Christmas is sneaking up--by the time you read this you'll be counting down the time in days.

And e-tailers are glued to their monitors trying to predict whether it's going to be a lucrative year.

It's always been hard to ascertain what demand is going to be like--which is probably why it's referred to as the silly season.

And in the current economic climate that can make companies which rely on Christmas online sales very, very jumpy.

But, if analysts estimates are correct, it could be a good year for online retailers. Gartner G2 is forecasting worldwide online holiday sales to be more than US$25 billion this year.

It credits this to customers regaining faith in the service provided by online shopping sites. Gartner G2 believes some customers stayed away last year, because they were disappointed with the operational and customer service performance of online vendors in 1999.

It's a good thing these potential customers are giving the online world another go. But this also puts pressure on e-tailers to live up to customer expectations, particularly of those shoppers who are returning for the first time since they had bad experiences in 1999.

In the December issue of WebHead we look at logistics--assessing what businesses should be thinking about in order to get their fulfilment right. I mean, if you can't get the product a customer has ordered out to them, it's inevitable that they're going to get a little bit cranky. And this can lead to them being totally turned off from shopping online, which doesn't do anyone in the industry any good.

So, despite it often being hard to predict how much, or little, people are going to spend with you during the Christmas season, the motto is to be ready for anything. If the demand does live up to or exceed your expectations then you want to be in a position to take advantage of it.

Which means it's essential to have good communication with your suppliers so you're able to ensure that you can deliver product to your customers, in the timeframe they expect. No one will be happy if they order some snazzy Christmas present only to find that it's delivered mid-February!

And it appears this Christmas e-tailers are trying to utilise the integrated online/offline approach they've been building up in order to capture more sales. A recent story on ZDNet Australia found that, rather than seeing Christmas as a guaranteed spike in sales, e-tailers were envisaging it would be driven from relationships they had already built up with existing customers.

Nor should companies which focus more on the B2B space think that there aren't things they should be considering during the Christmas period as well. Businesses need to be managing their content regardless of the time of year. This means that if you have a large number of staff away on leave, you need to put processes in place to ensure information on your site is kept up to date during the holiday period. Likewise, it's important to put in place processes for making sure customer service levels remain optimal.

When the Chrissy wrap has been swept away, and you've recovered from the first hangover of the year, you can settle in to all those loose ends that December leaves behind. And remember--carefully managed content over the Christmas period may win you new users in the new year.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!

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