A number of online retailers operating in the Netherlands have advised customers to start their Christmas shopping a little earlier this year to ensure they receive all their purchases in time for the big day. 

Coronavirus and online shopping

Online retailers around the world experienced a real boom in sales in the spring of this year as shops across the globe shut down as a result of coronavirus restrictions. Now, these same retailers are preparing for an exceedingly busy holiday season, as people opt for online shopping over heading to the high street. 

Black Friday, Sinterklaas, and Christmas are already highlights of the year for a number of businesses, but with the coronavirus pandemic keeping people indoors, the coming season is expected to be even busier than usual. With the Thuiswinkel.org campaign "Be prepared - Order on time" (Wees voorbereid - Bestel op tijd), companies are encouraging customers to start their holiday shopping earlier to ensure that they receive their purchases on time. 

But it isn’t just online retailers that have issued this advice: drugstore chain Kruidvat and cosmetics company Rituals have also asked customers to start their Sinterklaas and Christmas shopping early in an attempt to avoid a last-minute rush in the run-up to the holidays. As shops are having to stick to a maximum capacity rule, they’re attempting to spread out the busyness to ensure they can secure as much business as possible. 

Scaling up delivery capacity across the Netherlands

PostNL is also bracing itself for a busy season. The company scaled up capacity by 40 percent in the spring to accommodate the additional deliveries. For the winter, PostNL has adjusted the opening hours of their distribution centres and will make use of additional vans and couriers. 

Normally, the delivery company processes one and a half million packages per day at the peak of the festive season, and at these times customers can experience delays in their deliveries. DHL is also expecting to process around one million packages on the busiest days in November and December.