Researchers predict AI to power holiday shopping 

Now is when prominent consumer research firms start reporting their holiday shopping season predictions and AI-assisted online shopping* is topping every list of holiday retail trends this year. 

AI tools are starting to do the work of finding, comparing and even buying products for people. If your website isn’t built in a way that these tools can understand, your products might get skipped over - even if they’re great.

Elavon Global Head of Innovation Veronica Correa Janssen offers some tips on helping your online store get noticed. “Instead of designing your website just for people to read and browse, you now need to make sure machines like AI shopping bots, AI voice assistants and search engines can understand and use the information too,” said Janssen. 

For example, use:

• Structured data: Organize product info in a clear and consistent format (like filling out a spreadsheet with specific columns for price, size, availability, etc.).
• Real-time inventory feeds: Keep product availability updated automatically so machines know what’s in stock.
• APIs: These are like bridges that let other systems (like shopping apps or AI assistants) pull your product info directly.
• Standardized attributes: Use consistent labels and formats (e.g., always call it “Color” not “Shade” or “Hue”) so machines don’t get confused.

Read what else the leading research firms are saying to expect from upcoming holiday sales:

• Holiday retail sales are expected to increase by 2.9% to 3.4% and total $1.61 trillion to $1.62 trillion, according to Deloitte’s 2025 holiday forecast: Holiday Outlook 2025: PwC* 
• Concerned about inflation and looking for value, U.S. consumers are changing their shopping habits this holiday season: Holiday shopping 2025: US consumers hunt for early deals | McKinsey* 

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Order gift cards now for November delivery

Feature gift cards prominently where your customers pay

Businesses should place orders to restock their gift card supply right away. Don’t miss these deadlines that apply to standard and custom orders and include a two-day shipping delivery timeframe and take into consideration holidays and UPS delivery schedules.

Every order during this time period is considered a rush order, so production schedules cannot be modified.

See what Mastercard Economics Institute* is saying about gift card purchases this holiday season. 

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Peak season power plays: 4 reports to keep you ahead 

Data-driven decisions to keep the momentum 

Many small businesses are only a month away from entering their busiest season of the year. When keeping up with demand means all-hands-on-deck, back-office activities can slide. Tapping into reports should not be one of them. 

Real-time data and analytics enable a business to monitor performance and make data-driven decisions so they can keep any momentum they’ve built during the peak season.

Payments Insider is the account management portal available to all Elavon customers. 

Four reports businesses should check frequently
While Payments Insider offers a variety of reports, businesses pressed for time should prioritize reviewing these four key reports daily. Doing so ensures alignment with performance metrics and supports smarter decision-making for the days ahead.

• Sales Report: Displays authorized transactions that were processed and settled. This report includes information regarding transactions such as invoice numbers, time the cardholder was charged and filterable data views. 
• Authorizations Report: Shows transactions that have been authorized or declined. This report includes details such as why a transaction might have been declined, authorization code for approved transactions, and a way to track that the card payment was successfully submitted for processing.
• Downgrades Report: Displays transactions that didn't qualify for the best interchange or acceptance rate. Downgrades result from actions that increase the fees the business is charged, primarily through the card network costs, for actions the business did or did not take – many of which can be promptly rectified so fees don’t eat away at their hard-earned profit. 
• Fraud Advice Report: Displays any Fraud Advice messages so they can act on them before they become impactful to the business.

Reports can be customized by date range and criteria and can be bookmarked for quick access. Not yet signed up for Payments Insider? It takes only a moment.

By the way, another reason to regularly log in to Payments Insider is to see the latest savings and offers available to you.

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Downgrades: Don't let 'busy' cost you 

When an employee bypasses the prompt to enter a postal code for a customer’s electronic credit card payment, it costs the businesses.

Card networks view card payments settled without an associated postal code as a greater processing risk and apply a more expensive interchange category (downgrade) to the transaction. 

Collecting the postal code when prompted allows the card network to verify that the cardholder’s address and postal code match their records, reducing the risk of payment fraud.

On average, downgrades can cost a business 0.5% or higher in interchange fees. Card networks also add additional assessment fees for downgrades, further increasing overall costs. Common reasons for skipping a postal code include employees eventually figuring out that the transaction will authorize and settle without it and it’s one less question to ask the customer. 

Another common slip when business operations get busy is delaying the settlement of electronic payments. These delays can increase the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive cardholder data, potentially leading to downgrades. To avoid this, consider enabling the auto-settle feature on your payment device – it’s a simple way to keep settlements off your daily task list.

You can avoid these downgrades by:

1. Making postal code entry a routine business practice. 
2. Training employees to understand the reason why collecting a postal code is important.
3. Settling electronic payments within 24 hours. 

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