Dreaming of a green Christmas...

Only 160 shopping days left till Christmas. Now most of us are probably thinking: Can we at least get through back to school? But I can honestly admit that I thought to myself just the other day about a specific gift to purchase for my parents for Christmas and made a mental note to keep an eye out for deals. And I am not alone, analysts are saying that about 40% of holiday shoppers will make up their mind about big-ticket items in early fall and 56% of shoppers said they would shop Christmas in July sales.

Retailers like Best Buy, Toy R Us, Sears and Hallmark have all jumped on the Christmas in July bandwagon. And while, most people are not crazy about seeing Christmas Trees and hearing Jingle Bells over the intercom quite yet, there seems to be things retailers can do now to help solidify a profitable holiday season.

Get Creative - Jin Chang, Best Buy's trend senior director, says "The shift to thrift appears to be a long-term lifestyle change and will continue long after the holiday season."

If that's true, the question then becomes what makes frugal shoppers buy and its not always cost. Its appealing to alternative belief systems - people are willing to pay for items or shop at stores that are environmentally friendly and give back to the community or charity organizations. They want to feel as though they are getting value for their money. They still want to give meaningful gifts. And they want to feel a little extravagance in the midst of all this budgeting.

Best Buy is focusing on value with upgrages to its private label assortment of products. Click here to read more.

Deck the stores: Now is the time to make your stores shine - all of those projects you have been postponing, should happen now to get ready for early holiday shoppers, especially the ones that enhance the customer shopping experience. Are you considering digital signage to help promote specific items or layaway? Kiosks for coupons? Special loyalty programs? Upgraded security systems? Or POS technology refreshes for improved checkout?

Layaway - Like last season, consumers continue to look for way to make purchases without using credit. Riding on the heals of last year's success, Sears has already launched a website called Christmas Lane which allows people to shop and place things on layaway now.

Website Enhancements - The major concern last year was shopping carts - consumers complained that carts were down completely, slow or there were issues in retrieving saved items to cart. Is your site ready for the holiday rush, check out this article by ShopVisible.

And while I have no intentions pf purchasing Holiday gifts in July (mainly because by Christmas, I forget I have them) - happy shopping to those that will!