The backlog reflects the degree to which Walmart, United Parcel Service and other companies struggled to handle peak ecommerce volumes despite months of preparation and major investments to expand and upgrade distribution facilities.
Walmart didnt reveal the number of customer orders impacted. Senior figure from FedEx said Walmart’s national distribution network had fallen behind in processing some four million customer orders, though he declined to elaborate on how this impacted FedEx deliveries.
UPS, which declined to comment on Walmart’s backlog, has also unveiled a number of surcharges in recent years, seen as a way to manage the higher costs associated with ecommerce.
Adobe Analytics forecasts a record USD 107.4 billion holiday season for online orders, the first ever to cross the USD 100 billion mark.
FedEx expected to deliver 380-400 million packages globally during the peak shipping season.
Walmart offers free two-day shipping on millions of items when the order size is over USD 35. The retailer said online sales surged 50% in the last quarter.
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