2025 Holiday Season: How to Boost Your Sales with Multilingual Content Strategy?

The holiday season is already here. Shoppers worldwide are hunting for the perfect gifts, comparing products across borders, and prioritizing value over basic price cuts. This season offers tremendous revenue potential (but only for brands that understand their customers’ behaviors and build strategies around them).

Data Speaks Volumes: 2025 Holiday Shopping Trends

With cross-border shopping on the rise and buyers discovering products through diverse channels, revenue opportunities are there, but so are the challenges. Brands are expected to expand their global reach and implement high-ROI activities to capture global buyers in the peak season. That’s why we are here to break down seven practical steps to build a multilingual content strategy that actually converts.

1. Choose the Right Target Market

Understanding where holiday shoppers are most active determines which languages are worth your language localization investment. According to BCG’s Black Friday Consumer Study, some countries show higher purchase intent during the end-of-year sales events:

Source: BCG Black Friday Consumer Study, October 2025

But shopping intent alone isn’t enough. You also need to identify whether or not your product is popular (or best-selling) among customers in the region you intend to target. In their 2025 E-commerce trends report, DHL reveals how global shoppers shop online and where products are the most popular globally and in Europe. Here are some examples:

Source: DHL 2025 E-commerce trends report

Action point: Focus on high-intent markets with demand for your product category for maximum ROI.

1. Localize your Branding

When KFC entered China, its slogan “Finger-lickin’ good” was mistranslated as “Eat your fingers off.” Not exactly appetizing for Chinese consumers. Fortunately, KFC recovered by working with local experts to refine their messaging.

Holiday localization is about adapting your brand interactions (content, visuals, messaging, etc.) to align with the cultural sensitivities of your target market. For instance, Christmas is celebrated globally, but its meaning shifts. In Catholic countries like Spain, feature the Nativity scene and use emotional hooks like ‘togetherness’ in your campaign. While in South Korea where Christmas centers on gift-giving among young people, use contemporary Christmas designs and exclusive deals.

Action point: Partner with native teams who understand local nuances. They will ensure your message is culturally appropriate and resonates authentically.

2. Make Sure They Find You: Multilingual SEO – and GEO!

You can’t sell to global customers if they can’t find you. To ensure visibility, adapt your website to local search behaviors and make sure you rank on the dominant search engines of your target region (e.g., Baidu in China or Naver in South Korea). Product titles and descriptions need localization too, as item names may vary across dialects.

For 2025–2026, optimize for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Since more consumers use GenAI for shopping research, your content must be helpful and authoritative enough to be cited by LLMs like ChatGPT or Gemini.

Action points: – Conduct local keyword research for each target market.

– Implement technical SEO tags (hreflang) so Google serves users the correct language version.

– Create FAQ sections that solve local pain points to increase the chances of being picked up by AI summaries.

3. Create a Relevant User Experience

A CSA Research study found that 76% of online shoppers prefer buying in their native language. Translating your website allows customers to focus on ticking off their holiday shopping lists instead of struggling to process information. In addition to translating your webpages, ensure your UI/UX is intuitive and culturally adapted to reduce bounce rates and increase conversions.

Action points: – Use clear, culturally relevant visuals in your multilingual webpages.

– Localize your checkout process (e.g., currency, payment methods and shipping information).

– Add local customer reviews to build trust and credibility.

4. Make Sure to Find Them: Regional Channels and Influencers

Meeting customers where they scroll amplifies your content results. A “one-size-fits-all” strategy fails because consumption habits vary: while Instagram dominates in the West, Chinese consumers lean on social commerce, and Dutch shoppers may prefer Bol over Amazon. Partnering with local influencers is also effective, as they deeply understand their followers’ preferences and can create content that resonates with them.

Action points: – Match your marketing channel to local consumption habits (e.g., Instagram, TikTok).

– Collaborate with local influencers who drive your customers’ buying decisions.

5. Close Deals Seamlessly: Payment and Shipping

Now you have convinced customers to buy, yet the cart is abandoned at checkout, usually due to payment or shipping friction. Payment preferences vary globally; while credit cards dominate the US, mobile wallets rule in China, and cash-on-delivery remains vital in other places. If the checkout experience feels “foreign” or legally risky, trust disappears – and so does the sale.

Action points: – Display prices in the local currency.

– Integrate preferred local payment gateways aligned with local banking systems.

– Clearly list shipping options and tax details in the local language.

– Offer fast delivery and easy returns to minimize hesitation.

6. Create a Return Path: Aftersales Services and Customer Retention

Your relationship with customers shouldn’t end at checkout. To turn holiday shoppers into year-round buyers, your aftersales experience must be linguistically seamless. Translate your returns portal and FAQs. If 24/7 multilingual staff isn’t feasible, use high-quality, AI-driven chatbots trained on your accurately localized knowledge base to handle Tier 1 queries. Re-engage buyers with retargeting campaigns offering related products or special discounts.

Action points:

– Create specialized, multilingual support flows for common holiday issues (e.g., returns and shipping delays).

– Reward repeat buyers with personalized loyalty perks to drive long-term value.

Conclusion:

These seven steps are your roadmap to a successful multilingual content strategy. Don’t leave money on the table; start localizing your content today to capture your share of the global shopping market. Our team at Jensen Localization is ready to help you adapt your content to the European market. Contact us today for an expert linguistic consultancy that strengthens your global marketing efforts!