For all the features listed in this guide, check your plan for availability.

Ready to outsmart the holiday rush? Use this guide and check out the webinar replay to tap into the full power of your Retail POS. Boost your team performance, delight shoppers, and simplify your workflows during the busiest sales season.

Get your catalog holiday-ready

A well-curated catalog is your first step to inspiring shoppers and making gifting easy. Let's make sure your products are exciting, relevant, and ready for the holidays.

Create holiday bundles with composite products

Bundles increase average order value and offer convenient, gift-ready options for busy shoppers.

How? Go to Catalog > Products > Add Product and select Composite product. Add your best-sellers to create an irresistible gift set.

Learn more about composite products.

Promote gift cards front and center

Gift cards are a win-win: they’re a stress-free gift for shoppers and drive future sales for you. Plus, 74% of recipients spend more than the card's value.¹

How? Navigate to Catalog > Gift cards to set up physical or digital gift cards for in-store and online sales.

Learn more about gift cards.

¹Fiserv. (n.d.) Gift cards solutions for small business. Retrieved October 26, 2023.

Source new products with NuORDER

Quickly fill inventory gaps or find exciting new products from over 4,000 brands, with purchase orders from NuORDER syncing directly to your POS.

How? Explore the NuORDER Marketplace to discover new brands and see what’s trending with Order Trends.

Plan and prepare for peak demand

Don't let guesswork run your holiday strategy. Improve operational efficiency with your Retail POS and get your team ready for the rush.

Track performance real-time

Use built-in inventory and sales reports to get detailed insights into key performance metrics and make data-driven business decisions.

Suggested reports to use:

• Inventory performance report
• Dusty inventory report
• Sell-through report
• Recently out of stock report

Forecast demand with Lightspeed Insights

Want fewer stockouts and dead stock? Use Lightspeed Insights’ demand forecasting tool to predict how much stock you need and what to order (and when) based on past sales data.

How? Go to the Replenishment tab of the Inventory Report, adjust the Date range and Forecast period you want to forecast, and review the Forecasted Demand and Suggested Order Quantity for each SKU.

Learn more about demand forecasting.

Simplify ordering with PO Sync

Create purchase orders (POs) from NuORDER brands straight from your Retail POS, and automatically sync product details. This helps minimize errors and eliminate hours of manual data entry.

How? Activate the NuORDER and Retail POS sync to place order replenishments within your Retail POS platform in one click.

Learn more about the PO sync.

Track cost of goods sold to protect margins

Hidden costs like shipping and duties can eat into your profits. Distribute additional procurement costs to your products’ average cost to accurately track your cost of goods sold.

How? In Inventory > Stock control > Orders, select the relevant PO, enter the shipping and duty fees, and choose how to distribute the costs across your products.

Learn more about managing landed costs.

Enhance your in-store shopping experience

A smooth, enjoyable experience turns holiday browsers into happy buyers. Here’s how to handle the traffic and create memorable holiday shopping experiences:

Train your team with Lightspeed Academy

A well-trained staff delivers five-star service. Onboard seasonal hires quickly and refresh your team’s knowledge with our free training platform.

Visit the Lightspeed Academy.

Bust lines with Lightspeed Scanner

Long lines and slow service are a sales killer. Let your team check out customers anywhere on the shop floor.

How? Associates can scan items, build carts, and process payments on the spot using their own phone devices. This also allows for inventory lookups without ever leaving the customer's side.

Learn more about selling with Lightspeed Scanner and download the app for iPhone or Android (some features in beta).

Never miss a sale with Offline Payments

Internet outage? No problem. With Lightspeed Payments, you can continue processing payments securely even when your connection drops.

How? Enable Offline Mode in your Lightspeed Payments settings to ensure your operations never stop. Only available with the Smart Terminal (WisePOS E).

Learn more about offline mode.

Boost your online presence to drive foot traffic

Make it easy for holiday shoppers to find, browse, and buy from you online and in-store.

Showcase your product catalog online, without selling

Not planning to sell online but want to boost your online presence? Create a beautiful website that showcases your catalog in a few clicks with AI Showroom.

How? In Retail POS, go to Online > click Get AI Showroom.

Learn more about AI Showroom.

Elevate your online store using AI

If you have Lightspeed eCom (E-Series), improve the design and browsing experience of your online store to boost conversions. You can now create custom website sections using our new AI autodesign functionality.

How? When creating a custom section, select the option to generate the section using AI. Then, simply describe what you want or upload an image for inspiration, and the AI-powered tool generates a custom-coded section in minutes.

Learn more about customizing your site with AI.

