Large retailers Macy's (M) and Lowe's (LOW) both reported their fourth-quarter earnings with mixed results. In addition, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence reading came in lower than expected for February. With economic headwinds and shifting consumer habits, the future of retail comes into question. Forrester Research Retail Analyst Sucharita Kodali joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest developments for Macy's and Lowe's and how the shape of retail may reform going forward. Kodali elaborates on department stores in particular: "I don't think it's a great story in the department store sector, and it's not a great story for a lot of mall merchants to have these large physical footprints, especially because in many of Macy's categories like apparel, footwear, more and more of their shares of sales are migrating to e-commerce and the web anyway. But, that's not to say every large store is suffering. You look at the warehouse club sector, it's doing very well, mass merchants like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) are generally doing very well." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live. Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

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