As more people are shopping online for the holidays in 2020, retailers are telling shoppers to place their orders soon in order to receive packages by Christmas, according to the Independent.
The increase in amount of people shopping online due to the coronavirus pandemic has reportedly overwhelmed stores and shipping companies, causing delays. The volume of online shopping is expected to be three times higher than it was the previous holiday season. The deadline for some retailers, such as H&M and Lego, has already passed, the Independent reported. (RELATED: Survey Finds More Than 1/3 Of Americans Would Be Fine ‘Never’ Entering A Store Again)
Retail analyst at Moody’s, Charlie O’Shea, stated that warnings from retailers are necessary because when orders arrive late, shoppers blame the stores rather than the shipping company, according to the Independent. Smaller retailers cannot afford to lose business at this time, as many people have already cut back spending.
Carriers have been applying surcharges and setting limits on the number of packages a retailer can ship each day. UPS reportedly told its drivers to stop picking up packages from six retailers. Chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Communications, Jason Goldberg, said that even Amazon, with its own shipping network, could run low on capacity, forcing shoppers to go elsewhere, according to the Independent.
Staff at the Amazon Swansea fulfillment centre process orders as they prepare for what is expected to be their busiest Christmas on record on November 26, 2010 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
The shipping crunch is particularly hard on small businesses that needed the weeks before Christmas to make up for the sales they lost during lockdowns earlier in the year or that are still ongoing. Some larger retailers, such as Target and Walmart, have prepared for the surge in online orders so that they are less dependent on shipping companies, according to the Independent.