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Above from DynamicAction Holiday Retail Index

The increasing role of online sales -- and delivery and returns -- is squeezing already thin retail profit margins.  According to a study by IHC, commissioned by a supply chain tech company,

... retailers continue to underestimate the impact of holiday demand on warehouse operations. While most retailers have a goal to ship within a day, the data suggests that orders will climb to roughly 1.6 days to ship during mid-December. Despite the expectation to receive orders in time for the holidays, consumers are extremely price-conscious when it comes to shipping. Willingness to pay for express shipping is down, as evidenced by express shipping decreasing 25% compared to this time last year.

AND

Data revealed that returns are already up 9.3% over 2014 heading into the holidays. Even worse, the amount of profit being returned has jumped 19%, suggesting that customers are returning the more profitable items at a higher rate.

Combine these online trends with the ubiquitous expectation for price promotions (chart above) and finding a net revenue stream is getting more and more difficult.

Online retail is increasingly a struggle between those able to best sustain significant losses in an effort to be the last one standing... or the innovator that finds a sustainable strategic advantage. Supply chain operations is probably one of the prime possibilities for finding/crafting a fundamental transformational