SARA GERMANO:

Well, the biggest issue in retail right now is actually figuring out, you know, who is going to win online sales growth.

And it's a game the brick-and-mortar retailers, especially the big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target are trying to compete more effectively with the web-based retailers like Amazon and eBay.

So, the last few years you have seen definite strides in that direction from the brick-and-mortar retailers.

Just this year, Wal-Mart said that it would do online price matching to better compete in that area.

The next phase of this now that Christmas is over, the next phase of this competition we'll see is the returns. Like all those ugly Christmas sweaters that you didn't like or didn't fit.

Those online sales are going to be shipped back. And a lot of the shipping companies like FedEx and UPS and maybe even the U.S. Postal Service are bracing themselves for what they expect to be a pretty heavy return system, particularly for online sales.