing correctly? Are you going to make some good money this season? Right. Are you going to take home a good margin? And then we also make sure we're all stocked up. Want to make sure we have the inventory and we have a plan. So here's your action step this week, okay? Action step number one is I want you to pick three of the dues you're going to commit to and write them down. Okay? Then just as important, I want you to pick one don't. That you're going to let go of this year. And so sometimes like the most powerful shift, that isn't what you add, it's actually what you're gonna stop doing. It's what you're gonna start believing that feels so opposite to what you think, you know? But it. How's it working so far? Right? So like, maybe it's time to think of something else. So I want you to think holiday success comes from focus and strategy, not frenzy. Okay? That's your, like, mantra for the week. So I hope this episode was really helpful for you. So I want you to imagine this for a second, okay? I want you to imagine how powerful it will be when we get to work together in a group and actually map out your holiday promotions. How cool would that be if we could sit down together? So, my friends, that's exactly what we're going to do. Inside the Rock youk Holiday promotions challenge. So it's a challenge we run every single year. It's going to be updated this year. So all of my friends that are listening that have done in the past, come do it. Let's do it together. Let's build our promotions together. And then you get to kind of go through the new challenge, the updated challenge. Okay, so it's totally free. We're doing this one for free. Five days, and it's an experience. We're gonna walk you through how to rock your holidays, right? How to have, like I said, your hit your first $10,000 or have a $10,000 month or have a $10,000 day or a $10,000 hour. Right? How do we get you to make a hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars or beyond? Well, it starts with these planning experiences. It starts with not going through this alone. It starts with doing it early. So we're starting really, really soon. And I would love for you to join us inside. So all you have to do is head to rockyourholidaypromotions.com to join. But I also just included the link in the show notes. So just scroll to the notes and click there and register. It's free. And what I really love, though, I'm going to tell you this because it's five days. We're live together. But here's what's really cool. You, there's a limited amount number of you are going to be able to register to become a VIP member of the rock your holiday promotions challenge. And so what does that mean? That means you get some extra cool bonuses, like a Black Friday kit to support you through it and AI marketing prompts to, like, help you build this. Right? I'm going to help you build an AI. We're going to implement it together. An AI chatbot. Not only that, you're going to get to ask me questions like live every day for an hour, every single day. Five hours of coaching, where a group of my VIP students are going to join me once a day, and I'm going to answer questions and get you unstuck and move you through it. Okay, so very limited spots for vip, but you'll see that in there. So when you're doing it for the free challenge, you might say, huh? I really want to get feedback from Jacqueline. I really want to be in community. I really want to ask questions. Come join that with me. Okay. Super, super awesome. Oh, my God, it's going to be so good. My vipers, like, I get to know them so well that by the end of the week. We're like, yeah, look at all we've created. All right, my friends. So, as always, this season, I'm going to be talking about Q4, the holidays, what to do, what not to do, ways to grow, amazing strategies. And so stick with me, Next week's going to be a good one. I will see you then.