What are the retailers going to find under the tree?

A common theme brings together several strategies that retailers use to prepare for the holiday season: enhanced capabilities to cater seamlessly to shoppers in stores, online, and on mobile devices. The annual Holiday Retail Trends Guide for CBRE outlines four trends that shape this season as it unfolds:

1. The shopper's optimistic. Retailers who excel in a strong economic climate are so able to sell through multiple channels that few purchases are no longer strictly in-store or online.

2. Buy-Online / Ship-to-Store (BOSS) allows shoppers to choose from a wider stock of merchandise stored in the retail store to be delivered to their nearest store. Retailers bet that BOSS will reduce delivery costs and generate additional sales to shopkeepers picking up orders in stores. Central to the success of BOSS will be the opportunities provided by retailers to use it.

3. Experience the loyalty rewards. Retailers are enhancing loyalty programs with experiences and access to exclusive events such as fashion shows to retain shoppers and build stronger connections to their brands.

4. All of us Toys R. Toys R Us shops ' closure paved the way for opportunistic stores to fill the void. Walmart and Target expand their toy sections, while others not widely known as toy sellers, including Michaels, Party City, and Ace Hardware, jump in with limited toy offerings. In the fast-growing toy category, sales are at stake of $1.3 billion.