New DHL Survey Reveals Expected Cyber Monday Growth for Businesses & More

Forty percent of e-commerce businesses would rather experience a TV malfunction during their favorite Thanksgiving Day football game than contend with shipping issues on Cyber Monday, a recent DHL survey found.

DHL distributed a poll to U.S. e-commerce businesses, including its customers. The survey, which had more than 14,000 responses, reveals major challenges, priorities, and more for e-commerce businesses this Cyber Monday. Some of the key findings include:

  • Cyber Monday 2018 > Cyber Monday 2017. A majority (52%) of respondents expect an increase of more than 21% in e-commerce sales during Cyber Monday 2018 compared with 2017. Almost 1/4 expect an increase of more than 40%.
  • Planning Early Matters. While 30% of respondents start planning for the busiest e-commerce holiday of the year seven to 13 months in advance, almost the same amount of respondents (28%) do not start preparing until one to two months in advance.
  • Express Shipping is Essential. When asked what changes e-commerce companies are making to their Cyber Monday strategy this year, more than 1/3 (34%) of respondents said they were offering additional express shipping options. For 26% of respondents, offering competitive shipping options is their biggest business challenge when preparing for Cyber Monday.
  • Have I.T. on call. When asked what their biggest business challenge preparing for Cyber Monday is, the number one response, at 29%, was website malfunctions. Nearly as many businesses—27% of respondents—plan to expand their I.T. teams to support increased website traffic around Cyber Monday this year.
  • Look to Cyber Monday for deals. More than 70% of respondents said they plan to do some, all or a majority of their holiday shipping on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.


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