As Michigan heads into the holiday season, businesses across the state are gearing up for what's expected to be another busy year.

And while days like Black Friday and Small Business Saturday focus on in-store sales, Cyber Monday really serves as the kick-off to the online sales season.

More:Holland retailers turn their attention to 'make or break' holiday season

With the continuous growth of online sales, the shipping industry plays a key role in making the holidays what they are.

According to Deloitte’s Annual Holiday Retail Forecast, sales are expected to increase between 4 and 6 percent in 2022 — significantly less growth than the predicted 15 percent increase in 2021.

In all, predictions for November through January have holiday sales between $1.45 and $1.47 trillion and, looking at Cyber Monday, experts estimate close to $11 billion in sales.

On a local level, small businesses are selling online and in-person to meet customers wherever they are. Particularly in tourist areas with large seasonal populations, many out-of-town customers want to support their favorite local stores, even when they aren't there.

McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey saw a big increase in online sales during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns — and that traffic has yet to slow down. According to co-owner Matt Norcross, between Nov. 15 and Dec. 15, online sales typically double. After Dec. 15, he and his staff are hesitant to ship orders intended as gifts unless they have expedited shipping.

Norcross said gift cards are one of their most popular online and in-store items. Customers receive an actual card in the mail, instead of a printed barcode.

But while online sales have steadily increased over the past decade, Norcross said the majority of their business is still done in-store, where employees can help customers find what they need. That can happen digitally, too.

"We're having long email threads with customers about their grandkids and what they like and we build lists,” Norcross said.

“And the sale may ultimately be finalized through the website, but it may have started and taken a long route through lots of phone conversations and emails.”

Once the order is placed, the next challenge is packing and shipping orders. In past years, Norcross said they've divided staff into shipping and customer departments, so employees can focus on their work. This year, the staff is “well-seasoned,” Norcross said, and will probably be able to complete everything without a designated shipping department.

One downside to online sales are the shipping costs. McLean and Eakin keep the same prices online as in-store and subsidize shipping costs, which means some of the profit from an online sale goes toward mailing the item. Norcross said they save as much packaging as they can to save money and help the environment.

On average, McLean and Eakin spends about $35,000 per year on shipping and postage expenses. The store ships all over the country. It doesn't ship internationally, but will sometimes work with international customers looking to buy a signed or rare book.

“We do an extraordinary amount of shipping and I think it's a trend that's not going to change and businesses like us need to get better at it," Norcross said. "I wish there were better solutions for boring things like packaging, and even tape. It's hard to scale some of these things if you aren't a fulfillment center."

Despite inflation and the rising cost of gas and groceries, shippers across the country predict another busy holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service estimates it'll deliver more than 28 million packages per day Dec. 16-21 and an average 20.5 million packages per day through the end of the year.

In total, it projects 800 million package deliveries between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

United Postal Service (UPS) is also in holiday mode. UPS employs nearly 500,000 workers who help deliver 5.5 billion packages each year to more than 220 nations and territories.

Tyler Stutzky works at UPS as the Grand Rapids Hub Manager. Having worked for the company for 12 years, he knows what to expect when it comes to the holiday season.

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Stutzky said that, in some areas of the country, the company will see double the amount of daily packages during the holidays. His hub, which covers all of West Michigan, will sort between 200,000 and 400,000 packages a day in the summer.

During peak season, that increases to 500,000 to 700,000 packages each day.

While the company sees an increase in all package sizes, Stutzky said the largest increase comes from smaller packages, often gifts people send through the mail. That differs from the rest of the year, where they see a wider range of sizes in packages.

To accommodate for the sharp influx in shipping, Stutzky said there's a huge increase in employees, especially in seasonal workers.

“When you look at UPS in broad terms, UPS announced they're hiring 100,000 people just for this peak season,” he said.

— Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Contact freelancer Austin Metz at ametz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Local businesses, shipping companies ready for busy holiday season