UPS expects a 26 per cent year-on-year increase in returns processing on January 2 thanks to the important role e-commerce has come to play in holiday shopping fulfilment, reports New York's Air Cargo World.

UPS forecasts January 2 as the peak returns day following the 2019 holiday season, when consumers send back millions of holiday orders ' an estimated 1.9 million returns within the UPS network alone for the day.

While post-holiday returns are a time-honoured tradition, previous years more often found unwelcome gifts returned to brick-and-mortar retailers in person.

With the rise of online shopping for the holidays, a UPS study found that 73 per cent of online shoppers say a retailer's returns process affects their likelihood of shopping with the retailer again in the future.

To facilitate returns within its own network, UPS said US customers will have tens of thousands of location options to process UPS Returns packages.

These include more than 36,000 UPS drop boxes, more than 4,800 UPS Store locations and more than 14,000 UPS Access Point locations with third-party retailers including Michaels, Advance Auto and CVS Pharmacy. UPS delivery drivers can also directly receive returns marked with the appropriate label.