FedEx expects to ship some 19 million packages on December 10, 2012, its busiest day of the year and a new record for the company. That’s about 10% more packages than FedEx shipped on its busiest day last year.
Part of this record volume in shipping growth has to do with the steep rise in e-commerce. In February, comScore estimated that nearly $1 of every $10 spent by American consumers on discretionary spending would be online.
Today is known as “Green Monday,” a reference to all the cash that online retailers rake in on one of the last days customers can take advantage of free or low-cost shipping options that guarantee product delivery before Christmas. Forrester Research found that high shipping costs (or shipping costs at all) end up being the number one reason online shoppers abandon their orders.
So far, it looks like online holiday sales have ballooned since last year, even more than many analysts expected. In October, eMarketer forecast that online sales this season would rise 16.8% worldwide, to $54.8 billion. Some $1.1 billion of that revenue could be generated by US shoppers on Monday, if those predictions are accurate.