I think the question to ask is do they only want to improve their web page rank vs their category competition or do they want to increase their brand awareness by ranking higher than most of the other places people shop during the holidays?
To compete against just their category means what they sell needs to be a desired holiday gift. To compete against all online shopping means they want to increase their visibility and brand awareness to holiday shoppers. He's failing to see where the footwear as a holiday gift category is in relation to all other holiday gift options IMO.

Glad things are going well for you. It's wonderful that you feel so supported there!