October 22, 2015
The 2015 holiday season is right around the corner and following tradition, we’re here to deliver important dates and best practices for smooth sailing during this busy time. First and foremost, download our holiday shipping calendar.
Land inventory early
Between now and November 20th, focus on getting your inventory into a Shipwire warehouse. In preparation for the holiday rush, ports, customs offices, and transportation hubs are busy managing pre-holiday inventory requirements. High traffic may cause delays in getting product to warehouses, so plan ahead and get it done early.
Prepare your Shipwire account
Successful holiday sales require that all systems are configured and tested before orders start flowing. This is especially important for merchants just getting started with Shipwire — we cannot over stress the importance of getting familiar with the Shipwire platform and your particular setup prior to the holiday rush.
Setup sales channels Now is the time to develop new sales channels for the holiday season. Here are some of the channels our most successful merchants are building:
- Flash Sales – More and more merchants are moving significant order volume through 3rd party flash sale sites via Shipwire. Establish your flash sales relationships now so you can be the deal of the day during the buying season.
- eBay – Every year we see a significant spike in orders from merchants who sell their products on eBay. Don’t ignore this growing sales channel to drive incremental sales during the holiday season.
- Backorders – While this isn’t technically a sales channel, consider taking pre-orders for inventory that won’t be ready to ship until the holidays. Partner with Shipwire to plan for backorders. We can receive and ship your orders in time for the holidays!
November 25th onward
Starting November 25th, we’ll be focused on providing an amazing buyer experience to your end customers. Our sales, operations, and warehouse teams will be completing projects, fulfilling large backorders, and making sure all shipments are processed correctly and on time.
To stay current on the most important dates, download and print the holiday shipping calendar.
For additional documentation, see our Support Center.
Shipping cutoff dates
During the holidays, it’s common to see carriers modify their service schedules. We have included known schedule changes on the calendar, however, many carriers have not published schedule changes yet and some may standard scheduling throughout the season. We encourage you to check carrier websites directly to learn about any modifications to holiday service and have provided links to some of our carriers below:
We look forward to helping you make this holiday sales season the best one yet! Please leave questions in the comments.