Despite the current COVID-19 health crisis, research shows just 63% of US consumers moved their shopping online, while the rest still prefer brick-and-mortar shops. And for retailers who look forward to the holiday season for a much-needed revenue boost, a joyful and eye-catching Christmas display will convince more shoppers to buy from their store.
With this in mind, we’ve pulled together 25 creative Christmas display ideas to dress up both your brick-and-mortar and online stores. We also share quick and easy tips to help you build the perfect display this holiday season. May your holidays be filled with peace and joy—and may the register bell ring brightly!
Here are 25 of the most creative Christmas display ideas you can try in your store.
Christmas Window Display Ideas
According to a survey by Vistaprint, small businesses spend an average of $347 for their Christmas window displays. While some businesses might have bigger budgets, the ability to connect with passing shoppers is what will ultimately determine your holiday sales success.
1. Digital Christmas Window Display
This digital display from Ted Baker’s London store seems like a simple strategy compared to other creative Christmas window displays out there. Adorned with Christmas garlands and lights, it completes the perfect festive look that lets you showcase ads to attract shoppers passing by.
Quick Tip: Consider using digital displays. Not only are they visually attractive, but they are also easy to repurpose for any occasion. Furthermore, the influx of shoppers during the holiday rush can be overwhelming even with the best POS system in your store. Digital in-store displays help in reducing shopping fatigue and stress brought about by waiting in long lines at the cash register.
2. Chalk Paint Christmas Window Display
A small stationery store in Brussels opted for a simple Christmas display using chalk paint to add a wreath design to a see-through shop window. The handwritten text and warm lights inside the store complete the message, inviting shoppers to come inside.
Quick Tip: Consider your location. Knowing what the customer needs is key to making a sale, or in this case, convincing them to come into your store. The owner understands that shoppers would be cold and tired, so using a Christmas window display to draw a crowd with the promise of comfort and warmth is both simple and effective.
3. Frosted Scene Christmas Window Display
Another simple yet creative take on a winter scene with frosted, see-through windows. The designer used the store view as a backdrop to come up with the right colors and accents for an attractive Christmas display.
Quick Tip: Use the store window as your backdrop. Some displays can look deceptively hard or expensive to make, but the natural look of your store from the window can be the base of an elegant design. This featured display can be recreated using felted wool for snowball garlands, cardboard cones, and frosted glass spray paint you can find in any DIY store.
4. Marshmallow Christmas Display
Here’s another interesting Christmas window display idea. Marshmallow garlands are used to create a three-dimensional white background for this store’s front window. The designer then added warm, accent string lights to create a snowing effect.
Quick Tip: Use simple materials. A 3D backdrop is more eye-catching compared to a plain canvas, so be creative. Consider easily accessible items such as egg trays, broken CD pieces, or paper lanterns as alternatives. It will look great on its own or make other colorful elements, such as letter cutouts and products, pop out even more.
In-Store Christmas Display Ideas
Getting customers through the door is just half the battle. A recent consumer study found that people who look for new, unique gifts prefer to shop in person. Combined with cautiousness that comes with uncertainty, this means that business owners will have to put more effort in their in-store Christmas displays to make a sale.
5. Themed In-Store Christmas Display
This brand designed its store around a theme and blended its featured items into the scene. The effects gave the owners an opportunity to display their inventory in mood lighting and background that best compliment the look and design of their products.
Quick Tip: Work on a theme for your window and in-store display. This holiday shopping season, people are eager for a space that is not just safe but also exciting and invites moments of surprise. While doing so, keep in mind that your product should remain the hero, so your overall design is in keeping with an effective point of purchase marketing strategy.
6. Cause-Driven In-Store Christmas Display
Summertown Interiors used 314 plastic bottles to construct their Christmas tree. These were recycled from its September Water Drinking Wellness initiative to “Drink 2L of water a day” to spread awareness about the benefits of drinking enough water.
Quick Tip: Promote a cause that customers will want to support. Understanding the priorities of your community will help you deliver a retail design experience that connects better with the emotional needs of your target customers.
7. Wall Christmas Tree Display
This Christmas tree idea did not come from a retail store but is still share-worthy and perfect for smaller retail shops. It’s a space-saving design where you can set up a Christmas tree on a blank wall if your store is not big enough for centerpiece decor. This is also a budget-friendly alternative to digital displays if you’d rather spend for an upgrade of your cash register to a POS system in time for the holiday shopping rush.
Quick Tip: Remember that less is more. Use color themes close to your wall color, especially if you plan to decorate a blank wall. Also, consider using your white space to draw attention to an important message and express it with your wall Christmas tree. Don’t fill every ounce of space as open spaces will help you draw more attention if you want to feature a product or two.
8. Gift Box Christmas Displays
Media Ace created 1,000 tartan boxes for Ralph Lauren’s in-store Christmas displays. The gift boxes were made in colors that reflect the brand’s theme and were used to give extra dimension and height to their featured product displays.
Quick Tip: Upgrade your POS display. The objective of getting customers into the store is to convince them to buy your products, so point-of-sale displays are a critical factor in their decision making. Use colors and elements that give depth and height to create an attractive display.
