December 15, 2009
Shipwire merchants, we are nearing some cut-off dates that you need to be aware of.
1. Dec 17th is Free Shipping Day. The reason Dec. 17th is Free Shipping Day (and not later in December), is because the cut-off for most ground shipping to get the order for the holiday is Dec. 17th. If you plan to offer free shipping on Dec 17th you may consider registering your website at Free Shipping Day (registration). Not sure you can afford a free shipping promotion, think again. Here are 6 free shipping promotions to consider from the Shipwire blog.
2. December 17th is the last day for Ground shipping to be guaranteed for a holiday order.
3. Shipwire merchants should check their shipping preferences and make sure that you are offering Expedited and Next Day delivery options. This is especially important if you use the Shipwire XML shipping rate feeds to automate shipping rates into a shopping cart checkout. Shopify and Drupal’s Ubercart have easy connections for this or see our Shipwire compatible shopping cart checklist. More of these connections are coming soon.
4. December 23rd is the last day for UPS or FedEx pickup before the Christmas holiday. For orders on this date you may want to notify buyers that “Your order is being quickly processes; but, there is no guarantee of delivery before Christmas”. Make sure they have selected the fastest shipping method that you offer your buyers, or it will not get there.
If you are looking for links and tips to Carrier holiday shipping schedules or Shipwire warehouse holiday schedules please see Holiday Shipping Post from a few months ago. Example what you can learn there, today was the last day to ground ship from the U.S. to Canada for holiday delivery.
We hope this helps in the final countdown of the holiday shipping season.