FRANKFURT a.M Germany, 24 November 2017—Say good-bye to spendingChristmas stuck in a traffic jam: A majority of German consumers(62%) would purchase Christmas gifts online and have them shippedto friends and loved ones. According to a study commissioned byFedEx Express one-fifth of German consumers (20%) definitely planto send gifts to close friends and close family members thisholiday season.
The survey showed that the top factors were distance (63%) andsurprise (21%), with saving time (7%) and cost (5%) ranking loweron the list, according to the respondents who are definitelyplanning to send Christmas presents by post this year. Among thenotable findings: Many respondents are generally willing to sendgifts to close friends (22%) and younger relatives such as theirown children (22%) or siblings (20%), while far fewer would sendgifts to their grandparents (10%).
“Nowadays, Christmas gifts arrive by home delivery. The surveyresults can be seen as a broader shift to online commerce, withmany companies gearing up to accommodate changing consumer tastesand habits,” says Thomas Preuss, managing director, Sales for FedExExpress in Germany. “The survey shows that consumers of all agesnow view Christmas as a prime opportunity for online shopping tosurprise loved ones with unexpected gifts, especially those who maylive far away.”
The run-up to Christmas is the busiest time of the year forexpress distribution companies. Volume is driven by the growth ofe-commerce, with the highest surges on Mondays. FedEx expects tosee a record number of packages traverse the company’s globalnetwork over the 2017 peak holiday shipping season. For the totalseason, volumes between 380-400 million packages are expected,including the three Mondays during peak with more than double theaverage daily volume.
“In today’s digitalized world, online shopping can be used todeepen relationships and make it easier to spread Christmas joy.Christmas is the season of giving – and today’s technology as wellas hundreds of thousands of couriers located around the world makeit all happen,” Preuss said.
More information about the holiday season can be found here: