Major retailers are looking to stimulate anemic sales by hiring thousands of more workers this holiday season to improve customer service on their sales floors and handle the fast-growing use of their stores to fulfill online orders.

The move comes as several analysts note that retailers have lost sight of basic in-store customer needs as they scrambled in recent years to compete better with Amazon.com Inc by cutting costs through store closures, offering more mark-downs and pouring millions into building out e-commerce platforms.

“In the last two or three holiday seasons, retailers have been so focused on digital, that perhaps they haven’t paid enough attention to their stores,” said Carol Spieckerman, president of retail consultancy Spieckerman Retail.

As online purchases become a growing percentage of total sales, retailers want to be better prepared for the spike in online order volumes during the holidays with stronger on-the-ground support.

Last week, Target