Black Friday and Christmas Logistics

The UK is expected to receive over a quarter of a billion parcels after spending billions over Black Friday and Christmas. To get everything sent, retailers need to work day and night. But how do they manage?

HGV and courier insurer Staveley Head takes you behind the scenes: choose Black Friday or Christmas to discover the logistics of retail’s biggest (and busiest) season.

Christmas 2017 daytime spending

Christmas is the busiest time of the year for retailers, sometimes making over half of their yearly profits during this period. So how much will the UK spend this year?

The average home splashes out £809.97 at Christmas.

Almost 90% of the UK does at least part of their Christmas shopping online.

36% of click and collect customers had a problem with their order in Christmas 2016.

42.3% of online Christmas shopping in 2016 was on a mobile device, worth £8.87 billion.

Data accurate as of 22nd November 2017.

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Select night mode to reveal Christmas night time logistics

The overnight journey of your Christmas parcels

Under the cover of darkness, warehouse staff and delivery drivers are working flat out across the country to make sure your family gets their presents. So, what does delivery look like during the UK’s busiest retail period? Read on to find out how retailers meet the demand.

079,050
courier vehicles on the road

The average Amazon warehouse picker walks 14 miles per day during Christmas season.

Royal Mail delivered 138 million parcels in December 2016.

Royal Mail will deliver to 27 million homes throughout December.

48% of shoppers experienced a missed or late Christmas delivery in 2016.

Data accurate as of 22nd November 2017.

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Click to discover how next-day delivery works

How does next-day delivery work?

You place an order one day, and the next, a parcel appears on your doorstep. How does that work? We go behind the scenes to reveal the four-step process behind every next-day delivery…

#1

Once the products have arrived at the retailer’s warehouse, they’re attached with product serial numbers and registered as ‘in stock’ on the retailer’s website. When you place an order online, this is sent to the retailer’s electronic ticketing system, so a warehouse picker can collect it from the shelf.

#2

Orders are prioritised based on your delivery option. So, if you’ve paid for next-day delivery, your order jumps to the front of the queue.

#3

This item is then sent to an internal distribution team that organises the orders by regional destination. Your item is loaded into a large HGV, which carries it to a courier’s depot or warehouse.

#4

The pickers at the courier are then responsible for separating the parcels to be sent to the localised depots. Once your order has arrived here, it’s collected by a delivery driver who will cover a dedicated local area. One of which will include your home address.

How do the top brands do it?

You know the basic process, but how does it differ between brands? We’ve chosen some of the UK’s favourite seasonal retailers – Argos, Amazon, and ASOS – to show the journey each of their parcels take.

Select a brand to reveal how their next-day process works, and see the journey your order takes across the country…

* Staveley Head have no association with the brands mentioned in this asset.

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