FedEx expects to log busiest day ever

December 14, 2010|Associated Press

NEW YORK — Call it the pregame show for Santa and his elves. Yesterday was expected to be the busiest day in FedEx history, with nearly 16 million packages moving on its conveyer belts, trucks, and planes — up 13 percent from the busiest day last year, and double what the company handles on a normal day.

That bodes well for retailers, online stores, and FedEx’s larger rival, UPS, which forecasts its busiest day will be next week.

About half of FedEx’s increase is from its SmartPost partnership with the Postal Service. SmartPost moves lighter, cheaper packages through FedEx that are then delivered by a postal worker.

Online holiday spending since Nov. 1 is up 12 percent over last year to nearly $22 billion, according to comScore, a research firm.

The auction and shopping website eBay said that Sunday was its busiest shopping day via mobile devices so far this year. In the United States, shoppers bought $5 million worth of items on eBay, more than double as on the same Sunday last year. Ebay expects mobile users to buy $1.5 billion worth of good this year, compared with $600 million last year.

Online orders overall are likely to spike again Friday, which many merchants are promoting as “free shipping day.’’

UPS expects its busiest day on Dec. 22 when it will move about 24 million packages. That’s 60 percent more than on a normal day.

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