Wal-Mart's E-Commerce Rush Slows Delivery Network

Wal-Mart said on Wednesday that an increase in online orders have caused delays in its distribution network, according to Reuters.

"The week of Thanksgiving is an incredibly busy time for all of retail. With massive volume going through our system, there were some orders that took extra time, much like other major e-commerce sites,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Danit Marquardt said. “A vast majority of orders are shipping on time now,” she added.

Wal-Mart declined to comment to Reuters on the number of customer orders impacted. However, one senior FedEx employee said Wal-Mart’s national distribution network had fallen behind in processing some 4 million customer orders, though he declined to elaborate on how this impacted FedEx deliveries.

Total Retail's Take: Wal-Mart has become the victim of its own e-commerce success. What’s more, the backlog reflects the degree to which Wal-Mart, UPS and other companies struggled to handle peak e-commerce volumes despite months of preparation and major investments to expand and upgrade distribution facilities. Indeed, UPS and FedEx have invested billions to upgrade and expand facilities in part to handle the boom in e-commerce business over the last decade.