Getting Ready For 2020 Holiday Shipping
2020 is nearing an end and the holidays are approaching. You have your goods ready to go, you’ve promoted yourself on social media, you’ve sent out your emails, now it’s time to ship. Here are a few things you should know to plan for a successful holiday of shipping!
Last Day To Ship For Christmas Arrival
A lot of your customers will wait until the last possible moment to ship. The holidays are when FedEx, UPS, USPS, and other carriers are the busiest. With COVID making shipping more common than ever, this holiday is going to be crazy! Knowing that, expect that there are likely going to be delays. The best thing you can do to make sure people get gifts on time is to encourage them to order early. The earlier, the better! But, if things can’t wait, refer to this handy chart for the last day when your orders can ship to most likely arrive in time to be under the tree Christmas day (dates provided by carriers).
If you use CoShipping in Denver, Colorado at Shipist to fulfill your orders, remember to plan for packing time. If you have a lot of orders, make sure to book a few hours before 3pm on the last day to make sure your orders are ready for pickup.
Holiday Package Decorations & Notes
Decorating your packages is a great way to improve professionalism and give your customers a great experience when they get their gifts. An easy way to spice up your boxes is with custom tape. Custom Kraft tape is readily available through a variety of source. Mallory McCart Art recently shipped her 2021 calendars with this adorable yawning fox tape that she got from Sticker Mule. Kraft tape is more eco-friendly than traditional plastic tape and can make you look a lot more legit (it’s the kind of tape that Amazon uses after all).
You do have to use a special tape gun to get the tape wet and activate the glue when applying. Fortunately, if you CoShip with Shipist in Littleton, CO, we have that tape gun available for your use!
Aside from tape, custom stickers and cards are an easy way to spice up bland boxes and make things more personal. Rather than having a an entirely hand written note, a pre-made post card where you just write a few extra words (like “thank you!”) go a long and can save you time when you have a lot of packages to send.
We have express shipping of 15 days available through noissue. They make eco friendly tape, stickers, tissue, compostable mailers and more. If you’re interested, contact us and we’ll get you hooked up in time for Christmas shipping.
For your small specialty print jobs (like these cute calendars from Kelsey Shields Art), check out Denver printer Yellow Dog. They do all sorts of print jobs, including the Shipist sign here. Mention Shipist to them through the end of December to get 10% off of your first order (new customers only).
Revamp & Review Your Return Policy
Probably not anyone’s favorite task, but now’s a great time to look over your return policy and make sure things are up to date. A few important things to have covered:
Are returns allowed at all?
If returns are allowed, who is responsible for shipping?
Will customers who return items receive a full refund, partial refund, or store credit?
How do you handle damaged or lost packages?
Conclusion
The holidays are a great time for you to make sales but can also be a shipping challenge. Get started as early as you can, and feel free to reach out with any questions. Shipist is here to help!
