Festive season is around the corner, and the most challenging times for ecommerce brands as well. The battle to win on the digital shelf and ultimately the conversion is real.
It’s that time of the year when traffic is peaking on ecommerce platforms because of festive sales like Big Billion Days, Great Indian Festival, etc. The consumer intent is high and willing to spend during this time
According to a RedSeer report, festive season sales accounted for $9.2 billion in revenue in 2021 alone.
Moreover, according to a report by KPMG India, the festive season generates up to 30-40% of annual retail sales.
But with this surge in opportunity comes a sharp rise in complexity – more competition, fluctuating prices, last-minute stockouts, unpredictable consumer behavior, and an overwhelming amount of data scattered across platforms.
However, amid the chaos of flash sales, ad campaigns, and instant demands, brands can’t afford to rely on guesswork or delayed reporting.
And here’s the harsh truth: every missed keyword, every out-of-stock product, every ranking position lost gives an edge to your competitor who is doing all the above.
That’s why leveraging a real-time ecommerce analytics solution isn’t just helpful; it’s essential. To win sales, and more customers during this festive season, brands must operate with complete clarity on what’s working, what’s not, and what needs immediate action. Because in a market where every second counts, only those who can see and act faster will own the digital shelf.
In this article, we will talk about the challenges ecommerce brands face during mega sale campaigns/festive season sales and what ecommerce brands should focus on during peak times.
Challenges Ecommerce Brands Face During Festive Season Sales
It’s easy to be caught up in dashboards, creatives, and campaign calendars. But if you zoom in, there are deeper challenges that affect outcomes throughout the process, and many ecommerce teams miss them until it’s too late.
1. Limited Visibility into SKU Performance
Even the best-selling products can lose sales if they’re not consistently available or properly listed across platforms. During the high traffic periods – availability is opportunity. If your shoppers are exploring and don’t find your product on the digital shelf, they will move to the next best option. And for you, it’s just a lost opportunity. While being present is important, it is also essential to do a continuous scan to avoid out-of-stock situations and not appearing for the competitive keywords.
These blind spots are often only caught when it’s too late. Without real-time visibility into SKU-level performance insights, brands risk losing high-intent buyers in the most critical hours.
2. Inconsistent Product Details on Various Platforms
You’ve invested in driving traffic, but if your product page has low-resolution images, outdated specs, or a missing description, it directly impacts consumer behavior, their decision making and kills conversion.
The complexity of this challenge is that ecommerce platforms often display different versions of your product content, especially when multiple sellers are involved. This inconsistency across PDPs not only looks unprofessional but can also lead to poor SEO rankings and reduced shelf visibility, costing you valuable clicks.
3. Price Undercutting and Discount Violations
Everyone wants to be the cheapest during a sale, and sometimes resellers/competitors take that a little too far. Unauthorized discounting or MAP violations often go unchecked during peak periods.
While this might spike short-term sales for violators, it damages your brand’s perceived value, confuses customers, and disrupts your pricing strategy and even campaigns running for particular products.
4. Delayed Response to Competitor Actions
During the festive season you might also see a lot of new competitors emerging with aggressive pricing plays, and flash campaigns. And if your team isn’t tracking these shifts of pricing in real time, your brand risks falling behind.
Knowing who’s gaining visibility, what keywords they’re winning on, and how they’re bundling or discounting helps you respond quickly and protect your share of shelf and avoid loss of revenue.
5. Disconnected Media and Shelf Performance
Running ad campaigns and making sure they are working in your favor are two different things. Many ecommerce teams measure clicks and impressions but fail to link them to what matters: improved product rank, better keyword positioning, and higher conversions.
If your ad budget isn’t moving the needle on your shelf presence, it’s time to question where and how you’re spending. Media and shelf performance must be aligned for your campaigns to deliver real ROI.
6. Struggling to Stay Discoverable in Crowded Search Results
Discoverability is the first touchpoint to even be considered. However, with hundreds of brands competing for the same keywords, simply being listed on a platform doesn’t guarantee visibility. Festive sales demand aggressive yet mindful keyword bidding, and organic placements become harder to maintain.
If your product isn’t ranking on the first few scrolls, you’re invisible to most shoppers. And the worst part is you might be bidding on the wrong keywords or missing out on search trends altogether.
7. Poor Product Availability During Peak Times
It’s frustrating when your campaigns are performing well, but the product isn’t available in key regions or goes out of stock right in the middle of a peak day. Stock availability across SKUs, platforms, and cities can make or break festive performance.
