Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Dec 17 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Package shippers like those of UPS and FedEx are at the end of their busiest week. This is a sign that the financial system is liquefying and a greater number of people are opting for online shopping this year. The happy day arrives this year itself Free Shipping Day! It is on Friday, Dec. 17, and if there is anything that you put on order from over 1,000 participating retailers, you are sure to get a guaranteed delivery by Dec. 24. That is extremely tempting!

A world leader in delivery service, the United Parcel Service, expects that this year’s holiday shipments would hit 430 million. This is an 8% increase of what it had been last year. FedEx anticipates 223 million global shipments or an 11% increase. The financially disturbed U.S. Postal Service expects 5% increase as well. The credit goes to the improving economy, miserable weather in several parts of the country which has forced people to opt for shopping over the internet, as well as the lure of free shipping by increasing online retailers. Places like Kohl’s and Amazon.com have offered online shipping since a long time. In accordance with the National Retail Federation, the holiday sales could be expected to increase by 2.3% this year. This amounts to $447 billion, which is a bit below the average of 2.5% increase for the past 10-years.

As mentioned by economist Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics, the consumers are becoming a little loose with the finances. There had been 2 awful holiday selling seasons, 2 extremely rough financial periods in a row, and so there’s a need of a bit of pent-up demand for the customers.