The holiday season is the busiest and most important shopping period of the year. Retailers are preparing to meet the surge of customers by hiring on new staff, purchasing a healthy stock of additional goods and improving both their e-commerce offerings and store operations to cater to all of their patrons. However, merchants should ready themselves for a slight decrease in their customers' budgets. 

Recent findings from the National Retail Federation (NRF) anticipate that consumers will be spending less this holiday season. Consumers will be spending $737.95 on average, a 2 percent decrease from last year. NRF predicts that self-gifting will experience a similar reduction. But while shopping budgets might be lower, total retail sales are still expected to increase by 3.9 percent from 2012 to each $602.1 billion. 

While brick-and-mortar sales will still be key to retail success this season, brands that emphasize their e-commerce merchandising may still benefit from an uptick in profits due to a potential 15 percent rise in online purchases. Because many customers will be shopping on smartphones and tablets, it is important that retailers use a versatile point of sale system that works easily across all platforms.