Additional eCom tips

Simple improvements can go a long way in making the holiday online shopping experience as easy and intuitive as possible, and increase conversion rates.

How?

• Create holiday online-specific categories like “Gifts under 20$”.
• Use filters to help shoppers find what they need.
• Add related product recommendations on product pages to improve upsell opportunities.
• Show product reviews to increase customer trust.

Delight customers with a customer-centric sales and post-purchase experience

The experience doesn't end at checkout. A seamless post-purchase process builds trust and turns one-time shoppers into lifelong customers.

Offer Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS)

Give customers the convenience of online shopping with the instant gratification of in-store pickup. You save on shipping, and they save on wait times.

How? In your Retail POS, go to Online > Settings > Shipping & Pickup, add Self Pickup as an option and use the date and time picker to let customers choose their arrival.

Learn more about Managing BOPIS orders.

Keep orders organized with packing slips

Packing slips help your team stay organized and reduce mix-ups during peak volume. They make order fulfillment faster and easier; no more guessing what goes in each bag.

How? Print packing slips directly from your Retail POS for each order, and add them to every package or pickup bag as you prepare.

Learn more about managing online fulfillment.

Don’t let returns hurt your bottom-line

A flexible, yet clear, return policy not only builds trust and boosts conversion rates², but it also ensures your operations run smoothly.

How?

• Extend your return window for the holidays and clearly communicate your policy.
• Accept in-store returns for online orders to cut return costs and drive foot traffic.
• Offer store credit or exchanges as alternatives to refunds to keep revenue in your business.

²: ReturnBear. (n.d.). Flexible return policies: How to increase sales and customer loyalty. Retrieved May 21, 2024.

Drive sales with a winning holiday marketing strategy

Cut through the holiday noise with a smart, stress-free, data-driven marketing campaign that gets results.

Mine your data to build targeted campaigns

Leverage sales data to identify trends and know where to focus your marketing efforts to maximize ROI.

How?

• Use your sell-through report to spotlight bestselling products in your campaigns.
• Drill down into your dusty inventory to find products that haven’t sold well and create steep discounts to move that stock.

Plan and schedule promotions in advance

Set up discounts and offers ahead of time to reduce stress during the holiday rush and ensure your promotions run smoothly without last-minute hiccups.

How? Navigate to Catalog > Promotions to set up promotions and automate your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to start and end automatically.

• Set up basic promotions.
• Set up tiered promotions.

Want to run promotions both in-store and online (E-Series)? Activate Sync promotions with eCom to manage promotions in one place and maintain consistent pricing in-store and online. Learn more.

Optimize SEO to be found online

Shoppers can’t buy from you if they can’t find you. Optimize your SEO strategy to ensure your website appears in search results without shoppers having to dig.

How?

• Update product titles, descriptions, and meta tags with popular, seasonal keywords (think "holiday gifts", "Black Friday deals", etc.).
• Create collection pages for holiday categories to capture more traffic and help visitors browse easily.

Leverage organic social media to build buzz

Engage your loyal followers and spread the word about your deals without additional cost.

How?

• Run contests and giveaways to engage shoppers.
• Share gift guides, user-generated content, and behind-the-scenes clips.
• Use social media scheduling tools to keep your presence consistent and timely.

Always ensure contests and giveaways comply with all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations, as well as the promotional guidelines of each social media platform.

Maximize reach with paid ads

Target new customers and get in front of ready-to-buy shoppers who might not know about your store yet.

How? Try local search ads on Google Maps or Waze to appear when shoppers are searching products like yours.

Spread the word to your audience

Engage your existing audience and let them know about your deals and offers.

How? Use Lightspeed Advanced Marketing to create and schedule email and SMS campaigns that are tailored to your customers' needs.

Learn more about Lightspeed Advanced Marketing.

Automate your email campaigns

Save hours of work while nurturing customers, even during the busiest days.

How? Use pre-built templates in Lightspeed Advanced Marketing to create and schedule campaigns ahead of time.

Learn more about creating email campaigns.

Segment your audience and personalize emails

Generic emails get ignored. Send the right message to the right person to boost engagement and make your customers feel valued.

How? With Lightspeed Advanced Marketing, you can segment customers by purchase history or loyalty status. Plus, send personalized product recommendations to boost conversions.

Learn more about personalizing your campaigns. 

Build loyalty with every purchase

A strong loyalty program encourages repeat business and increases customer lifetime value.

How? Go to Setup > Loyalty and enable Lightspeed’s built-in Loyalty program to let customers earn rewards with every purchase, and turn these seasonal shoppers into year-round customers.

Learn more about Lightspeed Loyalty.

Disclaimer: Lightspeed does not guarantee specific outcomes or financial results.