With 3 billion take-out packages, online shopping faces a tough holiday test



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“I don’t know how this could be as unexpected as it seems to have been,” said Tom Nolan, the brand’s president. “We don’t get what we were told we would get when we jump into the holiday season.”

Mr Nolan said the delays were especially frustrating because customers tended to blame brands rather than shipping companies. “We pay a fee to a shipping service provider to meet the expectations we have,” he said.

Kendra Scott’s employees scrambled, including hauling goods to some of its more than 100 stores and warehouses that were closer to some customers. But Mr. Nolan didn’t know what the rest of the month would look like.

“We are trying to fix this problem now and anticipate, as the holidays approach, is it going to get better or worse? he said. “It’s not a free service we’re talking about. We pay a premium to have it done efficiently, and we expect it to be done efficiently. “

A retailer that sells clothing and accessories has already struggled with capacity restrictions and UPS surcharges, which can add several dollars to a package and increase its overall cost by 25 to 40 percent, according to two executives at the company, who spoke on condition of anonymity. , citing fear of retaliation from UPS.

Package limits were based on last year’s holiday volumes, although many more people are shopping online this year. Once the one-day quota is reached, the remaining plots must be pushed back to the next day, leaders said, a move that can then snowball into other days.

Overall, the delays have been relatively minimal so far, analysts said. A UPS representative said that the carrier “delivers the previously agreed and collaboratively scheduled package volume, but there are limits to the unplanned volume until we have capacity in our network to which we can orient it.

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