Blizzard helps online sales, shippers

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The blizzard along the U.S. East Coast will mean more online holiday shopping, with express shippers benefiting most, a Maryland business school said.

Last minute holiday shoppers will not find the deep discounts online that may be found at brick-and-mortar stores, Professor Peter Morici of the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business said in a release Sunday.

The weather conditions have curtailed mall traffic, which means more online competition for fewer goods. Item prices will be higher and online retailers will probably charge premiums for express services that will exceed the additional costs imposed by UPS, FedEx and other shippers, Morici said.

The shippers will benefit from the additional sales spurred by shoppers' inability to go out to malls because of the weather.