(The following is the executive summary of a new report: "2016 Holiday Email Marketing Report" from Mailcharts. Download the full report here.)

Email marketing is crucial to your holiday success. Online sales reached $89.01 billion in Q4 2015 with email marketing driving 20% of that revenue. Online retailers know that email marketing is big business: email volume increased by 23% in Q4 2015 (compared to Q4 2014). Expect to see a similar increase in email volume during Q4 2016. Do you have a solid plan for the most important time of the year? Here’s our view on exactly what you should do. Let’s go!

Download the 2016 Internet Retailer Retention Survey, sponsored by Windsor Circle

The following is a list of Quarterly Benchmark Reports suggested the OI membership. Some require registration to download: 

How Retailers Large and Small Can More Effectively Retain Customers

How much does email marketing cost and what are the factors in determining the price of a campaign? Responding to that question is similar to answering, “How much does a house cost?” The answer depends on a number of factors. These key factors drive the cost of implementing an effective email campaign.

Nothing can take the joy out of the holidays faster than a messy marketing plan. We've worked up a plan to make sure your holidays are both joyful—and profitable—this year. Download our 2015 Holiday Guide and open up tips, tools, and tricks to make sure you get what you want this season … sanity, revenue, and rest.

After answering a frequently asked question in a website blog post, businessman Marcus Sheridan generated more than $1.7 million in fiberglass pool sales. Find out what that question was and how it may play an important part in the success of your content-marketing strategy.

The holiday season is fast approaching and along with it bundles of marketing opportunities -- and potential missteps. Shaw + Scott’s 2014 Holiday Guide showcases key learnings from 2013, insights into the 2014 season, and other best-in-show insights to help you start planning your 2014 wins now.

The European Commission has agreed that over the course of the next 12-24 months, there'll be some major changes to EU Data Protection law, with an aim to providing consumers with greater protection over their personal details both on and offline.

Within the next 12-24 months, a time scale set by EU Parliament, there'll be a major overhaul of EU Data Protection, brought about by the European Commission. The changes are designed to reduce risk to consumers surrounding their personal information, in light of various data security breeches over recent years.

This guide will cover:

The changes that will be introduced in relation to processing and storing consumer data.

How the changes will impact the way you currently work.

A wider view including an in detail example of how the changes will impact a typical retail multi-channel strategy.

In this guide you'll find a three step process to identify what you'll need to do to prepare for the reform. It covers:

The campaigns you send now and what you want to send in the future

The data you'll need to power these campaigns

The foundations you'll need in place moving forwards

The fifth in our EU series, Say What?!, is a guide to translating the changes to your customers. It looks at the level of communication you need for both direct customers and partners, with some real life examples added in to provide more context and to give you some inspiration for your own campaigns.

Key topics include:

The modernisation of an existing "right to be forgotten" principle-

Changes to the responsibility for providing proof and validity of consent-

Our recommendations in preparation of the reform

Targeting customer personas and developing strong ‘brand voices’ will help your email campaigns connect with readers on a deeper level.

Nine email marketing tactics the top 3% are using to get ‘excellent’ results.

3 Ways to Use Subscriber Data to Modernize your Email Marketing

Email prospecting, list rental and lead generation often gets a bad rap or is dismissed as cost-ineffective, but knowing how to do it right can yeild positive ROI. It's never as simple as renting the first list that comes along to "batch and blast" your message, though. Instead, doing it right involves preparation, forethought and strategy. The five steps presented in this paper offer a blueprint for renting outside lists and/or using internal prospect files for successfully generating demand, customers and revenue.

Download 21 Steps to Success: Email Deliverability by Towerdata.

Here are nine tips for creating unsubscribe pages that gently put a shoulder around hesitant readers and steer them back into the fold by Adestra