FedExAccording to forecasts, Monday will mark the peak holiday season in 2021.

“We’ve seen a lot of people actually starting their Christmas shopping in the month of October, which is fundamentally different than we have seen traditionally in the past,” Ryan Kelly, vice president of global e-commerce at FedEx told CNBC. You will see a lot messaging about shop early, selling ahead, and pulling in promotions. Many retailers are really getting into this concept in the last year.

FedEx shipped approximately 96% more packages in October than UPS, whereas 99% of UPS parcels were delivered on-time. According to ShipMatrix data, the Postal Service. An efficient network is one that can deliver your goods on-time, with a 95% delivery rate.

FedEx projects that it will ship 100 million more packages in 2019 than from Black Friday through Christmas during pre-pandemic 2019, and 10% more than its record 2020 season during Covid.

Kelly stated that the increasing number of people is a good thing. “ship from store”The trend is being used many leading retailersIncluded Target WalmarIt has lessened the shipping network’s strain. The best retailers are really leveraging their stores. These retailers have placed inventory in their stores. This improves transit times and lowers the cost of inventory if the retailer makes use of localized inventory.

The season this year looks quite different to the previous one. Satish Jindel (CEO of Amazon) said, “The increased number of people shopping online and shopping earlier has decreased the demand.” ShipMatrixCNBC

ShipMatrix data indicates that overall e-commerce will see an increase of 13% between the record 2020 holiday season and 3.4 billion shipped packages. The daily amount of e-commerce packages or delayed shipping will decrease 82%, from 7.3 Million packages in 2020 down to 1.3million this year.

The carriers added capacity this season. This helps carriers manage their costs and helps to manage their margins. Jindel said.

The impact of the Covid Omicron variant on holiday shopping and shipping seasons is still unknown.

In-store shopping increased by nearly 48% on Black Friday from 2020 as toys and consumer electronics were the top sellers, according retail tracker Coresight Research, citing Sensormatic data. Omicron could reverse the trend this year. Coresight founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig saidThe fight by retailers to recover pre-pandemic levels of 2019 is evident.

“The U.S. saw a spike in Covid-19 and the first case in America of an omicron. [announced on Dec. 1, 2021]Could impact customer visits to stores and bring them back online. We expect BOPIS [buy online, pick up in store]Weinswig explained that holiday shopping will be more popular in the future as customers value convenience.

Through Cyber Monday: Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Tuesday Adobe Analytics saidOnline spending by consumers was nearly $34 Billion, a decrease of 1.4% from 2020. However, this slowdown is more due to shoppers getting in on earlier deals and less because they are pulling their strings.

— Certain stocks, besides delivery giants FedEx and UPS, stand to benefit more than others from this year’s e-commerce boom. CNBC ProWe look at some names Wall Street analysts recommend.