This Holiday Season Will Change Retail As We Know It -- And That's a Really Good Thing

The holidays bring in a lot of foot traffic for both on and offline retailers. Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday and then the days leading up to Christmas, traffic near malls skyrockets, shipping times dramatically differ depending on how far away said holiday is, prices fluctuate based on deals, sales and the like, and each of us is inundated with ads full of gift ideas for family and friends. But this year marks a decidedly different pattern, and consumers will need to start getting used to it.