It’s officially time to hang your stockings by the chimney with care…and post shipping deadlines for all your customers! You understand the importance of shipping deadlines, but your customers may not. Knowing the shipping deadlines for carriers can help your customers avoid any late gifts. The best way to stress the significance of shipping deadlines is to post them everywhere you can on your site. This way, your customers can’t avoid seeing these dates. 

To help you get started, we’ve gathered a list of tips from creating popups and in-cart messages to promoting these deadlines in your email campaigns and on social media. Communicating these deadlines clearly and creatively with your customers will give them a positive shipping experience and impression of your business. And hopefully, they’ll leave a holly jolly review for your business.

Make a dedicated holiday shipping page

Your customers should easily be able to find the shipping information they’re looking for. Making a page dedicated to the holiday shipping deadlines each year helps your customers by keeping all of the dates in one place. You can include this page in your marketing efforts by linking to it in email campaigns or sharing it on social media. Your customers will appreciate not having to scour the internet for dates, and you’ll also have a sheet for you and your team to reference during the busiest shipping season of the year.

Create a popup

We know that popups can be annoying, but they can be beneficial when it comes to communicating something major to your customers. Popups are hard to ignore which, in this case, is a good thing! However, we do recommend using your best judgment with popups. Don’t block other important parts of your site; opt for a side-scrolling popup instead. This way, your customers aren’t frustrated and close out of the shipping deadlines before fully realizing what they are.

Send a “last day to order” email

Let’s face it — the holiday season is super busy, so it’s easy to forget things. Shipping deadlines are no exception. Remind all of the customers on your email list, including those who abandoned their carts, about shipping deadlines throughout the holiday season. Especially the closer it gets to the cutoffs. Although you may include them in your email campaigns throughout the season, it’s better to send one, final email a couple of days before the shipping deadlines hit. Using a subject line that includes something about the “last day to order” just might do the trick for all of your last-minute shoppers who need a nudge.

Add shipping questions to your FAQ page

FAQ pages can be essential during the holiday season. If your business has a clear and comprehensive FAQ section, your customers can avoid having to contact your business via call, chat, email, or whatever other customer service lines you have available. Giving your customers the option to find answers for themselves is a quick and easy way to boost their shopping experience. Some questions to answer in your FAQ section include: 

• How much does shipping cost?
• Do you offer overnight delivery?
• When is the last day to purchase to receive a package by Dec. 24?
• Do you ship to a PO Box?
• Which shipping carriers do you use?
• Do you ship to international addresses?
• How can I track my package?
• How quickly do you process orders at your warehouse from the time of order?
• What do I do if I haven’t received my package?
• What is your returns policy? 

Add in-cart messaging

If a potential customer has already added a product to their cart, it’s up to you to convince them to complete their purchase. How can you give them the push they need? In-cart messaging is a great way to start! Add messaging that includes shipping deadlines as well as information about when their order will ship and if free shipping is included. Your customers will appreciate all of the proactive communication, and they’ll be more likely to finish their checkout. 

Promote express shipping as deadlines pass

Sometimes, customers won’t be able to make their purchases before some of the earlier shipping deadlines. Although it’s more expensive, it’s still a good idea to highlight the expedited shipping options your business offers. Your customers will be more likely to use these options during this time of the year, and with Christmas on a Sunday this year, they might really need expedited shipping options where available. 

2022 domestic holiday shipping deadlines 

Now that we’ve shown you how to communicate the 2022 holiday shipping deadlines to your customers, it’s time to give you those deadlines! We’ve listed the shipping deadlines for UPS, USPS, and FedEx below. 

UPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

• UPS 3 Day Select®: Monday, December 19, 2022 
• UPS 2nd Day Air® services: Wednesday, December 21, 2022
• UPS® Ground shipping: Check ups.com/ctc for details
• UPS Next Day Air® services: Thursday, December 22, 2022

USPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

• USPS Retail Ground™: Saturday, December 17, 2022 
• First Class MailⓇ: Saturday, December 17, 2022 
• Priority MailⓇ: Monday, December 19, 2022
• Priority Mail ExpressⓇ*: Friday, December 23, 2022 

*Priority Mail Express postage refund eligibility is adjusted for shipments mailed December 22-25

FedEx Holiday Shipping Deadlines

• FedEx GroundⓇ Economy: Thursday, December 8, 2022 
• FedEx GroundⓇ:  Wednesday, December 14, 2022 
• Home DeliveryⓇ: Wednesday, December 14, 2022 
• Express SaverⓇ: Tuesday, December 20, 2022
• 2DayⓇ Services: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 
• FedEx Same Day: Friday, December 23, 2022

Conclusion

Shipping deadlines are more than dates on a calendar. These cutoffs are the last possible day your customers can order gifts and still have them arrive in time for the holidays. It may feel like you’re overcommunicating, but it’s easy to lose track of time during the holiday season, so reminders can be extremely helpful. Using your website, social media, and other pieces of your online presence to give your customers shipping deadlines elevates your customer service and shows your customers you care about their holiday season. 

Keep the holiday cheer going all year round with a 30-day free trial to Stamps.com.

Just as e-commerce evolves, so do its shoppers. Online shoppers span across generations, interests and buying habits. Though we all tend to browse for products a little differently, there’s something just about all online buyers look for when shopping – free shipping. In fact, they almost demand it. One comScore report found the following data regarding free shipping for e-commerce orders:

– 81% of consumers would rate free shipping as a top priority
– 93% of shoppers would take some type of action (add more items to their cart, search online for promo codes, etc.) to qualify for free shipping
– 58% would add items to their cart to qualify for free shipping
– 83% are willing to wait two extra days for delivery, if the item would ship for free

A separate report by comScore found that Free Shipping Day 2012 helped increase sales the final week before Christmas by 16% compared to the previous year. That was a boost kicked off from a single day promotion. Imagine what your profit margins would look like if you offered free shipping all the time.

