Brick-And-Mortar's 'One Last Bite At The Apple': Holiday Returns

Steve Odland of the Committee for Economic Development, was a guest on CNBC's "Squawk Box" segment on Wednesday to talk about retail's biggest winners and losers.

Odland started off by noting that consumer confidence hit the highest level on record since December 2001, while retail sales hit an 11-year high.

Needless to say, this implies consumers have been shopping in droves during the holiday shopping season, but the question fresh on investors mind is which retailers can be crowned winners and who are the losers.

According to Odland, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is "by far and away the biggest winner," while brick-and-mortar stores as a whole are losing.

Brick-And-Mortar Isn't Dead

Odland noted that brick-and-mortar stores hold a key advantage over Amazon in their ability to extract extra dollars out of consumers.

For instance, approximately 10 percent of all holiday purchases are returned to stores (even if they were initially bought online), which gives stores an opportunity to not only exchange an unwanted purchase but sell new merchandise, including spring fashion items.

However, stores are also highly promotional when all the returns are being made to the point where margins are likely zero or even negative.

"It does give [retailers] that one last bite at the apple with that incremental traffic to build ticket and sell some incremental merchandise," Odland expanded.