Survey: Customers Place a High Priority on On-Time Holiday Shipping

27 percent of U.S. customers would rather get a root canal than have personal holiday shipments come late, according to a DHL holiday customer survey that reveals on-time shipments are a high priority.  

The survey helps to better understands customer trends and challenges this holiday season, and uncovered key business priorities for the holidays, and how they are prepping for the massive amount of e-commerce sales expected this season.  

Some of the key findings include: 

• 45 percent of respondents saying they expect an increase in e-commerce sales of at least 10 percent during the holiday season.

• While 47 percent of respondents feel fulfilling shipment orders in a timely manner is the biggest challenge during the holiday season, a notable 65 percent start planning for the holiday season only one to two months in advance.

• While U.S. businesses are seeing an uptick in e-commerce sales, 84 percent of the respondents are not planning to hire temporary staff during the holiday season.

• Over 70 percent of respondents said they plan to do some, all or a majority of their holiday shipping on Cyber Monday

All respondents placed a high priority on on-time shipping, as evidenced by the potential tradeoffs they would make to ensure it happened:

• 27 percent would rather get a root canal than have personal holiday shipments come late
• 23 percent would rather spend the weekend with their in-laws
• 19 percent would rather tell their kids that Santa isn’t real  

The full results and executive summary to the survey can be found here.