Convert More Customers This Gifting Season 2026
Gifting season is where good onsite journeys prove their worth – bringing high intent traffic, but often with high abandonment and limited patience from busy shoppers. As we approach some of the most competitive and lucrative dates in the retail calendar, from Valentine’s Day to Mother’s Day*, let’s explore how to use strategic on-site placements to capture high-intent shoppers during this period.
In a recent report, Phoenix Strategy Group marks how the online retail landscape has shifted: “between 2023 and 2025, Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) jumped by 40-60%” for ecommerce brands. This makes a highly effective on site journey more valuable than ever, with over one-third of consumers planning to shop online for gifts leading up to Valentine’s Day.
Brands should aim to create personalised buyer journeys that improve the user experience. intent.ly tech can help elevate every gifting moment by showing smart, data-driven incentives to shoppers; ensuring the right offer reaches the right customer, exactly when it matters most.
Here are four ways to use intent.ly solutions to deliver strategic offers, protect vital margins, and engage the 70% of shoppers who typically abandon their carts.
1. Gamification to Engage & Delight
For seasonal events like Valentine’s Day and Easter, standing out is key. Gamified overlays such as spinning wheels or inviting users to “shoot Cupid’s arrow” to unlock a reward, create more meaningful and memorable connections with users. It’s not just style over substance; research indicates that “gamified campaigns can increase customer engagement by nearly 48%.” – Rhapsody Media. Interactive campaigns add a moment of fun to an otherwise monotonous or stressful shopping journey.
2. Boosting AOV with Upsells & Gifts
Gifting season is the perfect time to recommend complementary products. Hotel Chocolat successfully boosted their Average Order Value (AOV) by implementing an overlay targeting users with basket values under £30, resulting in a 24% conversion rate and a 77% uplift in unit sales of their new alcohol product.
Alternatively, consider an In-page Gift With Purchase campaign. By using a dynamic progress bar to show how close a user is to a spend threshold, you can increase AOV while reducing cart abandonment. Gift With Purchase campaigns are a great way to reward shoppers for increasing spend, without discounting.
3. Preventing Cart Abandonment & Coupon Friction
High cart abandonment remains a major challenge, especially when savvy users leave to look for a discount code. Our Couponlytics data shows that 52% of code attempts are invalid, and only a fraction of those frustrated shoppers will ultimately convert.
By using real-time triggers such as exit intent or dwell time, you can surface the right offers at crucial moments to nudge hesitant buyers toward completion. Control your triggers based on basket value or user behaviour to ensure you are protecting your margins while providing value. For example, prompt high-intent users by triggering a discount campaign on exit intent, only at the checkout page.
Personalised email remarketing campaigns help close the loop by reminding shoppers to return and complete their purchase later too.
4. Driving Urgency with Countdown Timers
To motivate shoppers during a sale period, use countdown timers to create a sense of finality and add time pressure to an expiring offer. When implemented strategically, countdown timers are proven to increase conversions by 10-30%, GrowthSuite.
For an even stronger nudge, use a declining offer – where the discount dynamically decreases by 1% every hour – to generate urgency and encourage action. THG brand, Grow Gorgeous, used this intent.ly strategy to achieve a 34% increase in CVR and their highest number of sales in a single day.
Most successful gifting campaigns aren’t built at the last minute. They’re planned, tested, and optimised well ahead of peak traffic. Ready to dive deeper into these strategies? Contact us to start preparing your next high-performing campaign today.
*In the UK, Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday 15th March 2026. Many other countries celebrate on the second Sunday in May (May 10th 2026) including the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, most of Europe, New Zealand and South Africa.
Patience is intent.ly’s marketing executive, with a passion for creative content marketing and social media strategies.
