The outlook for this year’s holiday shopping season is highly uncertain, yet 63 percent of e-commerce companies report that their inventory levels will be the same as last year. This is reported by Postnord in its E-barometer for the third quarter of 2024, which was recently published. Camilla Frisk, Nordic Marketing Manager at Descartes, comments on the report from a transportation and logistics perspective and notes that Swedish e-commerce needs to maintain a high degree of flexibility throughout the supply chain to be able to respond to rapid changes in holiday shopping.
Postnord, in collaboration with HUI Research, is tracking the Swedish retail sector’s performance in e-commerce. The survey for the third quarter of this year shows continued positive growth, with an increase of 5%. Forty-one percent of companies believe this upward trend will continue during the last three months of the year.
– Ahead of this year’s holiday shopping season, we’re seeing a great deal of uncertainty in the forecasts regarding how many Christmas gifts will be purchased and at what price points. This reality means that Swedish e-commerce companies need to take an agile approach to their planning and inventory management during the final months of the year. At the same time, 9 out of 10 e-retailers believe they have a good balance between inventory and demand,” says Camilla Frisk, adding:
– We’re seeing a couple of interesting trends ahead of this year’s holiday shopping season. One in five consumers plans to buy secondhand Christmas gifts online. At the same time, we’re seeing that 21 percent will shop for Christmas gifts from an international e-commerce site. These are two trends that could impact companies operating in the transportation and logistics sectors,” says Camilla Frisk, Nordic Marketing Manager at Descartes.
Postnord’s E-Barometer is published once a quarter. The Q3 2024 E-Barometer is based on data collected from retail companies in October and November. A total of 94 companies participated in the third-quarter survey. Four consumer surveys were also conducted using KANTAR’s web panel between August and October. You can read the full E-Barometer here.
About Descartes
Descartes helps customers around the world with solutions that give them access to the decision-support tools—in strategic route optimization, transportation optimization, and customs management—needed to achieve full visibility and automation throughout the supply chain.
