It may be sweltering out there, but if you aren’t thinking about turkeys, snowflakes and gift-giving, you may be falling behind already. That’s why, here at Marketing Land, we’re launching our Holiday Retailer section today, in July, to help you ensure you’re ready for that most important of shopping seasons.
The foundation you lay right now with all of your marketing programs will be the key to success or failure for Q4, and, for many, the whole year. And the stakes have never been higher.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (PDF), consumer spending on e-commerce, when measured as a percentage of overall retail spending, is growing at a steady and speedy pace, making up 6.2% — the highest percentage ever — of total retail spending in the first quarter of 2014.
And you’d be mistaken to believe the growth is slowing as e-commerce becomes a less novel part of the holiday shopping season. The Bureau’s stats say e-commerce spend in Q4 of 2013 was up by 15% over the same period in 2012, and quarter-over-quarter growth has been impressive as well, with Q1 2014 up 2.8% when compared to Q4 of 2013.
Since Marketing Land launched in 2011, we’ve regularly chronicled the holiday shopping season in depth, but this year we’re aggregating all our coverage in a special section, called Holiday Retailer, so you have a one-stop shop for news, expert opinion, how-to guides and actionable insights for the 2014 season and beyond.
One of the cornerstones of our Holiday Retailer section will be a new contributed column, called, poetically enough, the Retail Column, which will cover everything from external marketing to on-site factors that impact conversions. That column launches today, with contributor David Rekuc‘s checklist for e-commerce holiday preparedness.
Check it out now and come back for more as we endeavor to provide you with the actionable holiday retail information you need, while you still have a chance to incorporate it into your marketing plans.
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