As nearly everyone has reported over the last month, it was a challenging holiday for brick-and-mortar retail, with a short season, bad weather somewhere in the country every weekend in December, and physical and cyberspace security issues possibly scaring some shoppers off. But traditional retail may have been given a late Christmas gift from, of all places, UPS. The world's largest package delivery company failed to meet an undisclosed number of December 24 delivery deadlines, even for items ordered weeks in advance, said the New York Times and other reports.

UPS cited the weather and higher-than-projected demand for the delays, and FedEx also missed some deliveries. Meanwhile, retailers such as Amazon.com and Walmart are offering gift cards to disappointed customers. But will that be enough to appease gift-givers and recipients who had a picture of an item rather than the product itself on Christmas morning? After all, in 2000, Toys R Us famously missed Christmas shipping deadlines, and it took a while for shoppers to trust them again.

Could this be this brick-and-mortar's opportunity to promote itself as the place to make sure the shopper gets that item? Will they take advantage of it?