According to Hitwise², retail related searches are up 36% over 2009. With the holidays in full swing, many shoppers are holding out for last minute deals and looking for the cheapest way to ship their gifts. Bing Search data indicates that the US Postal Service (USPS) has received twice as many queries as United Parcel Service (UPS) this year. The USPS predicts that December 20th will be the busiest day of the year, with more than 800 million cards and packages going out that day.
Last minute shoppers can breathe a sigh of relief because both USPS and UPS let you cut it down to the wire.
· USPS gives consumers until Dec. 22 for Express Mail.
· UPS gives consumers until Dec. 23, if you choose UPS Next Day Air.
For those of you wondering whether your gift will arrive on time, check out our package tracking feature on Bing.
Simply enter in the tracking code to find a link to a status page on the shipper’s site.
Happy holidays!
– The Bing Team
² Top 200 keywords based on Hitwise search data for the Shopping and Classifieds industry, plus select generic seasonal keywords (e.g. “gifts”, “Holiday shopping”) etc.