9. Floor Decals Christmas Display
Dashing Group included floor decals in its Christmas display design for David Jones Australia. This strategy effectively completed the look of the store’s POS display, giving customers a more rounded visual experience. The font choice and design kept the style of the store’s brand both professional and elegant.
Quick Tip: Do a walk-through. It doesn’t hurt to do a walk-through starting from the entrance, around the aisles, to the checkout counter once you’re done putting up your in-store Christmas displays. Let employees do the same and ask how they felt about the lighting, colors, and other elements as they move around the store. This helps you determine if you need to add more decorations, even them out, or dial back a notch or two.
Online Store Christmas Display Ideas
This year’s holiday shopping might just be the biggest ecommerce event in history. Deloitte’s holiday retail forecast for 2020 expects ecommerce sales to reach anywhere from $182 billion to $196 billion this season. Business owners will have to step up their game and make sure that even the Christmas display for their online store is on point.
10. Classic Christmas Landing Page Display
This coffee shop’s website makes use of a landing page. The scene is a Christmas-themed video background displaying promotions for the holiday season. It also uses sticky headers and a CTA that links to its online store.
Quick Tip: Think of landing pages as your storefront window. Whatever visitors see on your landing page will set the mood and help them decide whether to stay or move to a different website. So, make sure that your images are crisp and that your CTAs are descriptive, clear, and cohesive with the rest of the message on your page.
11. Christmas Banner Display
Loog sells guitars and offers guitar lessons for kids. Aside from regularly updating its photo slides, the website also uses banner headers to advertise events and updates, including holiday sales. For this instance, Loog announces free shipping, which is the most usual concern for those trying to purchase online.
Quick Tip: Use banners to highlight key offers. The use of colors, icons, and fonts ensure visitors will see this announcement as soon as they land on the website. But more than the design, the message is crucial. Include a message that will appeal to visitors and answer concerns that stops them from completing a purchase.
12. Iconic Christmas Display
There are businesses like Coca-Cola that don’t require too much fanfare on its website to announce the holidays. For instance, displaying the iconic Coca-Cola truck is enough to tell visitors that the brand has started their holiday campaign and to expect surprises moving forward.
Quick Tip: Use classic Christmas symbols to announce the holiday season for your store. Sometimes, a picture really is worth more than a thousand words. And when done right, you get a website look that’s clean, classy, and inviting, without the flashing lights and marquee headlines, while still sending a clear message to your visitors.
13. Sneak Peek Christmas Display
Pottery Barn uses its landing page to showcase a teaser of its Christmas collection, complete with an intriguing header and a good-looking photo featuring its products. The image also takes its visitors directly to the section of their website where they can browse Christmas inventory and get more information on sales and promotions.
Quick Tip: Create a large ad for your collection. For online shops that carry a wide variety of inventory, create a segment for your holiday collection and advertise it on your landing page. Make sure that your ad includes a great title and an engaging CTA and that it can redirect your visitors to your Christmas catalog page.
14. 2D Animated Christmas Display
Macy’s has long been promoting a cause to make kids’ wishes come true on Christmas. It included this campaign in its online store with a 2D Christmas display reminiscent of old-school, paper cut-out, classic Christmas designs that connect immediately to one’s childhood. The image is also animated, which only boosts the website’s nostalgic appeal.
Quick Tip: Use images that appeal to your website visitor’s emotion. With all the forced isolation for the sake of health and safety, people are always looking to connect. Images that evoke the right emotion will help motivate shoppers to purchase from your store. Use your business brand to decide the best strategy to connect emotionally with your target customers.
15. Popular Christmas Campaign Slogan
Amazon called its 2018 Christmas sales series “12 Days of Deals,” which is very easy to associate with a popular Christmas carol and thereby, remember. Combined with an eye-catching banner, this Christmas display makes it easy for website visitors to recall and eventually revisit the shop long after they’ve left the website.
Quick Tip: Use familiar Christmas carols on your campaign slogan. Many brands connect their sales series to a familiar Christmas carol because it’s easy to remember. Recall is an important factor to consider because you want to make it easy for shoppers to remember your online store even after they’ve visited other websites.
16. Creative Product Feature Christmas Display
Flowers are not exactly at the top of anyone’s list on Christmas, which is why florists make an extra effort to stay relevant during this holiday season. Designer Blooms’ website took this opportunity to showcase its flowers as ornaments on an elegant Christmas tree. This creative use of product is what made us include the website in our list.
Quick Tip: Explore creative ways to make your product stand out. Use your website landing page to showcase products that may not be the most sought after items during the holiday season. Shoppers are always looking for unique gift ideas, so take this opportunity to showcase out-of-the-box ideas.
17. Christmas Catalogue Display
Neiman Marcus offers an annual catalog for the holiday season: The Christmas Book. Shoppers look forward to this to get the best discounts and prices for quality products, which is why the brand’s website features this on its landing page. Shoppers who eagerly anticipate its release would regularly visit the website and ultimately purchase from there.
