Holiday shopping expected to stretch courier service limits as e-commerce shift intensifies

The expected surge in online shopping during the holiday season is stoking concerns in the retail sector that Canada's courier network won't be able to keep up with deliveries.

Deloitte's Holiday Retail Outlook released on Tuesday found that the average Canadian shopper is planning to avoid stores and buy more online, continuing a dramatic shift toward e-commerce that has strained courier services throughout the pandemic.

“The infrastructure is being stretched to the limit,” Diane Brisebois, chief executive at the Retail Council of Canada, said. “That is going to be probably the story of the holiday season.”

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that some major couriers are already telling their clients that they're running out of holiday shipping capacity. Between American Thanksgiving on Nov. 26 and Christmas, the United States delivery system may be over capacity by as many as seven million packages per day, the Journal reported on Monday, citing estimates from ShipMatrix Inc., a software company that focuses on shipping data.

In Canada, Purolator Inc. is hiring 1,600 new staff and adding 10 per cent more delivery vehicles in order to meet demand during the 2020 “super peak” season, chief executive John Ferguson announced on Monday.

FedEx Canada is also expanding capacity in advance of what it believes will be record e-commerce sales, spokesperson James Anderson said in an email. But he still suggested consumers “shop and ship early to avoid delays during this unprecedented surge.”

Deloitte's holiday forecast surveyed 1,000 Canadian consumers in September and found that the average shopper will spend roughly 44 per cent of their holiday budget online, up eight percentage points from last year.

In addition, shoppers will only visit an average of 4.6 bricks-andmortar stores, down from 6.4 stores last year.