Lessons Retailers Can Take From the 2014 Holiday Shopping Season

As for macro-economic trends, it's imperative that retailers learn to read between the lines in order to better direct their marketing efforts. Many are making intelligent use of customer data analytics as a powerful predictive tool.

For instance, why didn't lower oil prices and "improved economic indicators" lead to blockbuster holiday sales as expected? Tuned-in retailers may already know that for large swaths of the lower and middle classes, the on-the-ground realities of accumulated debt, stagnant wages and higher food costs washed out any savings from cheap gas.