This year the timing of Christmas lands it firmly on a Monday. That’s significant for several reasons, specifically related to ecommerce shipping.
Christmas Eve deliveries are hard enough to come by in any year when it lands on a week day, but on a Sunday? And, in general, it pushes the last guaranteed delivery dates by shipping firms to slightly earlier than usual. Royal Mail, for instance, is offering a last first class date of 21st December.
One possible winner will be Amazon by extension marketplace sellers utilising Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA). Doubtless the Amazon machine will keep on whirring until the last possible moment and in Prime Now areas Christmas Eve deliveries will keep on going, very possibly, into the evening.
Personally, I can’t see myself buying anything as a gift online after Thursday 21st of December. Although perhaps if there was a guaranteed Friday for Saturday delivery option, I might consider it. But that’s knowing that there will be an opportunity to go shopping on Sunday on the local High Street if my parcel turns out to be a no show.
Of course, even where guaranteed Saturday or even Sunday delivery on Christmas is offered, it seems likely that take up will be small, not because the services are unreliable, but rather because shoppers are too wary and risk averse to take it to the wire and possibly not get the goods on time.
How will you be approaching the Christmas 2017 weekend as a retailer? The chances are that you won’t be able to make dispatches after Friday 22nd (and even shipping on that day will be largely pointless anyway) so there is a rare opportunity for a decent weekend off. Although, of course, you’ll need to keep on answering your marketplace emails and messages.
And as we know, although shopping falls away gradually online in the run-up to Christmas, it comes back fairly strongly and rapidly, even from the 25th. Plenty of people will be keenly using their new devices and mobiles for the first time and many also are also keen to spend their Christmas vouchers and money as quickly as possible.
So whilst you may enjoy a few days off, it should hopefully be back to business as useful for you on the 27th of December.
3 Responses
Wedensdsay the 20th is our last day. For far to many years we have had people order last minute via 2nd class post then complain when it doesnt arrive, or they are out and its too late to collect from the depot. Decided to give ourself less hassle this year!
As Toby said, our last day of posting will be on Wednesday the 20th and for the same reason.
The problem is with Amazon, items are in pending and it is hard to get customer support to remove them once you set your shop to holiday mode.
We may re open between Christmas & the New Year, January of this year was very busy, so hoping for a good start to the new year.
I’ll probably close on the Monday or the Tuesday, this might seem early but experience tells me that people expect miracles and the number of complaints about ‘late’ deliveries skyrocket. I use 2nd class by default but I always upgrade everyone to 1st class for the week before Christmas.
I normally re-open after 5pm on Christmas Eve but this year I will probably open a bit earlier, maybe on the 23rd.
Traditionally I have good sales on Christmas day.