UPS Holiday Shipping Forecast: UPS Cranks Up Its Sleigh for Dec. 18 - Holiday Central

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It's a make-it or break it time for retailers. The holiday selling season is always a critical time for retailers, but this year this may be even more true. With several retailers already falling victim to a drop in consumer spending, and filing for bankruptcy, retailers will be navigating through some tricky waters. Consumers are strapped for cash due to high energy and food prices, and unemployment is rising. The recent credit crunch has made it more challenging for retailers and consumers to borrow.

This blog will look at the winners and losers in the retail space. Who has the right strategy to capture consumer dollars? It also will look for trends in consumer spending and how that will impact the economy.

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Nov.18

3:30 PM ET

Tuesday, 18 Nov 2008

UPS Cranks Up Its Sleigh for Dec. 18

Posted By:Christina Cheddar Berk

Topics:Economy (U.S.) | Consumers

Sectors:Retail

Companies:FedEx Corporation | United Parcel Service Inc

For Santa's Elves in brown, it looks like Dec. 18 is the big day.

UPS
Chris Gardner / AP

United Parcel Service has predicted that date will be its busiest shipping day of the holiday season, while its busiest day for handling air packages will likely be Dec. 22, the company said.

Earlier this week, UPS [UPS Loading... () ] ditched plans to forecast how many packages it expects to handle this holiday season, as it typically does. The company also omitted how many seasonal employees it will hire to help it through the holiday crunch, which runs from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

Last year, UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, delivered more than 22 million packages on its peak shipping day, which fell on Dec. 19, and it hired about 60,000 seasonal workers.

UPS's silence on shipping volume and temporary hires marks another indicator of how unpredictable the retail landscape is this holiday season.

Retail sales have fallen for four straight months, with October's sales down 2.8 percent. Many analysts are now expecting that unless shoppers really start spending, sales for the holiday season are likely to fall short of many estimates.

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The expected weakness in holiday shopping will add to slowing volume not only at UPS, but also at rivals FedEx [FDX Loading... () ] and Deutsche Post's DHL unit.

Last month, UPS said its next-day volumes fell "precipitously" in September and it projected fourth-quarter volume to fall 4 percent from the year before as many business clients cut costs by shifting from air shipping to lower-cost ground service.

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