Great stats aside, a small business doesn’t have the budget that an enterprise might, and therefore may not be able to offer free shipping year round. Free shipping is too great an opportunity to pass up, and even small businesses can partake in it. Here are five ways a small e-commerce business can offer free shipping without breaking the bank.

Offer free shipping during holidays
Allowing free shipping during the holidays is a great alternative to offering it all the time, and won’t cost you beyond what you’re able to spend. Orders will be higher during this season, which will help eat the cost of shipping goods for free. Another option is to offer free shipping during a specific holiday. One-day sales and free shipping incentives are popular on Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve/Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

Set a minimum cart value
Target does it. There’s no reason you can’t, too. Determine the minimum order value a buyer must purchase in order to qualify for free shipping, and offer it under those conditions. A case study found that when one company added a minimum shopping cart threshold to earn free shipping, orders increased by 90%. Moreover, the average order value also increased by 7.32%. Pull together some numbers to help determine a minimum order value that would work for your business. You need to know:

– Total Orders Received
– Average Order Value
– Average Profit Margin
– Shipping Fees per Order
– Shipping Costs per Order

Once you have these variables, plug them into this calculator, which will tell you your shopping profit. You can then find your minimum shopping cart threshold for free shipping with the following equation:

[(Minimum Cart Value – Average Order Value) x Gross Profit Margin] – Shipping Cost = Minimum Order Value

Plug and play with different estimated Minimum Cart Values to find an order value that works for you.

Offer it to email subscribers
Extending free shipping to customers on your distribution list is essentially creating long-term profits. Subscribers will be the first to be notified of new products, sales, offers and marketing efforts. These customers are already your biggest source of revenue. E-commerce businesses that have 40% of their customers making repeat purchases generate nearly 50% more revenue than other sellers with only 10% of their customers returning. By offering free shipping to your most loyal buyers, you’re encouraging them to make new purchases and shop from you long-term.

Free shipping for returns
More and more online businesses are implementing free returns as part of their return policy. Zappos offers free, unconditional returns for all products (in addition to free shipping). Offering free returns works for small businesses for two reasons: 1) you will pay for return postage only sparingly, and 2) free returns create buyer trust and encourage shoppers to follow through with a purchase…which they likely won’t return, anyways. Researchers found that businesses that offered free shipping on returns saw sales increase by up to 357%. Even if you have to bite the bullet and pay for a few returns, you’ll more than make up that cost with better profits.

Make it available for certain products
If you don’t have room in your budget to offer free shipping on all your products, try making it available for just a few. Have any product you need to move in order to make room for new inventory? Offer to ship it for free. In industry speak, this is called order-level shipping. Offer free shipping on best sellers, sale items, or products that will be popular during a given event. If you’re an online florist, you could offer free shipping on red roses in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. Or, if you ordered some new stock and want to test its popularity, advertise it with a free-shipping guarantee. You’ll incentivize people to buy it. If it does well, you’ll feel safe ordering a large quantity from your supplier.

Free shipping positively impacts profit margins and customer relations. It is increasingly becoming the norm across e-commerce industries, and shoppers are growing to expect it. Offer free shipping in a modified way that makes sense for your business, and you can reap the benefits too.

Ecomdash is an award-winning multichannel inventory software for e-commerce retailers. It offers an end-to-end e-commerce solution to complete workflow, including inventory and sales order management, product listing, dropshipping and fulfillment management, reporting and more.

 

We are excited to announce Stamps.com’s new integration with ShipStation, a web-based shipping solution that helps online retailers process and ship their orders using multiple carriers including FedEx, USPS, UPS and DHL.

When using ShipStation’s web-based interface, customers can compare shipping rates and easily select the lowest cost carrier for each package. All order data is automatically backed up in the cloud and is accessible from any computer.

The new Stamps.com integration will allow ShipStation customers to access their Stamps.com accounts without ever leaving the ShipStation interface.

ShipStation automatically retrieves and consolidates order information from over 40 sales channels, including:

• Amazon
• eBay
• Newegg
• Etsy
• Shopify
• Magento
• Volusion
• Bigcommerce
• WooCommerce
• SquareSpace
• Plus many more

Check out ShipStation’s free trial today – no credit card required.

Need some last minute tips to help get your holiday e-commerce orders shipped? Watch this video to learn the secrets to simple order fulfillment.

Happy Holidays!

Stamps.com has released the Holiday Shipping Survival Guide for E-commerce Retailers! The FREE, downloadable guide provides online sellers with best practices and industry data to optimize their shipping and increase sales during the 2011 holiday season.

Even for the most seasoned online sellers, the holiday rush during the fourth quarter can present obstacles to efficient shipping. eMarketer™ projects that this year’s fourth quarter will increase 13.5% and produce a record-breaking $59.7 billion in online sales. That’s why we’ve created a comprehensive guide with the information online sellers need to maximize their shipping process, meet the needs of their customers, and drive more revenue.

The Holiday Shipping Survival Guide for E-commerce Retailers features:

• Eight Tips on Holiday Shipping
• Seven Free Shipping Promotions
• Using SCAN Forms to Improve Customer Communication
• Eleven Ways to Improve Packaging
• Important Industry Tips, Stats and Dates

Download the free guide today! It’ll help you wrap up a successful holiday season.