This holiday season, retail stores are doing their best to succeed in the Christmas shopping frenzy by offering their customers faster and cheaper shipping than ever before. Shipping companies are expecting record highs in package deliveries- the estimated number of packages that will be shipped this year is 13.4 billion, or 900 million more than 2018.
Online Shopping
As more and more shoppers stay in the comfort of their own home to buy gifts for their friends and family, stores like Walmart, Amazon, and Target have begun taking advantage of this, offering their customers free next-day shipping on many orders.
“We will definitely see record highs in package deliveries this holiday season as an even higher percentage of holiday shopping shifts online,” said Lila Snyder, president of commerce services for the shipping giant Pitney Bowes. [1]
“Record high [package] volumes, rising consumer expectations and fewer days than usual between Black Friday and Christmas Eve will put more pressure than ever on retailers and logistics companies this holiday season,” she said.
Seasonal Hires
Because of the surplus of online orders, shipping companies such as UPS, FedEx, and Amazon have all been adding to their delivery ranks- in September, UPS said that they planned on hiring 100,000 seasonal workers this year. [2] The company estimates that it will be delivering over 30 million packages a day. We expect another record Peak season this year, with daily package deliveries nearly doubling compared to our average of 20 million per day,” said Jim Barber, chief operating officer of UPS. “In order to make that happen, once again we’re recruiting about 100,000 people for some of the country’s best seasonal jobs.”
FedEx also announced plans to hire 55,000 workers for the holiday season. [3]
With the surge in online shopping, retailers are also offering their shoppers ease of return if they don’t like their purchase, making package returns expected to surge this year. UPS recently said that it expects customers to return around one million packages per day throughout the month of December- with about 1.6 million packages returned daily during the week before Christmas.
Notes:
- ^Insider, Business. “Package deliveries soar as Walmart, Amazon offer cheap, fast shipping – Insider.” Insider, 3 Dec. 2019, www.insider.com/package-deliveries-walmart-amazon-cheap-fast-shipping-2019-11. (go back ↩)
- ^“UPS To Hire About 100,000 For Holiday Season.” UPS Pressroom, 5 Dec. 2019, pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=PressReleases&id=1568030066733-734. (go back ↩)
- ^“FedEx Will Hire 55,000 for Holiday Season.” Transport Topics, 23 Sept. 2019, www.ttnews.com/articles/fedex-will-hire-55000-holiday-season. (go back ↩)
