Dive Brief:

• On FedEx's Q314 conference call, this month, CEO Fred Smith defended the company’s holiday shipping record, saying that retailers were at least partly to blame for shipping delays.

• Retailers desperate to make sales over the shortened 2013 holiday shopping period over-promised on shipping and in some cases helped cause delays with poorly labeled and poorly packed packages, Smith said.

• Earlier this year, UPS, which was even more affected by holiday shipping snafus, unveiled changes that would improve its performance.

Dive Insight:

Fast, tracked, and low-cost or free shipping has become a major consumer expectation. Retailers were somewhat desperate to boost sales over the past holiday shopping season, slashing prices and offering overnight and two-day shipping very close to Christmas. But many of those packages didn’t make it in time, leaving customers miffed. While FedEx CEO Fred Smith may sound somewhat defensive, he's probably right in suggesting that retailers take some hard lessons from the shipping problems.