FedEx Hopes Busiest Day of the Year Is a Record-Breaker
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Two hundred packages a second. That's how many parcels FedEx is moving on what its CEO predicts will be the busiest day in the company's history.
"We publicly forecast a couple weeks ago that on the 10th we would move about 19 million shipments through our networks—that's up about 11 percent year-over-year," FedEx CEO Fred Smith told CNBC. "Ecommerce is causing a significant amount of growth."
While there are still 14 days until Christmas Eve, FedEx deems the second Monday of December its busiest day of the year because of the record number of orders in its system at any stage in the ordering process.
Those orders include the millions of packages from Cyber Monday that are being delivered Monday, as well as the new orders that come into the system throughout the day's "Green Monday" shopping. (Read More: Merry Christmas! Let's Make a Deal.)
Green Monday was originally coined by eBay in 2007 to describe the amount of money being spent online on the second Monday in December. Some believe consumers return to desks after a weekend away from monitors and purchase gifts in time to be delivered by Christmas.
Green Monday sales could bring in more than $1 billion this year, according to comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
"It all ties back to the way retailers are running promotions, discounting products and then the media picks up on it and communicates it to consumers and so it flourishes," he said.
Fulgoni believes Green Monday will ultimately rank as the third highest online shopping day this holiday season. (Read More: Black Friday Sales Online Top $1 Billion for First Time: ComScore.)
While Monday may be FedEx's busiest shipping day, it's certainly not the last notable day of the season. Many retailers will be pushing promotions linked to "Free Shipping Day" on Dec.17 and comScore predicts online sales will surpass $1 billion again in response.
But procrastinators have no fear, you're not out of luck just yet. FedEx said the deadline for pre-Christmas delivery via FedEx Ground is Dec. 17. (Read More: Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your List.)
The last day to ship a package via UPS without having to pay extra fees to guarantee delivery by Christmas is Dec. 20. That is also the day UPS predicts will be its busiest of the year.
UPS measures the number of packages delivered, rather than in the system from beginning to end like FedEx, to calculate its busiest day. UPS estimates it will deliver 28 million packages this year, up slightly from last year's 27 million.
—By CNBC's Courtney Reagan; Follow her on Twitter: @CourtReagan
