Enterprise Retail’s Holiday Wish List: Sales, Loyalty, and Operational Resilience

The busiest shopping season of the year is rapidly approaching. While shoppers are just starting to think about the perfect gifts and how to grab a bargain during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), retailers are one step ahead.

Large-scale retail businesses with complex operations and unified channels, are already polishing up their vast inventory, customer data, and operational processes to stay efficient, and ensure their brand and sales shine during the holiday season. 

Retailers are kicking off their promotions earlier this year, turning 2025 into what many are calling “Black November.” Shoppers eager to lock in the best deals aren’t waiting for the big weekend, they’re buying as soon as the discounts drop. That means traffic and sales spikes could hit weeks ahead of schedule, with some brands seeing a large chunk of their holiday revenue come in before BFCM even begins.

• Revenue growth at scale
  BFCM and the holiday period can generate 30–50% of a retailer’s annual revenue. To capture this, they’re focusing on promotional mechanics, strategic bundling, and digital campaigns designed to boost conversion without eroding margins.
  
• Customer acquisition and retention
  Holiday traffic surges can lift site visits by 200–300%. But the real opportunity lies in retention. Turning one-time buyers into repeat customers through personalised offers, loyalty programs, and targeted post-purchase engagement.
  
• Operational efficiency and resilience
  During BFCM, daily order volumes can rise 5–10x above average. Great for sales results but a real challenge for back-office systems.  Without real-time inventory visibility, cross-system interoperability, and automation, weak points in supply chains and fulfilment networks are quickly exposed.
  
• Brand equity and differentiation Amid intense competition, brands that stand out can see 30% higher engagement rates through immersive storytelling, curated drops, and experiential campaigns that extend the customer relationship beyond Q4.

The bigger the retailer, the higher the bar. During BFCM, customers will demand seamless journeys from discovery to delivery. With so much competitive choice, few will tolerate glitches, delays, or poor experiences when alternatives are just a click away. 

To keep pace, omni-channel retailers must operate with precision: personalised promotions, fast and reliable digital storefronts, real-time stock visibility, automated customer journeys, and resilient supply chains that ensure timely fulfilment. 

To truly stand out, top brands need to go further, offering compelling experiences such as limited-edition drops, sustainable campaigns, or immersive in-store activations that create lasting loyalty.

To deliver all of this when traffic and transactions are skyrocketing requires a well-oiled and optimised tech stack.  While the spotlight is often on the customer-facing experience, the real test happens behind the scenes. 

Yet two in three retail retail tech leaders say that peak season exposes cracks in their integrations. Under high volume pressure, manual fixes and brittle legacy connections between systems can fail. 

Operations inevitably suffer, leaving retailers asking: “Can systems handle surges in orders? Is inventory syncing across all sales channels? Will fulfilment partners keep up without delays?” If the answers are uncertain, it’s likely to undermine your plans and lead to frustrated customers, missed revenue, and a dent in your brand reputation not to mention your revenue figures.

This is where an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) like Patchworks becomes essential. By connecting commerce platforms, ERPs, WMS, and marketing tools, iPaaS ensures that your retail operations run as one cohesive system, no matter how high the load.

Instead of scrambling when demand spikes, you can:

• automate workflows to eliminate manual errors
• keep stock levels accurate across every channel
• guarantee orders flow smoothly from cart to customer
• free up teams to focus on customer experience—not firefighting

When integrations are strong, the busiest shopping days become opportunities, not obstacles.

During BFCM 2024, Patchworks handled a 310% increase in operations vs the previous year.  Customers reported strong performance.  

For example, Castore said they had zero issues during Black Friday, and Bollin Group was able to manage complex bespoke ERP architecture across multiple brands without interruption.

Enterprise retailers may wish for higher sales, happier customers, and stronger brand presence but none of that is possible without a reliable operational foundation. 

With Patchworks iPaaS, you can step into the holiday season confident that your systems won’t just keep up, they’ll drive growth.

Want your holiday wish list to come true?

Find out how Patchworks iPaaS helps you turn BFCM pressure into performance