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FedEx and UPS are battling for business, particularly targeting smaller customers in the face of a challenging holiday season, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The issue at hand is that the peak shipping period from Black Friday to December 31 has been shortened by five days this year due to a later Thanksgiving. Experts expect the total volume of holiday-season packages to continue to decline from its pandemic peak in 2021.
To fight the trend, both carriers are offering discounts to smaller customers that were previously reserved for bulk shippers.
Robert Persuit from shipping consulting firm ShipMatrix told the WSJ that customers with less than $500,000 in annual shipping expenses are now being considered for discounts, including breaks on fuel surcharges. "No customer is too small to be considered for discounts," he said.
Related: UPS Replaces FedEx as Primary Air Cargo Provider for USPS
The competition for shipping dollars extends beyond just FedEx and UPS. The U.S. Postal Service has been gaining market share in ground parcels, while Amazon now delivers more than two-thirds of its own packages. Walmart has also established its own same-day delivery service.
In recent years, both FedEx and UPS have laid off tens of thousands of workers and closed dozens of facilities, but despite the challenges, both FedEx and UPS report some success with their pricing strategies. They claim to have won market share in the business-to-business parcel segment and in higher-value e-commerce goods.
Related: FedEx and UPS Will Soon Be Flying Pilotless Planes. How Safe Are They?
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