From your desktop computer, you browse for the perfect holiday gift on a retailer’s website. You place your purchase online and, upon arriving at the store, check in via your mobile phone. This triggers an employee to retrieve your item, which is presented to you upon checkout.

This may sound like a story taking place in the coming years, but it is a reality for Walmart customers this holiday season. According to Reuters, this will allow Walmart to “take advantage of its 4,500 stores” and “cut down on customer waiting times.” The ability to have a customer experience your brand online, in-store and in-app is a brilliant trifecta that will most certainly increase customer value.

Welcome to what we at DMA are calling Channel Synchronicity.

“Consumers no longer think in terms of channels, they expect a seamless experience whether shopping via a website, mobile device, or app,” notes the Mobile Marketing Association. “Leveraging real-time insights and personalized cross-channel engagement metrics to develop innovative marketing strategies will separate the strong campaigns from the weak.”

Keep in mind that Channel Synchronicity is neither separate nor equal. While a customer who chooses one channel over another should expect a seamless brand experience, the marketer is not obliged to reach out to each customer segment with every channel or the same message or at the same time. Segmentation and timing at this time of year is key to maximizing your return on investment and to play to the strengths of your brand.

Welcome to my store

Whether online or brick & mortar, right now is the time to showcase your store and invest in your customers. Your in-stock position is coming together. Hopefully you’ve bet right and have plenty of stock on the most popular items. Some marketers may have even used “private” sales to a sub-segment in order to measure popularity and inventory needs on new items. If you are not segmenting your customers at this time you should be.

In a recent PwC survey more than 60% executives surveyed said they expect evolving customer behavior to become a “disruptive factor” over the next several years. Identifying your best and your “seasonals” allows you to invest in mailed media to ensure they are shopping your store early and often. These customers bring a high return and if you have tested and built out your attrition assumptions and lifetime value, this group will cover the higher costs of print. They are worth it and you want to lock these VIPs down. They also know your brand the best and it’s important to ensure a synchronous experience. Ensure your email campaigns, display, retargeting, mobile app, SMS & app push messages, and social at this time are all conveying your key underlying brand message for the season.

Establish the drumbeat

What’s your frequency? Is it relevant? Customers tend to be more accepting of an increase in frequency this time of year, but keep it relevant. Your best customers are more likely to welcome an increase in communication while less engaged customers will tune you out – or worse – OPT OUT!

The competition for new customers now is fierce. Everyone has saved their spend for October through December. But there is a reason – the customer is shopping. Their pocketbooks are open and they have likely seen your display ads and may have even visited your site. What are you doing to acquire email? Is your retargeting campaign what it should be? How aggressive is your abandoned cart program?

Many of these programs are automated. Make sure your creative is updated and in synch with your holiday campaign. And where possible include dynamic content to increase the relevancy factor. Your opt-out rates will thank you. If you are not using programmatic ads here you should be. According to a recent article inAdWeek, automation and targeting is appealing to companies at all budget levels. “I don’t see people questioning whether targeting is a good thing,” said John Nardone, CEO of Flashtalking. “I see them asking how fast can we move.”

Are you ready for THE DAY(S)?

It’s been more than just Black Friday for a long time, and today Channel Synchronicity for the holidays begins as early as November 1st when, according to CNN Money, Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us each kicked off holiday long promotions including free shipping with no minimum. Adobe recently published their Adobe Digital Index “Holiday 2015 Predictions” and projected a 15% increase on Black Friday and 12% on Cyber Monday with mobile driving the majority (51%) of shopping traffic for the first time.

To maximize channel synchronicity in time for the mother of all shopping weekends, print efforts need to be locked in ASAP – or for any holiday, really, a good month out. You need to decide if you will communicate via email and SMS for a Thanksgiving event or if you are holding your major efforts for Black Friday.

“It isn’t Black Friday. It isn’t even Black Friday weekend or Black Friday week anymore,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, which analyzes retail sales. “This year it’s the whole month. It’s going to be Black November.” Perhaps, for your business, it is “Black Friday Week” kicking off on the Monday before Thanksgiving and culminating with a Cyber Monday effort. But, if you are like most everyone else, there will likely be a “Last Chance” for Cyber Monday prices.

Embrace the procrastinators

Whether you’re an ecommerce pure play or a big box retailer, your SEO and paid search take on an increasingly important and expensive role at this stage. Do you have that “IT” item of the season in stock? Are you letting everyone know your shipping options?

Last year, Amazon let Prime customers order up until Dec. 22 while all other customers were instructed to order by Dec. 19 to ensure Dec 24 delivery. If you have a competitive advantage, make sure this information is clearly promoted on all channels. Perhaps you’ll choose to offer Free Shipping to be more attractive and to compete with increasing frequency of Free Shipping offers from your competitors. You won’t realize a lift unless you tell your customers, so make sure you establish Channel Synchronicity around your key offers.

For those with a lack of imagination or a tremendous gift for procrastination (like myself), be sure you have your gift card program front and center the closer you get to the December 25th. According to CardHub.com, gift card sales are expected to grow from $124B in 2014 to $131B in 2015. DMA member BlackHawk drives $1.5B in sales from gift card kiosk in grocery and convenience stores, according to CNN Money.

And, don’t think you need to go dark on the 24th or 25th. There are still the super procrastinators who like to send eGifts. That portion of the marketplace will close in on $10B in 2015. “The gift card market has moved beyond novelty and is now firmly in the mainstream,” said CEB TowerGroup Senior Research Director Brian Riley. “With maturity comes slowing growth, but innovations in the e-gifting space will ultimately breathe new life into the industry. As the battle for consumers’ mobile wallets heats up, expect to see a new set of winners and losers emerge.”

But wait there’s more:

For every gift card purchase there is a potential sale that will likely occur in January or February. It seems logical that Return Path says that launching “January campaigns to get gift card recipients back to the sites or into stores can increase Q1 revenues because these (possibly new) shoppers are likely to spend more than the value of their cards.” In fact according to CEB, 65% of gift card users spend 38% over face value of their cards.

Hmm… maybe that means January has a new future as Black January.

Neil O’Keefe, SVP of CRM & Member Engagement, Data & Marketing Association @neilokeefe