{"id":25090,"date":"2018-12-15T10:59:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T15:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=25090"},"modified":"2018-12-15T10:59:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-15T15:59:36","slug":"usps-says-more-online-shopping-means-more-deliveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2018\/12\/15\/usps-says-more-online-shopping-means-more-deliveries\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Says More Online Shopping Means More Deliveries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Letter<\/p>\n
Dionna Davis, a Washington, DC, letter carrier, prepares to deliver packages during a recent holiday season. Analysts predict parcel volumes will surge further during the next decade as online shopping becomes more popular.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n

USPS News Link – 12\/14\/18 – If you think the Postal Service is delivering a lot of packages this holiday season, wait until you see what happens next year \u2014 and the year after that.<\/p>\n

Shoppers are expected to spend $123 billion on online holiday purchases in 2018, up 16.6 percent from one year earlier, according to\u00a0data from eMarketer<\/a><\/em>. In 2016, online shoppers spent $91.15 billion during the holidays.<\/p>\n

This is driving major increases in package volumes for USPS and other shippers.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service expects to\u00a0deliver 900 million packages<\/a><\/em>\u00a0during the holidays this year, up from about 870 million in 2017 and 750 million two years ago.<\/p>\n

A total of 2 billion packages are expected to be handled by USPS and other shippers this holiday season.<\/p>\n

The numbers are likely to keep going up for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is entirely plausible that there will be 4 to 6 billion packages\u201d handled by the Postal Service and other shippers five years from now during the holiday season, according to Brittain Ladd, an online commerce and supply chain analyst.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen in 10 years, that number could be between 6 and 8 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To keep up with the increases, USPS in recent years has invested in new equipment and vehicles and added Sunday package deliveries.<\/p>\n

The organization also hires seasonal help, although that can be challenging during a tight labor market.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be more creative in how you recruit holiday help. We\u2019ve been very successful. Our brand helps us. We have a very trusted brand,\u201d said Kevin McAdams, the Postal Service\u2019s delivery operations vice president.<\/p>\n

Surging package volumes also present shippers with logistical challenges, including the need to satisfy customers who want their orders as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

To become more efficient, USPS has\u00a0introduced methods like dynamic routing<\/a><\/em>, a technique that puts package delivery points in the most efficient, logical order.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology opens up a world of possibilities,\u201d McAdams said. \u201cThere\u2019s a tremendous opportunity using technology to facilitate improvements in last-mile delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closure of many brick-and-mortar retail businesses will also drive more growth in online shopping in the coming years, especially among consumers in rural areas.<\/p>\n

DeeDee Lynch, a Snyder, TX, resident, is hitting the \u201cbuy\u201d button on retail sites more often during this holiday season because many chain stores in her area have closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you live in a metropolitan area, you have so many more choices. But not when you live in a small town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dionna Davis, a Washington, DC, letter carrier, prepares to deliver packages during a recent holiday season. Analysts predict parcel volumes will surge further during the next decade as online shopping becomes more popular. USPS News Link – 12\/14\/18 – If you think the Postal Service is delivering a lot of packages this holiday season, wait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25092,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions\/25092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}