Holiday Planning

For consumers, “holiday planning” means creating shopping lists and perhaps deciding whether to invite your annoying uncle to the family festivities. For retailers, holiday planning means organizing and optimizing the entire enterprise to adequately handle a sustained period of increased consumer demand.



Consider NRF data, which shows that in 2014, total holiday sales increased 4% to $616.1 billion, the largest percentage increase since 2011. And that increase occurred despite an unexpected December sales slump, showing that even the predictable holiday demand surge can throw an unexpected curveball.



And holiday demand is increasingly coming from all channels. According to eMarketer analysis, e-commerce had a banner 2014 holiday season in the U.S., increasing 16% year-over-year to $72.03 billion for the months of November and December. And IBM figures indicate that mobile devices generated 23% of online sales and 45% of online traffic during the most recent holiday period.



Thus, in preparation for the holidays, retailers need to provide a personalized omnichannel shopping experience. Of course, a huge amount of back-end technology is needed to support this front-end environment, including security and network architecture, fulfillment infrastructure, adjustable planning and product information management.



The following special technology section offers advice and real-life peer examples to help retailers ensure they are ready on the front and back end to prepare themselves to satisfy consumers and have a joyously profitable holiday season.