Beat the Rush: How Retailers Can Master Peak Season with Proactive Digital Strategies

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Guest article | Celeste McCormick, Senior Account Manager & John Waltmann, Industry Manager – Retail, Google New Zealand

Friends of RX, Celeste and John from Google NZ know what it takes to help retailers show up and stand out when it matters most.

With peak season fast approaching, they unpack how to turn search trends, AI tools, and omnichannel strategy into real results, before the rush hits. If you’re planning to win Q4, start here.

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The retail calendar's peak seasons, from October’s Labour Weekend through to the frenzy of Black Friday and Christmas, represent an immense opportunity. However it is essential that retailers plan ahead to realise the potential. July might feel ‘early’, but the time to lay the groundwork for success is now, with strategic, early preparation fuelled by digital marketing effectiveness, smart automation, and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving consumer journey.

AI is reshaping the shopping experience, helping retailers deliver more personalised recommendations, predictive insights, and seamless transactions. For years to come, we will see technologies create even more assistive, intuitive, and connected shopping experiences. 

Start Now to Navigate The Shifting Sands of Shopper Behaviour

We already know that the days of linear marketing funnels are no more with consumers navigating a complex digital environment, seamlessly moving across searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping. This fluidity means their buying decisions are less predictable, making early engagement crucial. 

Consumers are often researching and shortlisting long before they’re ready to purchase. By starting your campaign planning and build now, you can capture attention during these earlier stages. For Kiwi retailers, this means leveraging the winter months to build anticipation and brand affinity, ensuring your brand is top-of-mind when the holiday season and summer shopping sprees kick in. Another advantage to the early start is the opportunity to thoroughly test creative, audience segments, and bidding strategies, so that you can fine-tune your approach for maximum impact when it matters most.

Leveraging Search Trends To Understand Consumer Intent

Search Trends, and the insights they provide, are one of the most powerful tools at a retailer's disposal. Google's deep understanding of how people make buying decisions, offers a unique vantage point into emerging consumer intent. By analysing past peak season data and current trending searches, you can anticipate what shoppers will be looking for and when.

For example, are searches for "winter jackets" tapering off, while "spring fashion" or "outdoor gear" searches are on the rise? Are people researching specific product categories more intensely this year compared to last? Understanding these subtle shifts allow you to tailor your inventory, promotional offers, and crucially, your marketing messages. This trend-driven strategy ensures your campaigns are hyper-relevant and meet consumers exactly where they are in their shopping journey, rather than just guessing.

Maximising AI for Smarter Targeting and ROI

AI powered advertising tools are now being designed to foresee future opportunities by providing deeper insights and measurement that can help steer future strategy.

For peak season, embracing AI-driven tools like Performance Max and smart bidding is no longer optional – it’s a competitive advantage. These tools automate the optimisation of your campaigns across all Google channels, from Search and YouTube to Display and Gmail. They leverage AI to find your most valuable customers, deliver hyper-relevant ads, and optimise bids in real-time to maximise conversions. This frees up your marketing team to focus on strategic insights and creative development, rather than manual adjustments. Imagine the impact of AI dynamically showcasing your products in search results, guiding complex purchase decisions, and driving higher quality website traffic precisely when consumer interest is highest.

Weaving a Seamless Shopping Tapestry with Omnichannel Consistency

In a world where consumers seamlessly move across searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping, you need to show up everywhere people are, from discovery to decision. Omnichannel consistency isn't just about having an online store and a physical one; it's about aligning your messaging, promotions, and brand experience across every touchpoint. A shopper can discover a product while watching YouTube Shorts and buy it without ever leaving the app, or dive into Search to research, compare deals on Google Shopping, then purchase through a retailer based on what’s in-stock at nearby stores.

During peak season, this means ensuring that your online promotions are mirrored in-store, your customer service channels are integrated, and your brand voice is consistent whether a customer is browsing your website, walking into your physical shop or watching a YouTube review. Consider using local inventory ads to drive foot traffic to your stores by showing nearby shoppers exactly what’s available, and tap into Youtube creators who are today’s tastemakers. Consumers are 98% more likely to trust recommendations from YouTube creators than from influencers on other platforms.

Another way to turn intent into action is through visual search, which is transforming how brands engage shoppers. Interactive and immersive discovery through Lens, which is Google’s fastest growing search method,  with over 20 billion monthly visual searches, and 1 in 4 Lens searches carry commercial intent. It turns inspiration into instant purchasing power. Brands embracing visual search are already capturing this high-intent demand — and seeing results.

Measurement and Attribution = The Blueprint for Future Success

Finally, no peak season strategy is complete without robust measurement and attribution in place. Knowing what’s working and what’s not, in real-time, is essential for optimising your campaigns and ensuring a strong ROI. So, to take full advantage of AI innovations, start with high quality data before the rush. Ensure your analytics are meticulously set up, your conversion tracking is accurate and you have clear KPIs defined.

This allows you to not only measure the immediate impact of your peak season efforts but also to gain valuable insights that will inform your strategies for the next major shopping event. Understanding the true customer journey – from initial search to final purchase – enables you to attribute success accurately and allocate your marketing budget more effectively.

AI thrives on structured, accurate information. Your product feed powers visibility and performance across Google and YouTube, so maintaining real-time pricing, deals, images, and videos isn’t just best practice — it’s a competitive advantage. Tools like Merchant Center can help you do this, ensuring that AI-powered solutions work even harder for your brand. Those who also refine their product data and preempt intent as part of their marketing strategy will set the standard, drive momentum, and define the next era of retail. 

The Time is Now

Retailers who want to thrive during the upcoming peak season should act now. With AI reshaping how brands connect with shoppers, while driving value for their businesses across creative, media, and measurement. Marketers who embrace it — using tools like Search Trends, Lens, Google Shopping, and ad products like Performance Max and Demand Gen — will be set up for success. We recommend early planning, embracing the power of AI-driven automation and meticulously measuring performance to set yourself up for success during the busiest time of the retail year.