Dive Summary:

• A slew of major retailers reportedly failed to deliver holiday gifts before Christmas this season – despite promising to do just that – thanks to an unexpected spike in e-commerce sales during the holiday shopping season.
• A number of U.S. consumers were affected by the shipping delay suffered by a collection of major retailers which includes Amazon, Walmart, Kohl’s and 1-800-Flowers.
• Shoppers took to social media to express their discontent and many have been compensated for the mishap in the form of gift cards, free shipping and other offers – including a bevy of public apologies.

Dive Insight:

Retailers felt the sting of consumer backlash via social media from the mishap and made an effort to resolve the issue themselves, citing an unexpected spike in sales which caused unmanageable fulfillment demands on private package delivery companies UPS and FedEx. “You had a perfect storm of events from the consumer side, the retailer side and the shipping side,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. UPS alone services roughly 45% of private package deliveries inside the U.S. during the holiday season.