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U.S. NEWS Saturday 16 december 2017

Calendar quirk, Amazon, put pressure on retailers to deliver

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO which excludes grocery
AP Retail Writer stores, restaurants, auto
NEW YORK (AP) — A cal- parts merchants and gas
endar quirk this year and stations, rose 5.4 percent for
Amazon’s seven-days-a- the period Nov. 1 through
week delivery capability Dec. 11, compared to last
are building pressure on re- year’s growth of 2 percent.
tailers to deliver. Adobe Analytics, the re-
With Christmas on a Mon- search arm of software
day, most retailers have maker Adobe, says online
one less day to get pack- sales have soared nearly 15
ages delivered on time. percent this year, reaching
Some are pushing up their $65.15 billion from Nov. 1
deadlines for standard de- through Dec. 5.
livery or free shipping. And Delivery has been one of
after promoting the con- the biggest battlegrounds
venience of buying online as online shoppers seek
with store pickup, retailers speed and convenience.
are also trying to satisfy lots Target said this week it is
of customers coming in to paying $550 million to buy
collect their orders. Shipt, which charges mem-
It’s especially important for bers $99 a year and sends
retailers to hit the mark af- A UPS employee loads packages onto a truck at a company facility in New York. With Christmas people out to choose
ter some missteps earlier in on a Monday, most retailers have one less day to get packages delivered on time. UPS said ear- and deliver groceries from
the season, and because lier in December that some package deliveries were being delayed because of a surge of orders stores, after earlier this year
online leader Amazon has from online shoppers after Thanksgiving. buying a delivery logistics
the advantage of deliver- (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) company to offer same-
ing on Sundays. Research “I am not very impressed,” She had to keep the incor- via chat message or phone day service to in-store
firm StellaService says Dec. said Sheryl Matson of rect color, but did receive during the first big shopping shoppers in New York City.
19 is the most popular cut- Mount Gilead, Ohio, who another $20 in Kohl’s cash. weekend of the season. Amazon has long invested
off date for retailers, two has run into problems twice Now, she’s buying the rest For the 30 retailers it moni- in an infrastructure to do
days earlier than last year. already. of her gifts at stores: “You tored from Thanksgiving to Sunday deliveries, relying
Amazon Prime members, She ordered a PS4 game see that the merchandise Cyber Monday, the aver- on the U.S. Postal Service
meanwhile, get same-day console on the Kohl’s is actually there, instead of age response time from a and its own network of lo-
delivery up until Dec. 24 in website two days before relying on their system.” live customer service rep- cal couriers. For Amazon’s
8,000 cities. Thanksgiving, and the Kohl’s has actually carved resentative was more than same-day deliveries for
Retailers have been try- next morning received an out space for Amazon three minutes, compared Prime members, it uses lo-
ing to speed up delivery email that her order was shops in some of its depart- with less than two minutes cal couriers, the company
as they try to replicate the cancelled. She got on the ment stores, where shop- a year ago. Responses via said. Vlasto says the deci-
service offered by Amazon. phone to resolve the issue pers can find Amazon de- chat took nearly two min- sion by most retailers not
But UPS said this month that and got Kohl’s Cash, similar vices and return items they utes, compared with just to do Sunday deliveries
some package deliveries to a gift card, for her trou- bought from the online re- over a minute a year ago. comes down to cost and
were being delayed be- bles. A few days later, she tailer. Shoppers seem ready to the limits of their current lo-
cause of a surge of orders ordered four items on the Overall, retailers are wrap- spend. gistics.
from online shoppers after Kohl’s website for in-store ping their arms around e- Government data shows Many retailers are making
Thanksgiving. And Walmart pickup at two places. At commerce fulfillment but U.S. consumers went on a more of their online items
said around the same time one location, one of the “are still struggling,” said shopping binge last month available for shoppers in-
that more online buying three items was missing; at Alex Vlasto, vice president as the holiday season be- terested in picking them
created delays in some or- the other store, the product of marketing at StellaSer- gan, with big increases up at the store. Walmart
ders. — a digital coin collector— vice. among online retailers, says it expects demand for
Holiday spending is turning was the wrong color. She The company found a electronics stores and furni- in-store pickup of online or-
out to be stronger than ex- says she spent two hours on marked decrease in how ture stores. ders to double during the
pected, putting more pres- the phone and $20 in gas quickly retailers responded Technology firm First Data final two weeks of the holi-
sure on stores to get it right. money to try to get it fixed. to queries from customers says that retail spending, day season.q