The holiday season is here — and with it comes the year's most important sales period. Retail businesses face a real challenge: not just attracting shoppers, but turning their interest into high-value purchases, all while meeting the expectations of budget-conscious consumers.
As your strategic partner, ESTO knows the best marketing moves don't just announce products — they give the customer a way to buy. Here are four essential, high-impact marketing actions your business can put to work right away with ESTO's solutions, to make this holiday season your most profitable one yet.
Action 1: Drive loyalty with holiday newsletters
Your customer base is your most valuable asset, and the holidays are the perfect time to activate it. Instead of sending generic discounts, send newsletters that highlight the financial ease of buying with you.
Strategy: use your email lists to specifically feature high-value, gift-worthy products alongside a clear benefit from ESTO's flexible payment options.
- Highlight affordability: feature tempting products (like premium items) with a simple graphic showing the payment structure using ESTO 3 (e.g., "Get [product] from just X € a month!"). This immediately removes the upfront price barrier.
- Targeted financing: clearly mark that expensive items can be bought via hire purchase with ESTO. This targets customers planning big purchases and looking for a long-term budget solution — that kind of information turns "maybe" into "yes."
Impact: this action turns existing customers into higher-value buyers, giving them the confidence and financial means to buy luxury gifts.
Action 2: Boost visibility with targeted promotions on ESTO Deals
In a crowded, competitive holiday market, visibility is critical. You need a way to cut through the noise and reach consumers actively looking for valuable, special offers.
Strategy: use the ESTO Deals platform to put your best products directly in front of a highly engaged audience — existing ESTO users across the Baltics.
- An exclusive benefit: create a promotion just for ESTO users (e.g., "An extra 10 % off when you pay with ESTO 3"). That gives customers a clear reason to choose your store over a competitor's.
- Gift bundles: use ESTO Deals to promote themed gift bundles (e.g., "The perfect winter adventure kit") and prominently show the instalment payment option. That encourages a higher average cart value.
- Synergy between physical and online stores: promote your offers through ESTO Deals, clearly stating that flexible payment options are available both online and in your physical stores. That drives high-intent traffic to all of your sales channels.
Impact: this action immediately puts your brand in front of thousands of active shoppers with known purchasing power — generating visible traffic and sales that would otherwise have gone to competitors.
Action 3: Eliminate last-minute hesitation in store — train cashiers effectively and use POS bonuses
Even with great online marketing, many purchases are ultimately decided in the store, at the till. That moment often determines whether a sale succeeds or fails — because of last-minute doubts about the final price.
Strategy: train your checkout staff (and your online payment page) to strategically present flexible payment options, to secure the sale and increase basket value.
- Strengthen your POS: make sure your physical store's checkout system is tightly integrated and prominently displays the ESTO option. Logo visibility alone acts as a silent salesperson.
- Empower cashiers: focus on cashier training (as mentioned in earlier communications). Train staff not just on how to process an ESTO payment, but when and how to present it effectively (e.g., "This item is perfect! We can get it to you today — for just X euros a month with ESTO"). We can also organize training sessions for your staff!
- Reward success: use a POS bonus program to directly reward the store and cashiers for every successful "buy now, pay later" transaction. Bonuses turn your checkout team into highly motivated salespeople focused on driving higher-value, financed purchases.
Impact: this action significantly reduces last-minute abandonment at the till (retail's biggest headache) and uses human interaction to successfully sell higher-priced products — securing maximum revenue from every customer who walks into the store.
Action 4: "Upgrade the gift" social campaign
Instead of promoting a single product, build a campaign that communicates the idea of upgrading a standard gift into something more luxurious — made possible only by the way you pay.
- Strategy: run short, punchy social ads (e.g., on Meta / TikTok) with a direct, humorous comparison between the "Small gift" (e.g., a basic device) and the "BIG gift" (e.g., its top-tier version). The ad copy should focus on affordability. Sample ad copy: "Don't settle for standard! Get a luxury [product name] for just X € a month with ESTO hire purchase. Buy BIG, pay small."
- Sample ad copy: "Don't settle for standard! Get a luxury [product name] for just X € a month with ESTO hire purchase. Buy BIG, pay small."
- The ESTO angle: encourages using hire purchase for high average-order-value (AOV) items, positioning ESTO as the way to make dream-gift ideas happen.
- Impact: directly removes budget constraints and encourages consumers to click through and discover financed, high-value purchases.
Action 5: "Cart booster" — the pop-up offer
Apply this to customers who already qualify for financing but haven't used their full purchasing potential yet.
- Strategy: implement a smart, non-intrusive pop-up or banner on the payment or product page that appears when a customer adds an item over a certain price threshold (e.g., 100 €) to their cart. Pop-up message: "You already qualify for ESTO 3! Add [an accessory / extra item] and still pay in three interest-free instalments. Get more value!"
- Pop-up message: "You already qualify for ESTO 3! Add [an accessory / extra item] and still pay in three interest-free instalments. Get more value!"
- The ESTO angle: highlights ESTO 3's flexibility, encouraging customers to add accessories or extra items — directly increasing total order value without changing the number of instalments.
- Impact: reduces decision fatigue at checkout and actively increases average order value (AOV) by encouraging impulse purchases on top of an existing payment plan.
Action 6: "Last-chance flexibility" — abandoned-cart email automation
Revisit your standard abandoned-cart email — instead of leading with price or affordability, highlight payment flexibility.
- Strategy: build a dedicated abandoned-cart automation for customers who didn't purchase items above the ESTO 3 or hire purchase threshold. The email should show the abandoned item with a label displaying a low monthly price. Email subject line: "Still thinking about it? Get it from just X € a month with ESTO."
- Email subject line: "Still thinking about it? Get it from just X € a month with ESTO."
- The ESTO angle: uses a personalized payment breakdown (monthly or in three instalments) as the key recovery driver, directly addressing financial hesitation.
- Impact: delivers a significantly better purchase outcome, because it offers exactly the tool ("buy now, pay later") the customer was missing to complete the purchase.
Action 7: "Top-item financing" landing page — (a focus on data-driven offers)
Focus all your effort on a handful of your best-selling holiday-season items — simplifying the customer's choice.
- Strategy: build a separate, extremely simple landing page showing only your top 5–10 holiday-season items. For each item, ESTO's payment options (e.g., "Pay 49 €/month with hire purchase" or "3 instalments of 70 € with ESTO 3") should be highlighted more prominently than the full price.
- The ESTO angle: use specific ESTO data (hire purchase and ESTO 3) as the main selling point, driving traffic to a high-conversion page specifically built to overcome price hesitation.
- Impact: marketing spend is concentrated on the items most likely to be bought, and the main conversion tool ("buy now, pay later") becomes the first thing the customer sees.
Ready to make this holiday season your most successful one?
By putting all — or even just a few — of these strategic marketing actions into practice, you stop relying on the budgets customers already have and start making their wish lists come true.
Get in touch with ESTO today to make sure your systems are fully optimized and your teams are ready to make the most of every holiday sale!