Nearly two million gifts will hit the airspace today, but unlike the rush of the past few weeks, this time the packages aren't destined for loved ones. That's how many improperly sized, non-working, and generally unwanted packages are expected to be returned to businesses.
UPS told Cheddar that the company expects to ship 1.9 million gifts and items back to retailers and e-commerce sites on "National Returns Day" Thursday, up 26 percent from last year.
The company expects customers had returned one million packages daily during the month of December, with the peak for returns landing on the day after New Year's.
Dawn Wotapka, a spokesperson for UPS, added that for the shipping company, "Anything that involves us processing packages is a good thing."
But businesses on the other side of online shopping may be hit harder than UPS today. The unofficial day of gift-returning will cost retailers in lost sales and shipping costs.
According to a Mastercard report last week, holiday sales increased 3.4 percent this year, particularly online, where sales grew 18.8 percent compared to last year.
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