Parcel carriers in the USA appear to have performed well in the 2014 peak season operation and arenow concentrating on handling the millions of post-Christmas returns generated by online orders.
In contrast to the volume overload that characterised the 2013 peak, there have beenrelatively few reports of significant problems with sorting or delivery by UPS, FedEx, the USPostal Service and other parcel firms. US media reported that UPS and FedEx had ‘capped’ airexpress capacity just before Christmas to prevent a last-minute surge of packages entering theirsystems.
Meanwhile, returns are growing year by year. According to the 2014 UPS Pulse of the OnlineShopper Study, 62 per cent of consumers said they returned an item bought online in 2014, comparedto 51 per cent in 2012.
UPS said on December 26 that it had “successfully completed” the first two parts of theholiday season – Cyber Monday and Christmas deliveries. The company was expecting its US volumes toincrease about 11 per cent to 585 million packages during December.
“We have successfully completed two of three phases of the Peak holiday delivery season. OurCyber Weekend and pre-Christmas performance helped retailers take advantage of holiday demand. Weare now preparing for a surge in volume driven by Returns Week beginning next Monday,” said AlanGershenhorn, UPS executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
UPS ‘National Returns Day’ will be next Tuesday (January 6) when the company expectsconsumers will ship more than 800,000 packages back to retailers and merchants. By the end of thefirst full week in January, UPS anticipates transporting 4 million return packages in the UnitedStates.
“As e-commerce continues to grow, simple returns services have become an essential part ofthe overall consumer shopping experience. Our research shows online shoppers care about returnsconvenience with 66 per cent reviewing a retailer’s return policy before making a purchase, and 68per cent said they would complete an online purchase if the retailer simply offered a free returnshipping label,” Gershenhorn said.
For return shipments, UPS is using its network of 4,400 The UPS Store locations, 300 UPSAccess Point locations in New York and 100 locations in Chicago as well as 38,000 UPS Drop Boxes(for pre-paid items).
The US Postal Service expected to deliver more than 470 million packages between Thanksgivingand Christmas Eve, a 12 per cent increase on the 2013 holiday season while FedEx expected an 8.8per cent year-on-year rise to 290 million shipments between Black Friday and Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, e-commerce giant Amazon announced on December 28 that its customers and Primemembers saved a total of $2 billion in delivery costs by using its free shipping offers in therun-up to Christmas. About 100 million more items were shipped for free than in the 2013 Christmasseason.
“Over the last few years, unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping with Prime has become the preferredshipping method among Amazon customers. In fact, Amazon now ships more than twice as many itemswith Prime than with Free Shipping,” the company disclosed.
