The U.S. Post Office suffered most in terms of on-time performance and complaints this peak holiday season, experts agreed, with FedEx also having issues but not to the same extent and UPS doing better. Carriers of all stripes were buried by a cataclysmic holiday package deluge from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
After the explosion in holiday ecommerce, comes the flood of holiday returns, expected to cost retailers $1.1 billion, twice what it did in 2020, according to data from Narvar. goTRG and Returnly both said Dec. 26 was the peak day for consumers to initiate returns. UPS traditionally lists Jan. 2 as peak returns day for transit of returns.
FedEx announced this week it is extending peak surcharges beyond the holiday season, while lowering them from higher holiday levels, citing the expectation of ongoing heavy volume and associated costs, although some observers question that rationale amid strong financial results. UPS is expected to follow its duopoly partner.
Heading in the home stretch of the holiday peak season in an extraordinary year, and past the cutoffs for Christmas delivery by ground at major parcel carriers, transit time performance is holding up well even though expected delays reports are popping up. Vaccine delivery and heavy weather are compounding matters.
As public health concerns have consumers engaging in more online ordering and a down economy impacts spending, typical habits are out the door. In this holiday shopping season like no other, the way retailers address these trends will determine whether consumers return over the long run. It’s all about data-driven engagement.
This holiday season, we may see pent-up demand from earlier in the year channeled into even more ecommerce purchases and larger order values. Luxury retailers can take a few steps now to make sure they’re positioned to meet this demand.
Records were made to be broken, and the all-time sales day for ecommerce was no exception. Cyber Monday hit a record $10.8B in the U.S., up 15.1% from $9.4B in 2019, making it the largest online shopping day in U.S. history, according to Adobe Analytics. Mobile commerce slipped slightly from Black Friday (37% of the total vs. 40%).
As expected, Black Friday 2020 saw tremendous success online but was a bust in stores, as shopper behavior has been altered irrevocably by the ongoing pandemic. Adobe Analytics reported $9 billion in ecommerce sales on Black Friday, up 21.6% from $7.4 billion in 2019. Store traffic meanwhile was down 48% to 52%.
As COVID-19 restrictions tighten once again, consumers will be staying away from stores in droves on Black Friday, with CommerceHub reporting 70% would not be venturing out for deals the day after Thanksgiving. 71% said they planned to shop online during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, holding out until then for better deals.
It’s been a wild year for retailers. The homestretch of 2020 finds most of them hoping to over-perform and make up for time and money lost to the COVID-19 crisis. Do American consumers have enough left in the tank (and the bank account) to provide a much-needed boost? Let’s examine that question by looking back to October.