Holiday Shipping Deadlines for 2024
The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year! But for busy entrepreneurs, it can also be the most hectic! To help you get the most out of this joyous season, while also managing your customer’s expectations, we’ve compiled this year’s holiday shipping deadlines for Chit Chats and our partner carriers.
With the kick off to holiday shipping unofficially taking place on Black Friday, we expect to see shipping volumes tremendously increase from just before November 29 to December 25. For that reason, we encourage you to start your holiday sales early to account for the increased shipping volume that may result in delays. We also suggest adding in enough time to your “purchase by date” to include processing times. This will help ensure that both you and your customers can count down the days of this magical season in bliss, rather than distress.
For those who are shipping in high volumes this holiday season, we recommend that you plan to drop off your shipments 3 hours before your branch’s scheduled closure. This will help you avoid busy branch times and give our staff ample time to process your shipments same-day.
As always, delivery times are estimates and are not guarantees. It’s a good idea to ensure you have deadlines in place and that you communicate them to your customers often. A few touchpoints to share deadlines include your shipping policy, product pages and upon checkout.
Holiday Cut-Off Dates 2024
We base our recommended cut-offs on the dates our partner carriers provide at the beginning of the holiday season. These dates are not guaranteed. While the busiest time for shipping typically starts two weeks before Christmas, we strongly encourage you to send your shipments even earlier than the cut-offs wherever possible.
From what we’ve seen throughout the year, online shopping is still a strong contender for those who buy and due to high volumes we anticipate that there can be unexpected delays with shipping carriers and with international shipments in particular. Plus we all know that winter weather can wreak havoc with transit and this applies to shipments too! So as we gear up for the busiest time ahead, we want to help prepare you and your customers to ensure a happy delivery experience.
Key Things To Note
- Shipping deadlines are estimates for delivery before December 24 however, we recommend that to make it clear to your customers that these are estimated delivery times and that delays are expected. We recommend communicating earlier holiday deadlines to your customers.
- Remember that packages first need to be received at a Chit Chats branch! Be sure to factor in transit and processing times for drop spots, Canpar courier pickups or mail-in shipments.
- Due to the potential Canada Post strike Canadian cut-off dates may change.
Upcoming Carrier Deadlines
Please add additional processing time based on your region. Cut-offs and delivery times for the non-contiguous states (Alaska and Hawaii) vary and may be affected by the limited availability of transportation with USPS. Read the USPS‘ National Releases for more details.
U.S. APO/FPO/DPO Addresses & U.S. Territories
- We recommend that additional transit times be factored in when sending shipments to these destinations
- Transit times can vary due to the transportation methods used by USPS