Christmas Retail Business in Numbers (Infographic)
parcelLab
Published on: Jan 16, 2020Updated: Aug 19, 2022
There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Christmas is a busy time for retailers and logisticians. But just how busy does this period get?
We wanted to shed light on how much the volume of parcels increased, how often packages are delayed and how high returns are after Christmas. So, we analysed data from over 112 million parcels that were shipped last Christmas and summarised the main findings in the below infographic.
Christmas retail business in numbers (infographic)
Volume of packages in the Christmas season
The volume of packages at Christmas time (November & December) increases by 116% compared to the rest of the year (January to October). We found that two sectors in particular saw a disproportionately high increase: Electronics, computers & accessories (186%) and Furniture and Decorations (116%).
Shipping of packages at Christmas
At Christmas time, packages take a little longer to ship than the rest of the year. From January to October, delivery usually takes 1.9 days, whereas at Christmas (November and December) this increases to 2.1 days.
The number of express deliveries increases massively: by an unbelievable 6,981%!
Returns after Christmas
Every online retailer already knows that the returns rate will increase after Christmas. An increase of around 22% can often be expected.
Our analysis also found that most packages will be returned in the 2nd or 3rd week of January.
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