Holiday shoppers have until today to order most gifts at standard shipping rates if they want them delivered in time for Christmas.
Online sales are “very promotionally driven this year,” said Helen Malani, an online shopping expert with Shopzilla.com, which has surveyed online buyers and retailers.
More than 75 percent of retailers are offering some kind of shipping discount, some tied to spending minimums, compared with 40 percent two years ago, Malani said.
About 67 percent of retailers surveyed will end ground-shipping guarantees for Christmas on or before Tuesday. Shopzilla.com, a search comparison site with about 90,000 retailers, polled 2,781 online buyers from Nov. 27 to 29 and 116 online retailers from Sept. 26 to Oct. 8.
Customers like the convenience and avoiding crowds, said Malani, who added that the costs associated with meals at the mall, gas prices and an average 5 1/2-hour shopping trip are part of the equation.
Today is also the busiest day for mail and delivery services.
The U.S. Postal Service will process 1 billion pieces of mail worldwide today, up about 42 percent from the average 703 million pieces a day. About 275 million cards and letters will be processed today, according to Joanne Veto, a spokeswoman with the USPS National Corporate office in Washington.
The Postal Service expects to deliver about 20 million to 25 million more pieces of mail today than it did on Monday, Dec. 18, 2006. Veto attributes the higher volume to online shipping. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, the Postal Service will deliver about 20 billion pieces of mail. The Postal Service will guarantee Christmas delivery for first-class and priority mail until Dec. 20, and express mail until Dec. 22.
Veto said there has been a significant increase in military mail sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and it will be up about 20 percent from 16.5 million pounds in 2006 to 20 million pounds this year. People are “much more cognizant” of troops fighting overseas this year, she said.
FedEx will ship about 11.3 million packages today, up 15 percent from its busiest day in 2006, Dec. 18, when 9.8 million packages were shipped, FedEx spokeswoman Carla Boyd said. The deadline for ground shipping is today, and the cutoff for express shipping is Saturday.
UPS’s cutoff dates begin Wednesday with 3-Day Select and continue through Saturday with Next Day Air, with additional fees applied
Saturday.
