Holiday Shoppers Facing Out-Of-Stocks, Delivery Delays

Holiday shoppers are being aggressive in their purchases with sales expected to grow 7% to $800 billion during the season. However, their enthusiasm could be dampened by out-of-stocks and delivery delays, says a report from Avison Young.

“Many industry experts predict a chaotic shopping and shipping season,” the study pointed out.

The company cites an estimate from Deloitte that the average shopper will spend $1,463 during the period, up 5% from the season last year as more return in person to the stores.

However, the gift buyers are finding shortages abound. Out-of-stock messages online to online shoppers are expected to increase by 172% this holiday season compared with 2020, according to a report from Adobe Analytics cited by Avison. Another study mentioned by the firm said one-third of early Millennial and Gen Z holiday shoppers were reporting multiple instances when items were out of stock in store and online.

Another Deloitte figure mentioned by Avison is 64% of retail executives are concerned about not receiving inventory on time

Delivery delays are also in the picture for customers. For USPS, recently implemented service changes that could slow down 30% of all first-class mail.

On time performances for the post office along with FedEx and UPS were lower in September than in previous months, Avison pointed out.

Improvements in the supply chain from billions of dollars for ports, highways and railroads in the infrastructure legislation signed by President Joe Biden this week could take months to take hold, Avison Young predicted. 

“Consumers will have to work harder to find good deals and, more importantly, find the goods they want in stock.”

The out-of-stocks were also mentioned as a likely problem for holiday shopping by JLL earlier this month.

“We’re looking at a huge jump in shopper demand this holiday season,” said James Cook, JLL’s Americas Director of Research in Retail in a post.  “There are fears now that supply issues will mean bare shelves.”

Large big box retailers are better positioned to absorb the shock of supply chain issues that result in these product shortages at the worst possible time. Some of them, including Target, are chartering their own cargo ships and stockpiling goods ahead of the holidays, creating additional demand for warehousing.

“Big box retailers will come out of this with more market share,” Cook said.