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The National Retail Federation reported that a near-record 197 million people shopped between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

As this year’s holiday shopping season ramps up, shipping industry experts say supply chain issues that plagued the season last year have alleviated, but there are other dynamics at play.

While retailers started preparing for the holiday season even earlier this year, consumers are still haunted by the ghost of supply chain past, survey data shows.

Warehouse operator GXO Logistics announced on Oct. 13 plans to hire about 4,000 employees across the U.S. by the end of the year, as it prepares for a busy holiday season in which it expects a surge in product returns.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, about the same as last year despite slowing sales and predictions of a lackluster holiday shopping season.

Online shoppers will be buying less this holiday season, but spending more.

Goods are pouring into ports, being delivered by trucks to warehouses and e-commerce locations, and retailers are restocking their shelves as the holiday shopping season gets into full swing. It’s also a major reason why trucking continues to outperform the overall U.S. economy.

The fire that knocked out power and shut down the world’s busiest airport shouldn’t delay holiday package deliveries, two of the nation’s biggest shippers said Dec. 18.

As the Christmas song goes, “Gee, the traffic’s sure terrific.” In fact, travel experts say they believe the final holiday travel period of the year — Dec. 23 through midnight New Year’s night — will set a new record.

UPS Inc., FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service have sizable operations in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania and have ramped up operations by hiring hundreds of seasonal employees to handle an expected surge in holiday orders.