Postal and parcel operators across the globe are delivering new record parcel volumes in thecurrent holiday period as international e-commerce associations report record Christmas sales
boosted by growing online shopping with a strong end-of-year forecast.In Europe, Hermes Germany expects double-digit growth rates for this Christmas period. To copewith the peak volumes, the company also delivered last Sunday (15 December) and will do so onSunday 22 December, as well. Germany chief Frank Iden said: “This year’s holiday shopping seasonhas started very well for us. Now we are in the crucial phase. Provided there are no heavyweather-related traffic disruptions hampering parcel deliveries, nothing stands in the way ofposting a new record in December.”
Parcel volumes have been continuously growing at Hermes since mid-November. “We expect to reachthe peak at the end of next week, when the last flows of online orders and private shipments willbe sent,” Iden added. “On 23 and 24 December, we will then transport in particular the last-minuteorders from corporate clients such as Otto as well as private packages that have been handed in atour parcel shops until 10pm on 21 December. For all these shipments, we will make a last deliveryattempt on Christmas Eve by 4pm.”
During the current peak period, the company makes about 1.5 million ‘door-step contacts’ everyday, with around 5,000 additional workers and 2,000 more vehicles deployed for the peak season. For2013 as a whole, Hermes also expects double-digit growth, compared to the usual growth rates in theindustry of 6-7%.
In France, the national postal operator La Poste estimated that Wednesday (December 18) was itsbusiest day with record volumes of nearly 2.3 million parcels, compared to 1 million on a normalday. Its express subsidiary Chronopost announced a volume peak on Tuesday with 680,000 parcelsdelivered. This delivery boom is a direct result of online shopping growth in the Christmas period.According to the French e-commerce association Fevad, French consumers will spend over €10 billiononline for their Christmas presents this year, a year-on-year increase of 14%.
La Poste has been preparing for this peak period for several months. Its parcel divisionColiPoste, which generates 20% of its volumes during the holiday season, has added 345 trucks toits fleet on a daily basis, with 900 trucks in total operating across the country every day.Chronopost has also been preparing for the holiday boom since September this year ensuring 350 roadconnections and launching an additional flight.
In the UK, the country’s e-commerce association IMRG expects online shoppers to generate over£890 million in Christmas sales over the holiday period as they ‘multi-screen’ while watchingholiday films, with Christmas Day sales to top £350 million and Boxing Day (26 December) to exceed£540 million.
While tablet and other mobile devices are among the ‘must-have gifts’ for Christmas 2013,British retailers also expect a ‘mobile shopping’ boom on Christmas Day and Boxing Day as the newdevices are tested out. “Mobile devices are now driving the majority of the growth as new shoppersengage online for the first time, which in itself will help deliver sales via mobile devices of£100 million on Christmas Day and over £140 million on Boxing Day,” IMRG predicted. According tothe IMRG Quarterly Benchmarking, visits to retailers’ websites via mobile devices now account for38% of total visits, up 58% on the same period last year.
Andrew McClelland, IMRG COO, said: “Mobile device usage really is changing the way we shop.Online always used to be mutually exclusive and not always consistent with the High Street.Smartphones, accounting for 20% of mobile-enabled sales on retailers’ websites, really are helpingcustomers shop whilst on the move. Tablets are also accelerating this mobile change, lowering thebarriers to entry, with prices continuing to fall, their design and interfaces being lessintimidating and truly being ‘always on’ so we, as shoppers can now truly shop when-ever andwhere-ever we want.”
In North America, Canada Post expects to deliver record volumes of 27 million parcels duringthis holiday season, boosted by the worldwide e-commerce boom for Christmas. Since the third weekof November, Canada Post has been recording a 20% increase in domestic parcel volumes, compared tothe same period last year.
Doug Jones, Senior Vice-President, Delivery and Customer Experience at Canada Post, said: “SinceNovember 16, we have been delivering parcels on weekends and, so far, more than 700,000 parcelshave been delivered on Saturdays and Sundays. And we’ve had five record single-weekday deliveriesof a million parcels. This past Monday, we set a record for daily parcel delivery at 1.25million.”
“We’ve seen the incredible role that online shopping is playing this holiday season. It’s agood-news challenge we have this year, with Canadians entrusting us with their own increase inparcel deliveries and shopping experiences, but we also need them to pick up their items as quicklyas possible at their local postal outlet,” Jones added. Canada Post has a network of 6,400 postaloutlets across the country.
In the USA, $37.8 billion has already been spent online from desktop computers for the first 45days of the November-December 2013 holiday season, according to the digital data measurementcompany comScore. For the first time ever, the last full working week has generated over $1 billionin holiday spending over five individual days, led by Green Monday with $1.4 billion. Overall, USChristmas sales have generated ten individual $1 billion days this season, with the last week(December 9-15) reaching nearly $7.7 billion in desktop spending. Total spending since Thanksgivinghas reached $19.2 billion, equaling a 21% increase compared to the same period followingThanksgiving last year.
This holiday season generated exceptionally strong year-on-year growth in e-retail sales duringthe weekends, with at least 30% increase recorded on each weekend since Thanksgiving, while growthon the weekdays was between 10-16%, according to the digital analysis experts.
Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, confirmed: “While we have seen solid growth during the daysbetween Monday and Friday, weekend growth rates have surged to nearly 4x what we’re seeing duringthe work weeks. There are a few likely explanations for the robust weekend shopping we’re seeing.The first is that with six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, consumers whoare pressured to get their shopping done in less time are simply increasing their offline shoppingon the weekends. Another explanation is that because of the shortened season frenzy, perhaps someconsumers are opting to shop from home and avoid the long store lines. Finally, with so manyconsumers now adept at using their mobile devices to ‘showroom’, a higher number than in previousyears may be ‘touching and feeling’ products in-store before completing their transactionsonline.”
