Yahoo: Holiday shipping buzz
It is the final two-week countdown to the culmination of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday has long come and gone, and so has Cyber Monday.
Retailers continue to “drive” holiday sales; What about the shipping services that will actually be driving delivery of much of the holiday cheer?
The Yahoo Buzz Index is tracking “shipping” queries:
From the looks of Search, many folks are relying on the brave souls in blue, brown, and purply-black to get presents under the tree on time. In the Buzz road race, UPS -- ground, freight, and otherwise—edges out USPS, with FedEx put-putting a distant third, followed by DHL.
Of course, not paying for delivery is even better, but savvy consumers aren't just looking for "free shipping;" in fact, those queries have dropped nearly 17%. People want the super saver and ground variety, and they've been playing the preposition game with "free shipping with" (+134%) and "free shipping over" (47%) searches.
Yahoo pegs UPS as the shipping “buzz” leader. UPS features a handy “Holiday Calendar” to assist in holiday shipments.
Runner-up USPS has a cheery holiday destination micro-site:
Relax at home this holiday season. Let the Post Office come to you. Request a free package pick-up, order holiday stamps and packaging supplies, and even make your own festive cards—all online.
Third-place Fedex shares some holiday shipping stats:
The holidays are the busiest time of the year at FedEx. FedEx projects it will see its busiest night in history on Monday, Dec. 18, 2006 with a total of 9.8 million packages moving through the FedEx Express and FedEx Ground networks. Last year, FedEx delivered over 8.9 million packages on its busiest night, Dec. 19, 2005.
HAPPY HOLIDAY SHIPPING!