FedEx sees online shoppers powering holiday record

Posted at: 10/22/2012 9:41 AM
By: Associated Press | WHEC.com

FedEx expects to ship 280 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas, up 13-percent from a year ago, thanks to consumers' growing fondness for shopping online.
    
FedEx moves a bulk of its cheaper, lighter weight shipments from online and catalog retailers through its SmartPost service, a partnership with the U.S. Postal Service.
    
The forecast comes against a background of lackluster growth in the global economy.
    
The Memphis-based company expects December 10 to be its busiest day with 19 million shipments, up 10-percent from 2011.
    
Rival UPS, based in Atlanta, hasn't yet released a holiday forecast.
    
The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to increase 4.1-percent. That would be the smallest increase since 2009. Research firm eMarketer forecasts online holiday sales will grow 16.8 percent, excluding travel purchases.

Have a story you want our news team to investigate? Call us at 585-232-1010, click here to send us an e-mail or leave us a Facebook post or tweet.

Bookmark and Share Print Story