Peak Season e-commerce: challenges and best practices to maximise your sales

Every year, the peak season is a strategic period for e-commerce. Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the end-of-year holidays, consumption reaches its peak. For some retailers, these few weeks can account for up to a third of their annual turnover.

But this opportunity comes with many challenges: increased competition, skyrocketing media costs, and higher consumer expectations. In this context, one factor is proving to be decisive: the quality and enrichment of the product feed, the backbone of Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

What is peak season in e-commerce?

Peak season refers to the period of intense commercial activity that begins in October and lasts until Christmas, between sales promotions and calendar and cultural events. Search volumes skyrocket, consumers’ attention is saturated, and brands redouble their efforts to capture every click.

Highlights of the peak season

• French Days d’automne: launched by several major French e-commerce players, this is a national promotional campaign that marks the start of the end-of-year shopping season, similar to Black Friday in the United States.
• Singles’ Day (11 November): long centred on Asia, this event is gaining ground in Europe.
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday: essential for triggering early end-of-year shopping.
• The Christmas period: a pivotal moment when product availability and delivery speed become critical.

These dates are not isolated: they are part of a global trend where consumers are planning their purchases earlier and earlier, while remaining attentive to the latest December promotions.

Why peak season is a crucial period for e-retailers

Fierce competition

During peak season, advertisers massively increase their advertising budgets. As a result, the cost per click (CPC) skyrockets on Google Ads, Meta and other platforms. To stand out, it is no longer enough to run standard campaigns: you need to offer highly relevant and distinctive adverts.

More demanding consumers

Advertising saturation makes buyers volatile. They compare prices in real time, scrutinise product descriptions and look for transparent offers. The slightest friction (poor image quality, incomplete description, incorrect stock information) can lead to immediate abandonment in favour of a better-prepared competitor.

A limited time frame

Unlike other periods of the year, the peak season leaves no room for error. Decisions must be made quickly, adjustments made continuously, and logistics perfectly synchronised with marketing. Every day that is not exploited to the full is a lost opportunity.

The product feed: a strategic performance lever during peak season

At the heart of Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns is the product feed. This feed transmits all the information about your items (titles, descriptions, images, prices, availability) to Google. The more complete, accurate and optimised the feed is, the more relevant and visible your ads will be.

The impact of an enriched feed

An enriched product feed enables you to:

• Improve the relevance of advertisements by incorporating keywords aligned with seasonal searches.
• Capture attention with professional-quality, distinctive images;
• Reassure consumers with reliable data (stock, delivery times, accurate promotions).

During peak season, these details make the difference between an ignored impression and a click that turns into a sale.

AI as a catalyst

Predictive AI technologies are transforming product flow management. They make it possible to anticipate demand, identify high-potential products and reallocate budgets in real time. In a context where trends are changing daily, this ability to adapt instantly is becoming a major competitive advantage.

Better performance measurement

A well-structured feed is not just for distribution. It also makes it easier to track performance: product segmentation, promotion monitoring, return on investment analysis by category. This level of detail allows you to manage your campaigns with greater precision and optimise every pound invested.

How to prepare your product feed for peak season

A high-performance feed cannot be improvised. Here are the fundamentals you need to master in order to approach peak season with confidence:

• Ensure impeccable data quality: no pricing errors, no missing fields, no blurry images.
• Highlight bestsellers: your flagship products should be optimised as a priority, as they will capture the bulk of demand.
• Leverage promotional attributes: specific Google Merchant Centre fields to clearly display discounts and boost appeal.
• Test and adjust continuously: peak season is a busy period, so you need to analyse daily and optimise without delay.

The e-commerce peak season is both an opportunity and a challenge. Purchase volumes are exceptional, but competition is fierce and consumers are more demanding than ever. In this context, product flow is not just a technical element: it becomes a strategic lever for growth.

Enriched, structured and driven by AI, as offered by FeedMax, it enables greater relevance, agility and profitability. For an e-merchant, investing in their product feed as peak season approaches means giving themselves every chance of not only being visible, but above all being chosen.