Google, Inc.

As the holiday season creeps up and Black Friday is just around the corner, successful companies are finalizing plans to maximize their seasonal revenues. A holiday retail sales forecast from eMarketer estimates a year-over-year increase of 5.7%, hitting an all-time high of $886 billion. To help retailers capture a larger slice of the expanding holiday pie, digital marketing services company eClerx Digital has identified three top strategies focused on optimization.

This holiday season, merchants will see at least one major change from last year: the prevalence of mobile wallets, and consumers eager to use them.  The problem is, while many large merchants are prepared to accept mobile wallets, many smaller merchants are not.

Here’s a primer on the major mobile wallets, and what merchants need to know about each.

For the third consecutive year, Apple and Google came out on top in a ranking of the 100 most valuable brands in the world.

For the third consecutive year, Apple and Google came out on top in a ranking of the 100 most valuable brands in the world.

Valued at a whopping $170.3 billion in Interbrand’s 16th annual Best Global Brands report, Apple increased its brand value by 43% over last year. Google, valued at $120.3 billion, increased its value by 12%. (The top 10 brands are listed at the end of this article.)

Amazon’s dominance in the $300 billion American e-commerce market is stronger than ever, according to a new survey.

A Survata study commissioned by BloomReach reports that in a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 44% bypass the entire Web and go directly to Amazon first to search for products, compared to 34% who use top search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

As recently as 2012, Forrester found that only 30% of consumers research products on Amazon first.

Amazon.com is the No. 1 website for online shoppers in the United States, according to a new survey.

A Survata study commissioned by BloomReach reports that in a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 44% bypass the entire Internet and go directly to Amazon.com first to search for products, compared to 34% who use top search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

When it comes to tech companies, millennials place their trust in a well-known e-commerce retailer. A nationwide survey commissioned by the Marketing Executives Networking Group reveals that more than half of millennials age 18-34 indicated they trusted Amazon more than any other major tech company.

Videos just became more valuable to retailers. YouTube is releasing Shopping ads, a new advertising format that lets viewers click and buy products directly from videos.

Hot on the heels of Google’s official launch of Android Pay, Samsung is officially entering the U.S. mobile payment market. Samsung Pay, which launched in South Korea in August, is now available for use by U.S. consumers.

Samsung Pay functionality is built into the hardware of Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge mobile devices. Samsung says Samsung Pay is the first and only mobile payment service that works with both near field communication (NFC) and card readers with magnetic secure transmission (MST) technologies, which means it is already compatible with most POS terminals.

Woody Allen famously said 80% of success is showing up, and that saying may well apply to mobile retailing. According to a new study from Google, “Micro-moments: Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile,” 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting research.

In addition, showing up in mobile search ad results can increase unaided brand awareness 46%. And one in three smartphone users have purchased from a company or brand other than the one they intended because of information provided in the moment they needed it.