For thirteen years, Resource Interactive has studied retailers online during their high-stakes holiday season. Why the holiday focus? We’ve noticed that certain competitive advantages become highly conspicuous during these days of intense consumerism—the holiday season can either make or break the year for retailers. In other words, it offers us the opportunity to survey a retailer’s biggest moment and best effort.

Of the 40 online retailers we surveyed using our O.P.E.N. framework, we’ve chosen to feature fifteen in the final report. We focused on the social media, mobile and web site innovation, uncovering quite a few bright spots in a season of innovation and inventiveness. See how retailers fared—from Amazon to Zappos and everywhere in between—and take a look at the most novel marketing moves of the holiday season, which will surely become the everyday fare of 2010. Are you ready?

Download our 2009 O.P.E.N. Watch and share it with your colleagues.

“The OPEN brand is an avid advocate of consumer participation—of leveraging the power of communities and networks—and enables the consumer to influence and co-create its future.”
-Excerpt from The Open Brand

Our second book, The Open Brand: When Push comes to Pull in a Web-Made World (New Riders/AIGA, March 2008) shows how marketing and branding are being transformed by the technology-inspired power shift from brands to consumers, and shows marketers how to embrace the future as it unfolds today. The Open Brand illuminates both the risks and rewards of opening up to consumer involvement, and describes the On-Demand, Personal, Engaging and Networked consumer experiences that will ensure brands’ relevance in a web-made world.

Visit The Open Brand microsite
Buy a copy of The Open Brand

Read More:
The Open Imperative presentation

When it comes to holiday marketing in the digital landscape, who was OPEN?

We monitored 50 e-commerce retailers during the 2007 Holiday season and found retailers that invited customers to co-create the experience and brands in ways that were relevant and meaningful for their customers. We’ve compiled the best examples in the hopes of inspiring and educating brands about involving consumers in O.P.E.N. experiences.

Want a peek at our findings?

• Retailers like Wal-Mart and JCPenney used emerging marketing vehicles to deliver real time, relevant content.
• Additional channels were leveraged for existing services, giving consumers portability and on-demand features.

Read more:
OPEN Watch 2008 presentation