Quick Tip: Feature an annual holiday collection. If you are a small retail business owner, consider starting a holiday catalog that you can feature on your online store. Start off small, with a few, well-chosen products. Display a well-designed ad on your landing page to announce the start of the holiday season.
18. Virtual Reality Christmas Display
John Lewis added a 3D virtual tour on its online shop’s landing page. This virtual tour allows shoppers to control, navigate, and have a look at the products displayed in John Lewis’ physical store. Each product available for sale is also interactive, with clickable buttons that display product information.
Quick Tip: Feature an interactive display on your landing page. While there are many tech options available for one’s online store, most of these are included in the product page where it’s more useful. For Christmas displays to be effective, however, they need to be immediately visible. Consider featuring one product on your landing page so your potential customers can have a quick demo on the user experience they can expect from your online store.
Social Media-Based Store Christmas Display Ideas
For a successful holiday season, selling on social media is a must. In fact, 46% of Instagram users who interact with brands on the platform end up visiting the brand’s website and making a purchase. On the other hand, 47% of Pinterest users log on to the site, specifically to shop. Business owners should, therefore, ramp up their Christmas displays on social media to attract more customers.
19. Christmas Countdown Display
This Instagram account used a countdown sticker as a Christmas display. For business accounts that do social selling on Instagram, this feature can also function as a means to announce a sale. Backgrounds can be used to feature your products that go on sale.
Quick Tip: Explore Christmas-themed stickers. Instagram also has other holiday-themed stickers, such as their Instagram Advent Calendar. Use this to promote a sale or event and encourage followers to share your stories. This ensures that your followers get reminders about your event and keep your business top of mind.
20. Christmas Feature Pin Display
Target showcased its limited-edition holiday glamping kit and created a sense of urgency among its Instagram followers. The products were set up to give visitors inspiration and appeal to their fear of missing out on a great buy. While not all of Target’s followers end up buying, most of them found this pin worthy of sharing within their network.
Quick Tip: Feature limited-edition holiday kits. As a predominantly visual platform, Pinterest is the perfect space to showcase your featured products. Match it with a well-written description to captivate your audience and convince them to spend some of their holiday budget in your online store.
21. Christmas Thumbnail Display
During the holiday season, Starbucks’ Facebook page not only curates Christmas-themed posts but also updates the cover page, adds small “Christmas details” on the profile photo, and organizes the displayed thumbnail photos. This ensures a consistent overall look of its Facebook page for page visitors.
Quick Tip: Be consistent with the little details as they count in setting the right tone for your Facebook followers. Organize your thumbnail photos, especially if you’re promoting a series of Christmas sales. Use the pin post feature for major event announcements, and use the cover page to share discount coupons or even countdowns to your major events.
22. Christmas Story Highlights Display
Frank Body added a holiday section on its story highlights where all its stories are organized in a theme. This makes it easy for its followers to keep an eye out for products that the store has offered on discount or special limited bundles just for the holidays. As with its other posts, its holiday stories include information on its products plus CTAs for those who are ready to buy.
Quick Tip: Use story highlights for your Christmas photo collection. Story highlights are very useful for seasonal or on-trend promotions like Christmas holidays. This will make sure that your followers don’t miss out on any products that go on sale. Be creative and use different strategies such as advent calendar series, countdowns, and contests for your followers.
Mobile Store Christmas Display Ideas
According to Statista, mobile ecommerce revenue for 2020 is expected to grow up to $339 billion. Sellers in marketplaces like Amazon should, therefore, make the most out of the app’s Christmas display features in order to maximize revenue share for the holidays. Here are some helpful tools to help you get started.
23. WordPress Theme Christmas Display
This free Christmas store theme is for sellers who use a WordPress website and also want a professional-looking mobile store. It’s fully integrated with WooCommerce plugin and comes with a mobile-ready layout, so your website will work like a store app on a mobile device.
Quick Tip: Click the above link and scan the QR code from your mobile device to try this Christmas theme and see how it will look and feel like for your mobile customers.
24. Christmas Themed Popup Display
Add a Christmas themed pop up for your mobile store to promote your events and special store discounts. You can also add a CTA button to motivate potential customers to make a purchase.
Quick Tip: Hire a freelance designer, or purchase premade pop up apps from developers that support popular marketplaces such as Shopify and Amazon—like SMSBump.
25. Christmas Holiday Effects Display
For Shopify users, you can spruce up your store for the holidays with some quick holiday effects from Shopify’s app store. This includes thematic header/footer imagery, animated elements, cursor icons, and your own images.
Quick Tip: Use of this app is subscription-based and is available on Shopify’s app store for $4.99 per month.
Bottom Line
The holiday season is around the corner, and shoppers are getting ready to cross items off their Christmas list. So whatever the size of your store, brick-and-mortar or online, try out some of our Christmas display ideas to welcome customers with a great, big holiday cheer!
Creating enticing displays is just one step on a long checklist of to-do items to make your store holiday-ready. Here are some more resources to boost your sales this holiday season:
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