NEW YORK — A procrastinator’s holiday wish come true: Presents ordered at the last minute can now show up under the Christmas tree that same day.
Amazon, Target, Macy’s and other retailers are offering speedier delivery, including overnight and same-day options that will continue even past the holidays.
The focus on faster shipping is one way retailers are catering to shoppers who’ve become increasingly finicky and impatient. Since the recession, it’s not enough to get lower prices; they want the deepest discounts as well.
And when it comes to ordering online, orders need to be shipped fast.
“I’ll pay extra to get something right away,” says Wendy Connors, a 47-year-old mother of three in Menlo Park, Calif.
Quick delivery is important for retailers as they head into the winter holiday shopping season, a time when they can make up to 40 percent of their annual sales. U.S. shoppers are expected to spend $61 billion online in November and December, according to research firm comScore.
Retailers don’t want to over-promise on shipping offers. They can’t afford a repeat of last year, when UPS and FedEx failed to deliver some packages by Christmas due to a combination of poor weather and overloaded systems, leaving angry customers.
Neither of the top two deliverers said how many packages were delayed, but noted it was a small share of overall holiday shipments.
Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru fears that the industry could be ill-prepared for the influx of online ordering again this year. She points out that the growth UPS and FedEx are forecasting this season is below growth estimates for online spending by the retail industry.
UPS forecasts it will deliver 585 million packages in December, an 11 percent increase over 2013, and FedEx expects to deliver 290 million packages, an 8.8 percent increase from last year.
Retailers are hoping that speedier delivery options will help spread out shipments throughout the season so there’s not a big crunch toward the end like there was last year.
