Before gifts can make it under holiday trees this year, they are going to have to pass through one of the largest-scale traffic jams modern supply chains have ever experienced.
In the U.S., the industry is not fretting over customer demand headed into the shopping season. Deloitte estimates holiday sales could increase this year by as much as 9%, which would come on top of relatively strong growth last year that surprised pretty much everybody. AlixPartners is even more optimistic, forecasting 10% to 13% sales growth.
