Logistics Expects 7% More Shipments This Christmas Campaign

The logistics companies expect a year-end infarction. Shipping companies already estimate that the year-end will once again set new records with the Christmas campaign and Black Friday just around the corner. One, the sector’s employer’s association, estimates that delivery companies will manage 7% more shipments than last year to meet the peaks in demand that will be recorded on these dates. All this will mean exceeding 106 million shipments during this period.

“This year it is expected to reach the highest number of online sales ever seen before during the Black Friday and Christmas campaign,” said Francisco Aranda , president of the employer’s association, during a conference held this Tuesday under the name Logistics in the peaks of demand derived from ecommerce . In his opinion, complying with these forecasts is a challenge that “requires spectacular work and an investment in technology and human capital of the companies of which we can all be very proud”, he specified.

And this challenge is especially tough this year when the logistics sector and industry in general are experiencing a supply crisis that has the global economy on edge. The shortage of containers, together with the high prices of freight or the ultra-dependence of China, will mean a low supply of certain products that collides with a high demand for them. This, in Aranda’s opinion, “will lead to an increase in prices that will probably have a direct impact on the consumer and, therefore, on the impulse to buy.”

To avoid the concentration of purchases on key days, brands are bringing the Christmas campaign as early as possible, trying to ensure that the volume of work is distributed and is not concentrated only on the busiest days. Despite this, the employers estimate that peaks of 5 million daily orders may be reached in days immediately after the Black Friday offers , such as November 30 or December 1.

On the business side, they have been preparing this campaign for months, more if possible than usual as a result of the problems that have arisen in the sector.

Freight triples its price
One of the big problems in the sector is the price of ocean freight . The companies have denounced this situation, noting that, both in the case of containers that come from China to Europe and those that come from Latin America, the price has gone from 4,000 dollars a year ago to more than 14,000 in which they are usually found. “Last year the cost of the freight was between 10 and 15% of the product, this year it is exactly the same price as what we bring,” said during the day of the employer Ginés David Martínez , director of logistics by Pikolin.

“The objective is to supply ourselves with products and be closer to European producers to try to avoid freight from China,” said Luis Miguel Rivas , sourcing developer at Ikea Ibérica.