The Green Sheet Online Edition
October 12, 2026 • 26:10:01
Street Smarts
Marketing tips for a merrier 2026 holiday season
Every year, someone walks into a store in September or October and asks why the holiday decorations are already out. For merchants—and the ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) supporting them—the answer is increasingly simple: because the holiday shopping season starts earlier than it used to.
And 2026 is shaping up to be another important season for payments professionals. The Mastercard Economics Institute expects U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles and gas, to increase 5.5 percent year over year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, with online sales projected to grow 11 percent. At the same time, artificial intelligence is beginning to influence how consumers discover products, compare prices and choose merchants.
For ISOs and MLSs, that creates an opportunity that goes well beyond processing more transactions. Your customer is the merchant, and your holiday marketing should prove how your payments technology, service and expertise can help that merchant capture more sales and deliver a better customer experience. Here are several ways to get started.
Sell holiday readiness, not just processing
Rather than simply promoting rates or equipment, position your organization around holiday readiness. Consider creating a merchant holiday checkup covering POS hardware, ecommerce checkout, mobile acceptance, digital wallets, gift cards, recurring payments, invoicing, chargebacks and security. Include questions directly related to readiness, such as:
- Are terminals updated?
- Is contactless enabled?
- Can customers move easily between online and physical channels?
There is plenty at stake. During the 2025 holiday season, U.S. consumers spent a record $257.8 billion online, up 6.8 percent year over year. Mobile devices accounted for 56.4 percent of online transactions.
For ISOs and MLSs, the message is clear: helping merchants prepare for holiday volume now can create opportunities for more products and services while strengthening the merchant relationship long after the decorations come down.
Think mobile, digital and omnichannel
Consumers increasingly expect payment acceptance to follow them wherever they choose to shop. That could mean tapping a phone at a physical checkout, purchasing through an app, ordering online for pickup or completing a transaction through a mobile browser. Visa research found that the share of U.S. domestic payment volume occurring online and in-app increased from 48 percent in 2019 to 58 percent in 2026.
Make omnichannel capabilities part of your holiday marketing conversation. Promote digital wallets, contactless acceptance, mobile POS, ecommerce integrations, text-to-pay, online invoicing and other solutions appropriate for the verticals you serve. Most importantly, translate technology into merchant benefits: faster checkout, fewer abandoned carts, more ways to get paid and less friction for customers.
Don't ignore flexible payments
BNPL and other installment options remain part of the holiday payments mix. Adobe reported that BNPL generated $20 billion in online spending during the 2025 holiday season, up 9.8 percent, with smartphones accounting for 82.2 percent of BNPL purchases. That makes flexible payment options worth discussing with merchants selling higher-ticket products and services.
But ISOs should also help merchants understand the bigger picture. The Federal Reserve reported in 2026 that some consumers experience late fees, overdrafts or other difficulties associated with BNPL repayment. Your role should be education rather than simply pushing another payment button. Help merchants evaluate which options fit their customers, transaction sizes and business models.
Add AI to the holiday conversation
One of the biggest changes this year may occur before consumers reach the checkout. AI is rapidly becoming part of product discovery and comparison. Adobe reported that traffic to retail websites from generative AI tools increased 693.4 percent during the 2025 holiday season compared with the prior year.
For payments professionals, this creates a fresh marketing conversation. Encourage merchants to make their websites, product information, pricing and checkout experiences easy to navigate and understand. ISOs can also use AI internally to help segment merchant portfolios, develop vertical-specific campaigns, personalize communications and create educational content more efficiently.
The key is using AI to make merchant communications more relevant, not simply generating more of them.
Make security part of your value proposition
More digital commerce also creates more opportunities for fraud and disputes. Fake storefronts and increasingly sophisticated online scams are challenging the trust consumers place in digital commerce.
Use the weeks before peak holiday volume to educate merchants about fraud detection, tokenization, authentication, PCI compliance, chargeback management and good security practices.
And don't overlook support. A merchant facing a terminal problem on Black Friday doesn't want a marketing brochure. They want someone who can help. Reliability, responsiveness and access to knowledgeable support can be powerful differentiators in a marketplace where merchants often view payment processing as a commodity.
Market the relationship
Finally, don't allow your holiday marketing to become one long product promotion. Segment communications by merchant vertical. A restaurant has different holiday challenges than an ecommerce retailer, salon, contractor or professional-services business. Use email, social media, webinars, videos, checklists and merchant success stories to show that you understand those differences.
Work with processors, gateways, technology partners and other providers to share existing educational resources and co-marketing opportunities rather than creating everything from scratch. Most importantly, keep communicating after December.
For ISOs and MLSs, the holiday season isn't simply an opportunity to process more transactions. It's an opportunity to show your value as a payments partner. Help merchants prepare earlier, accept payments wherever their customers want to shop, reduce friction, manage risk and navigate innovative technologies. Do that successfully, and the best gift may be stronger merchant relationships that last well into 2027. 
Jaki Kackert is a seasoned marketing professional with experience supporting organizations across the payments and financial services industries. Through expertise in content marketing, digital strategy, public relations, and communications, she helps ISOs and Resellers build marketing strategies that attract, retain, and grow merchant portfolios. For more information please visit www.kackertmarketing.com or reach out to Jaki at jbkackert@gmail.com.
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