This year, 7 percent of packages ordered online did not arrive by
their promised delivery date, compared with 12 percent in 2013,
according to a survey of 160 orders placed by retail-intelligence
firm StellaService.
Separately, management consulting firm Kurt Salmon said 13 percent
of the nearly 100 e-commerce orders it surveyed did not make it in
time for Christmas, down from 15 percent in 2013.
In 2013, some 2 million express packages were left stranded on
Christmas Eve, according to shipment-tracking software developer
ShipMatrix Inc. The reasons given were, in part, a surge in demand
triggered by last-minute online promotions and bad weather.
This year, retailers pushed back the cut-off date for Christmas
delivery by one day, but most were still able to hit the mark
because of improvements to their logistics infrastructure, better
weather and fewer last-minute deals.
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"We saw a lot less of the 11th-hour promotions," said Steve Osburn,
director of supply chain for Kurt Salmon. "They may have extended
their deadline by about a day, but they were a little less
aggressive about pushing those promotions."
Retailers set a Christmas cut-off delivery date between Dec. 19 and
Dec. 20 this year, he said. The four retailers with the most
aggressive cutoff date of Dec. 23 - Apple Inc, Dell Inc, Nordstrom
Inc and Zappos, a unit of Amazon.com Inc - all made their deadlines,
StellaService said.
The better results also stemmed from the heavy investments by United
Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp, the world's two largest shipping
companies.
UPS allocated $500 million to expand and improve its 2014 holiday
operations. Both built new facilities, added more temporary workers
and pushed retailers for clearer estimates and earlier deadlines to
avoid last year's missteps.
The level of communication between carriers and retailers was
"significantly higher" this year, Osburn said, pointing to a retail
client who, in the run-up to Christmas, heard from one carrier two
to three times a day.
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But both surveys found that some retailers still fell short of their
promises, reflecting the difficulty of accurately calculating
holiday demand as e-commerce orders grow rapidly.
StellaService found nine of the top 40 retailers it tested missed
delivery dates: Best Buy Co Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, Crate &
Barrel, J.C. Penney Co Inc, Kohl's Corp, Macy's Inc, Staples Inc,
Toys 'R Us and Wayfair Inc.
Best Buy declined to comment. The other retailers were not
immediately available for comment.
Both Staples and Toys 'R Us missed deliveries in multiple regions in
the United States, and in one case, Staples canceled an order
without notifying the shopper, StellaService said.
Osburn found one case where a retailer fell behind on orders and
attempted to upgrade shipping on packages to make the Christmas
deadline. But the volume was three to four times higher than its
previous estimates, and the retailer missed the Christmas deadline,
Osburn said, declining to name the company.
(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne; editing by Gunna Dickson)
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