Consumer data is rolling in from Black Friday. Convey published data insights that show how deliveries are performing across various categories compared to year-over-year data from 2017. Some key findings include:

• Shipments way up – The number of shipments for each day last week dramatically increased over 2017, with Black Friday up 284%. This increase is significantly higher than the growth being reported for sales and orders, suggesting a combination of lower average order values and increased shipments per order as retailers work to increasingly localize inventory and take advantage of drop shippers to ensure each item is delivered quickly.
• Early week shipment growth – The year-over-year delivery growth rates on Monday (446%) and Tuesday (375%) were higher than figures for later in the week, including Black Friday. This suggests that consumers are starting earlier than ever with their online holiday shopping.
• Dramatic LTL growth – LTL shipment growth outpaced package growth on Thanksgiving (1259% vs. 156%), Black Friday (376% vs. 283%) and Saturday (728% vs. 274%), suggesting that consumers are increasingly taking advantage of holiday specials to order large home items for themselves.

“2018 Thanksgiving week shipments for our customers grew substantially year over year. This reflects a trend toward more discrete packages in response to consumers demands for greater assortment and speedy delivery fulfilled through drop shippers and forward stocking locations,” said Rob Taylor, CEO of Convey. “Perhaps most interesting this year was the dramatic increase for less-than-truckload shipments. As consumers have become more comfortable making large item purchases online it’s clear they are taking advantage of holiday specials to order big-ticket items for themselves.”