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SPORTS Saturday 12 december 2020

Retailers urge shoppers to buy early amid shipping crunch

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
and JOSEPH PISANI
AP Retail Writers
NEW YORK (AP) — A num-
ber of retailers, including
J.C. Penney, Lowe’s and
Kohl’s, are telling shoppers
they need to place their
online orders soon or else
pay expedited shipping
fees if they want to get their
packages delivered in time
for the holidays.
The earlier-than-usual
deadlines come as more
people turn to online shop-
ping during the pandemic,
creating a logjam for ship-
ping companies as well as
delivery delays. For some
retailers, like H&M and
Lego, the deadlines have
passed.
Jason Goldberg, chief
commerce strategy of-
ficer at Publicis Commu-
nications, part of Publicis A driver with FedEx carries a package away from a van, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, in Seattle. Store are warning online shoppers that if
Groupe SA, estimates that holiday purchases aren’t made soon, they may not be delivered in time for Christmas. Associated Press
a majority of retailers have
pushed up deadlines by side pickup in the days be- demic getting worse and delivery, says Convey Inc., which makes personal
at least a day or two, and fore Christmas. everyone shopping for the which specializes in deliv- wine glass chillers. She says
about a quarter by at least The warnings on earlier holidays at the same time, ery tracking. her distributor, inundated
a week. Meanwhile, be- deadlines are needed, said those networks are strained Carriers have been slap- with a backlog of orders,
hemoths like Walmart, Tar- Moody’s Charlie O’Shea, even further. Online vol- ping surcharges and put- told her to set the ordering
get and Best Buy haven’t because if an item arrives ume is expected to triple ting limits on how many deadline for Dec. 11. She
had to make big changes late, frustrated shoppers compared to last year’s packages retailers can ship plans to do her own pack-
because they’ve already blame the retailer — not holiday season. Satish Jin- each day. According to ing and shipping of the
transformed their stores into the shipping company. del, president of ShipMatrix, a report in the Wall Street items with her family’s help.
shipping hubs for online or- And retailers can ill-afford which analyzes shipping Journal last week, UPS noti- “We are a new brand,
ders. That makes them less to lose business at a time package data, predicts fied drivers across the U.S. and I am not going to give
dependent on major carri- when many people have 7 million packages a day to stop picking up packag- up my customers’ experi-
ers’ national networks. already cut back on their could face delays from es at six retailers, including ence,” Pawlik said.
“Everyone knows there is spending. Thanksgiving to Christmas. L.L. Bean, Hot Topic, New- Sara Skirboll, a shopping
going to be a problem 10 Robin Gorman Newman, Goldberg says the shipping egg and Macy’s last week. expert at deals site Retail-
days from now, but we just a theater producer from problem is so acute that “UPS continues to work MeNot, said some of the
don’t know how big it’s go- Great Neck, New York, or- even Amazon, which has closely with our largest cus- delays are happening at
ing to be,” said Rob Hahn, dered a few gifts online its own shipping network, tomers to steer volume to warehouses, where it’s tak-
chief operating officer at during Thanksgiving week- could run out of capacity, capacity and ensure the ing longer to get orders out
Whitebox, a fulfillment ser- end, including an eyeglass sending shoppers to places UPS network is reliable for the door to be shipped.
vice for retailers. “So every- case from Anthropologie. like eBay. Amazon hasn’t all customers,” UPS said in Shoppers should read the
one is being conservative, She just learned that the released a holiday shipping a statement to The Associ- fine print, she said, because
and everyone is trying to eyeglass case was out of deadline yet, but said in a ated Press late last week. even if a store is promising
pull forward that purchase stock and needed to be statement that it will be de- “This collaboration includes two-day shipping, it could
behavior.” back-ordered. livering packages up until specific capacity alloca- take days before it leaves
The earlier deadlines could “I had gifts earmarked for Christmas Eve. tions last weekend and the warehouse.
drive more last-minute particular people,” New- Jindel says that the three throughout the holiday Compounding the prob-
shoppers into physical man said. Now, she says, “I major carriers — FedEx, UPS season.” lem is the fact that there
stores at a time when coro- will be happy if everyone and the U.S. Postal Service The holiday shipping crunch is less space available on
navirus cases are spiking. gets their gifts this month.” — have been holding up has been particularly hard tractor trailers that move
The U.S. Centers for Disease But she said she won’t be fairly well given the huge on small retailers that badly goods from warehouses to
Control and Prevention going back to stores to pick spike in volume, although need the last two weeks distribution centers.
says holiday shopping in up goods as virus cases on-time delivery declined before Christmas to make Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA
crowded stores is a “higher surge. the final week of Novem- up for a loss of sales when Entertainment, the maker
risk” activity. Retailers’ shipping networks ber. Collectively, the on- they were forced to close of the popular LOL dolls,
Ken Perkins of RetailMet- were already strained time delivery was 94.2% at the beginning of the says he had 200 containers,
rics, says he doesn’t expect when shoppers dramati- during the Nov. 22 to Nov. pandemic. But online-only or at least $15 million worth
“a massive crush,” but he cally shifted their spend- 28 period, Jindel says. small businesses are also of merchandise, stuck at
believes customer traffic ing online during the early However, the U.S. Postal feeling the strain. the Los Angeles port for
will be heavier than what part of the pandemic — a Service has been taking Lisa Pawlik is CEO and three weeks.
stores have seen so far dur- savior for many who were packages that UPS and co-founder of a recently The toys have since been
ing the season. Shoppers afraid of going out. FedEx won’t take and has launched Austin, Texas- cleared, but he says, “it’s
will also turn more to curb- But now, with the pan- seen a decrease in on-time based startup VoChill, too late for Christmas.”q