It’s nearly the end of July and you know what that means. Thoughts of sleigh rides, turkey dinners, mistletoe, beautifully wrapped presents under the perfectly trimmed tree and the jolly old fat man in the red suit.

Well, these might be your thoughts if you edited a quarterly publication and were currently working many, many months ahead to get out the issue that will be in your readers’ hands during October, November and December.

While, you’ve been on the beach or slathering on the sunscreen poolside or enjoying a family camping trip, I’ve spent the better part of the last couple of weeks talking with merchants, affiliates, and online marketers about what’s going to be hot during the holidays. It’s going to be an exciting time and by most estimates even bigger for online marketers than last year.

Consumers spent a whopping $8.8 billion in online shopping purchases during the 2004 holiday season, a 24 percent increase over the year-ago period from Thanksgiving through December 27, according to VeriSign.

The average price of an online purchase through Wednesday, December 22, 2004, reached $178. Additionally, the final five shopping days to Christmas accounted for $1.5 billion in online purchases, according to VeriSign.

Other estimates claim that between Dec. 13 and Dec. 19, 2004 consumers spent $2.45 billion online, an increase of 57 percent over 2003, according to ComScore Networks.

For 2004, total online sales reached $69.2 billion. While that turns out to be less than 2 percent of all retail sales, it’s a huge jump (23.5 percent) over 2003. Analysts believe the online channel is likely to account for 7 percent of all retail sales by 2010. That’s a potential increase of nearly $200 billion.

This is all great news for the online marketing community and the perfect motivation to be prepared – even if the mercury is still in the triple digits. Once, I completely cool down from having attended a wedding in 107 degree heat I promise to get completely into the holiday spirit.

Ho, ho, ho. Tell me about your online marketing strategy for the holiday season. lisap@revenuetoday.com