Retail industry is up with estimates that sales will rise 3.5% for November and December combined but hiring plans remain conservative.

It has been a slow year and the expected increase in sales would certainly help. Retailers have found ways to face the situation more astutely ever since recession started by not ordering too much inventory and making sure the prices are really affordable or budget-friendly which would ensure more sales and less returns.

It is expected that shoppers are most likely to open their wallets by November and December starting with Black Friday. As everyone knows, Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day which has become traditionally the start of the Christmas season shopping. Though not really a holiday it has also become a tradition that employers are given a day off which increases the number of shoppers and has then been considered the busiest shopping day of the year. Even online clothing stores has its own version of this special shopping day called Cyber Monday where major sales are also introduced and shoppers can purchase at the comforts of their homes.

For the past two years since 2008, retailers rack up their sales through the last two months of the year. The back-to-school sales, which is said to provide the hint of how holiday sales will fare, has so far showed a solid result. Retailers are thus preparing for the holidays by ordering inventory, designing festive window displays and catalogs with some focusing on offering the lowest prices for its shoppers.

Despite the estimated increase in sales, retailers still plan to play it safe with regards to holiday hiring. One-third of retailers plan to hire less seasonal workers while the rest are planning to hire the same level as last year.

Since retailers find that profitability is still elusive because of cost inflation they have hit the limit on their discount. Shoppers both for brick stores and online shopping stores should not expect huge discounts on Black Friday since 89% of retailers are not planning to give deep discounts and hit the limit of their discounts.