Jeff Metersky, vice president of the Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning Practice at Chainalytics, explains how a new approach to benchmarking can help companies improve their forecast accuracy and why even small improvements make a big difference.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans say they will spend less on gifts this holiday period, but around the same number (32 percent) will direct more of their present-buying dollars to Amazon. In particular, big-spenders will drive an expected holiday boost for the giant online retailer, with 27 percent of people earning over $150,000 a year saying they will spend more on Amazon. The survey was conducted online on December 4th, 2012. Two thousand consumers in the U.S. participated in the survey.