Complete Guide to Holiday Shipping, Including Shipping Deadlines

The holiday season is the most lucrative time of the year for eCommerce, and online retailers everywhere will soon be hit with a massive influx of orders. This is a vast opportunity for any business, but it's easy to become overwhelmed if you're not prepared. Fortunately there are several measures you can take to ensure you're ready for the large number of orders you may be shipping out during the holidays.

One crucial factor to be aware of is the deadline for shipping an order for it to arrive on or before December 25, Christmas Day. This deadline varies per carrier and service, location, and destination. A list of 2019 shipping deadlines is useful for shoppers and retailers alike. We'll list US, Canada, UK, and Australia shipping deadlines shortly, but first we want to share our best shipping tips so you don't get buried under the blizzard.

Special Note for the 2019 Holiday Season

The 2019 holiday shopping season is going to be about a week shorter than usual, because Thanksgiving is so late in November this year — November 28. This means Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest sales events of the year, are taking place a full week closer to Christmas. Cyber Monday isn't even until December 2. This means customers have less time to shop, and a shorter time for packages to arrive at their destinations before Christmas.

As an eCommerce business owner, you may want to consider starting your holiday promotions a bit early this year to allow for shoppers who don't want to wait an extra week for the big sale. For example, if you normally start your Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving, you could start it on Monday of that week instead to give customers a bit more time. You may be able to come up with a unique promotional event centered on the lateness of Thanksgiving this year. Ultimately it's up to you as to whether this is right for your marketing strategy.

Use Last Year's Data to Plan Ahead for Holiday Shipping

Before the holiday season begins, you should prepare your business as well as possible. Start by evaluating last year's sales numbers to get an idea of what you might experience this year. Identify bestselling products, note your shipping costs, and keep track of any other shipping patterns your store experienced, such as the countries or regions most frequently shipped to. Now is also your chance to correct any problems that arose during the previous season.

Of course, this year's holiday shopping season may not be identical to last year's, so don't expect it to be. Instead, use last year's information to help you with this year's strategy and be ready to handle any new variables that come up. Keep in mind how new products might change the situation, especially if you're planning on a holiday release for any new items, and make sure you can handle the potential sales volume. If you're capitalizing on a trend, you may be expecting even more sales, so be ready.

Whether a product is a known holiday bestseller or a brand new item you're sure will be popular, be sure to stock up on inventory before the holiday shopping season begins. Even less-popular products should be considered for a bit of overstock, just in case. Selling out of anything during the holidays means a lost opportunity, and you can always move remaining overstock with another sale later — New Year's Day is popular for this.

Stock Up On Packing Materials

The holiday shopping season is famous for images of overcrowded retail stores and rapidly-emptying shelves, causing lots of stress for shoppers everywhere (which is why more people prefer eCommerce in the first place). You don't want to have to be out there with them, rushing to buy more packing materials to handle your orders! Instead, stock up early on any materials you use to ship your products, which could be bubble wrap, paper, Styrofoam peanuts, or other material. Some shipping carriers also offer free boxes upon request, so make sure you ask.

The holidays are not the time to skimp on packaging — you want everything to arrive in perfect shape so your customers (and their gift recipients) are fully satisfied. The more packing materials you have ready, the easier it is to ensure your shipments make it to their destinations in one piece.

Optimize Your Shipping Process on Both Front and Backend

If your shipping process needs improvement, now is a better time than ever to make optimizations that will help both you and your customers. If you don't use free or flat-rate shipping, display real-time shipping rates on your eCommerce website so customers aren't surprised by the costs. If you're ready to experiment with free shipping, offering it once a certain threshold is reached is proven to increase order sizes.

Delivery date estimates can also give you an advantage, since customers will be able to see the estimated delivery date of their order rather than having to do the math themselves, as they do when only given a shipping speed such as 3 – 5 days.

To make shipping easier for your business, ensure that your eCommerce software includes a full range of built-in shipping features as well as integrations with the best shipping software and best shipping refund solutions. These tools can improve the workflow for your shipping procedures and ensure your business receives the best rates.

3dcart has everything you need to optimize shipping in all the ways described above, including our FedEx and UPS Delivery Estimates feature introduced in 3dcart version 9.1. Delivery Estimates are included free on the 3dcart Pro plan and higher, and this functionality is also available through certain shipping apps like Advanced Shipping Manager.

Post the Shipping Deadlines on Your Website

Whether or not you use delivery estimates, you should keep your customers as informed as possible about the holiday shipping deadlines for any carriers and methods you use. You can take this information from the tables below and share the pertinent dates with customers in a few ways. You could consider adding the information directly to product pages, releasing a blog post, creating an Extra Page, or sending out an email newsletter to get the information out to your customers. We do recommend posting it prominently on your website!

Remember you want to make shopping as easy as possible for your customers, so you could also make a point to tell them on what day they'll need to switch to expedited shipping — i.e. when a standard shipping method will no longer allow the order to reach the destination in time.

US Holiday Shipping Deadlines for 2019

Here is a list of recommended shipping deadlines for parcels sent from within the US using a variety of carriers, including USPS, FedEx, and UPS.

US Postal Service - Domestic

USPS International Shipping

FedEx Domestic and International

UPS Domestic and International

Canada Holiday Shipping Deadlines for 2019

Here is a list of recommended shipping deadlines for parcels sent from within Canada using a variety of carriers, including Canada Post, FedEx, and Purolator.

Canada Post Domestic and International

FedEx Canada Domestic and International

Purolator Domestic and International

UK Holiday Shipping Deadlines for 2019

Here is a list of recommended shipping deadlines for parcels sent from within the UK using a variety of carriers, including Royal Mail, Parcelforce, and Hermes.

Royal Mail Domestic

Royal Mail International Economy

Royal Mail International Standard and International Tracking and Signature Services

Parcelforce

Hermes

Australia Holiday Shipping Deadlines for 2019

Here is a list of recommended shipping deadlines for parcels sent from within Australia using Australia Post, or Sendle.

Australia Post Domestic Services from Metro Areas

Sendle

The Holidays Await!

With these holiday eCommerce shipping tips and deadlines available, you're now more prepared than ever to have a successful holiday season. We also welcome you to check out our complete guide to holiday preparations for your online store, in which we cover promotions, marketing, and other aspects of holiday eCommerce. You can find it below as a free ebook download.