It’s a question that has puzzled forwarders, logistics companies and airfreight shippers for decades. Companies like UPS and FedEx travel billions of miles to delivery express packages worldwide over the peak holiday season, but Santa Claus is somehow able to get the same job done in a single night, delivering not just door-to-door, but workshop-to-tree – with free customized gift-wrap included!
But now, thanks to the kind folks at Derby Supply Chain Solutions, in Louisville, Ky., we at last seem to have some scientific answers to the problems of holiday logistics. In a recently published holiday graphic, Derby takes on such nagging perennial questions as:
- How much is retail e-commerce expected to grow in 2014?
- When do most shoppers actually begin their holiday shopping?
- What’s the average amount spent on holiday shopping, per capita?
- How do “Black Friday” sales compare to the rest of the overall holiday shopping season?
- What percentage of gift recipients get presents they don’t want?
- And how many of us would be happy with just a gift card instead?
For a bit of holiday fun, as your last pre-Christmas ULDs roll out of the cargo hold, check out the answers to the above questions (and more) in the full Derby graphic, which can be accessed here.
And Happy Holidays to all Air Cargo World readers!