Your holiday checklist for this season's online shoppers

*Editor's note: This article was updated on November 8, 2021 from its original publish date of November 2, 2020.

The trend towards ecommerce will continue to accelerate this holiday season, as experts are placing their bets on a strong season for online sales. Mastercard expects to see holiday ecommerce sales increase by 7.6% over 2020. Retail executives have even stronger growth projections for their online channels, expecting to experience double-digit growth, according to Deloitte's annual retail holiday survey.

Coupled with the general uptick in online shopping this year–global consumers are expected to spend $4.89 trillion online in 2021–you can expect this holiday season to be your busiest yet. Even ecommerce giant Amazon launched its "Black Friday-worthy deals" the first week of October in anticipation of an earlier start to the season than ever before. They're onto something: A new consumer study by the National Retail Federation reports that 49% of consumers will browse or buy for the holidays before November, up from 42% in 2020.

Businesses of all sizes are looking to capitalize on the sea change sparked by the pandemic as online holiday shopping increased 50% in 2020 over the previous year.

Meeting the payment expectations of holiday shoppers will be key to capturing your share of ecommerce spending. Use our holiday payments checklist to make critical optimizations to your ecommerce site to ensure you're delivering for your customers.