Consumers don’t wait; they simply move to the next best option. Without proactive availability tracking and alerts, brands risk losing sales not because of strategy, but because of a lack of visibility into inventory gaps.
Here’s How Leveraging Ecommerce Analytics Solution Helps You Take Back Control
To thrive during high demand periods like festive season sales ecommerce brands need more than dashboards, they need real-time, platform-specific, SKU-level intelligence that turns complexity into clarity, and data into actionable insights.
This is exactly where our ecommerce intelligence solution – mScanIt helps. It is an AI powered analytics tool that empowers ecommerce, media, and content teams with real-time, granular, and actionable insights, so you can make smarter decisions, faster.
Here’s how mScanIt helps you overcome the festive season chaos and take control of your performance:
Track Product Discoverability and Share of Shelf in Real Time
One of the biggest risks during mega campaign sales is losing visibility just when customers are most active. By tracking share of shelf, keyword rankings, and placement across search and category pages, teams can identify which SKUs are slipping and which keywords need attention by:
- Monitoring organic and sponsored placements across platforms
- Identifying underperforming keywords or bid opportunities
- Comparing visibility trends with competing brands
This helps ensure high-priority products remain easy to discover throughout the campaign.
Monitor Pricing and Discounting Trends Across Platforms
Price competitiveness can shift hourly during peak sale days. By analyzing pricing and discounting trends, both for your own listings and competitor SKUs, teams can make more informed pricing decisions without compromising margins.
- Track average selling prices (ASPs) and discounts effectively
- Detect pricing or MAP violations to counter back within time
- Understand category-wide pricing benchmarks across platforms
This enables more confident and dynamic pricing responses based on market conditions.
Maintain Stock Availability and Minimize Out-of-Stock Losses
A product going out of stock at the wrong moment can mean lost visibility, missed revenue, and lower Buy Box win rates. Availability insights help monitor OOS trends and assess stock readiness by SKU, platform, and location.
- View platform-wise availability status across SKUs
- Identify regions with stock gaps or frequent out of stock patterns
- Monitor Buy Box win percentages in relation to stock
Teams can use this data to coordinate supply chain efforts and avoid gaps during critical traffic spikes.
Audit and Improve Product Content for Higher Conversion
Product detail pages that are incomplete can hurt both visibility and conversion rates. A content analysis tool evaluates listing quality against platform guidelines and benchmarks.
- Review image quality, title structure, keyword usage, and SEO elements
- Identify missing attributes or weak PDP elements
- Benchmark against competitor listings in the same category
This helps ensure every product page is optimized for search ranking and shopper experience.
Track New Competitors and Campaign Trends
Festive sales often bring aggressive promotions and new competitors to the market. Tools that monitor emerging competitors, banners, and keyword movement can help brands stay aware of changing dynamics.
- Identify new brands entering your category
- Monitor changes in sponsored ad placements and messaging
- Analyze banner placements and themes by competitor
This insight supports more timely campaign adjustments and messaging strategy.
Evaluate SKU Health and Sales Readiness
Not all SKUs perform equally under pressure. Evaluating SKU performance based on content quality, availability, reviews, and discoverability can help prioritize which products should receive campaign support.
- Rate SKUs on visibility, listing quality, and content score
- Understand which SKUs are trending, underperforming, or at risk
- Align promotions with actual product performance
This enables more focused and data-backed SKU prioritization.
Understand Sales Trends and What’s Driving Performance
Post-campaign or even mid-campaign, understanding what’s driving sales and what’s not is key to reallocating budgets or optimizing strategy. Sales analysis connects data points like pricing, availability, sentiment, and rankings to actual sales outcomes.
- Track sales trends by product, platform, or time period
- Identify correlations between performance indicators and revenue
- Compare own KPIs against market benchmarks
This helps teams pinpoint which levers are driving results and where course correction is needed.
Together, these capabilities offer ecommerce teams a clearer, more connected view of their digital shelf performance. With mScanIt, brands can move beyond fragmented reporting and manual guesswork, gaining real-time, actionable insights that support faster decisions, better coordination, and more effective execution across platforms for managing ecommerce performance with precision during the moments that matter most.
Conclusion: This Festive Season, Let Data Lead the Way
Winning the digital shelf during festive sales isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what matters, faster and with clarity based on data. With mScanIt, you gain the visibility and insights to act on what truly drives conversions.
Ready to turn festive chaos into clear, data-led execution?
Connect with our experts and explore how mScanIt can elevate your ecommerce performance.
