As more holiday shoppers are going online to do their buying, package carriers are raising their projections for last-minute package deliveries.
UPS is expecting a 6 percent increase in the number of packages to be delivered during the week before Christmas. UPS anticipates more than 120 million package deliveries during "peak week," up from 113 million deliveries the same time last year.
"That growth demonstrates anew the recent trend of people delaying online shopping until just before Christmas," UPS reports. "Before the explosion of e-commerce, the holiday peak season stretched from Thanksgiving to Christmas; now, it's been compressed to the last two weeks before Christmas."
To help expedite the deliveries, UPS will hire 55,000 seasonal workers. It has also recently released UPS My Choice, a service that gives more control to the consumer for delivery.
"To handle the holiday rush and maintain the reliability that's needed when shopping close to Christmas, we're flexing every part of our global small package network," says Alan Gershenhorn, UPS chief sales and marketing officer.
FedEx is also expecting an increase in deliveries and will hire 20,000 seasonal workers to handle the process.
Both FedEx and UPS offer holiday service schedules on their websites so consumers can be prepared for delivery times.
Auctiva staff writers constantly monitor trends and best practices of those selling on eBay and elsewhere online. They attend relevant training seminars and trade shows and regularly discuss the market with PowerSellers and other market experts.
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