Due to the increased number of shipments during the holiday season, delays may be inevitable. But you can manage the holiday shipping delays and prep on time if you follow our steps!
If you are curious to know the courier’s holiday schedule for 2024 click the button below!
Tips on how to avoid the 2024 holiday shipping delays
Many people want to surprise their family or friends that live abroad during the holiday period and send their love through packages. But this means that the more people ship the more possibilities are the shipping delays. Courier companies prepare on time for the busiest time of the year, but it is important that you also take some things into consideration:
- Expect delays. We are aware that this sounds funny, but the best way to avoid shipping delays is by being prepared so that such things can occur. Thankfully, this is very easy to solve!
- Plan ahead. Now that you expect the unexpected, you will be able to plan your shipping schedule on time and ship your Christmas or other gifts before the last posting dates. Instead of shipping in late December, send your goods at the beginning of the month, or even of November.
- Pay premium. It is not always very easy to plan so much in advance. But, in such cases, you should be prepared that you would have to pay a premium or Express shipping service. These services, even though are more expensive, have a delivery timeframe of 24h in Europe, and 48-72h worldwide and go through fewer warehouses.
Do you already have your presents prepared and want to ship them straight away? Check the prices by clicking the button below!
Are you a business? Here’s how prep for 2024 holiday shipping delays
Around the Christmas period, when most of the shipping delays occur, there are thousands of shipments going from one part of the globe to the other. Here are some important tips on how to manage the holiday shipping delays for 2024 and avoid disappointing your customers during the happiest time of the year:
- Prepare your inventory. As an eCommerce or other business, you should be able to predict the number of orders for such periods and ensure you have enough to serve all of your customers.
- Packaging supplies. Sounds simple, right? But you do not want to run out of packaging materials when you most need them! Stock the packaging materials you may need based on the anticipated orders, or even get more. You can always use them later.
- Set up a delivery strategy. This is maybe one of the most important factors when discussing holiday shipping delays, whether Christmas or any other holiday. Book a shipping service with a reliable provider to ensure all your customers get their shipments on time, and in intact condition.
- Set up a return strategy. Unfortunately, it is very common for customers to want to return a specific product back to the store after receiving it. There are many reasons for the package return, but you should provide your customer with a delivery option if you want to retain them.
Eurosender offers you the best delivery or return strategies for businesses and much more! By partnering up with many logistics partners, we are able to choose what is the best delivery solution based on your business and customise it, all at the most affordable shipping prices. Apart from this, you will get support from a team of logistics experts, speaking over 18 languages, so you will be served in the preferred language. Check it out for yourself!
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The most common cause of holiday shipping delays
- Unpredictable weather. The weather is a factor that has a big influence on the transit time and understandably, it is out of the delivery company’s control. It happens oftentimes that there are many snowfalls during the winter Christmas period, causing holiday shipping delay. More about delays due to weather changes.
- High number of shipments. As mentioned earlier, the higher the number of shipments, the more likely the shipment to be stuck in a warehouse.
- Traffic jams and blockages. Even though you tried many things to avoid the holiday shipping delay, one cannot predict the traffic jams and blockages around the world. Courier companies are very well informed about such cases, however, sometimes they can come as unpredictable as they are.
Freight holiday shipping delays
- Rise in demand. Every year, there is a higher rise in demand for many products which could cause freight shipping delays on the roads. The more shipments there are, the more workforce and delivery trucks are needed, and sometimes these factors cannot be met at the expected time.
- Shortage of workers. The workforce is especially busy during the Christmas holidays to avoid shipping delays, but this does not mean they will be able to prepare all shipments on time. If there are a lot more shipments than expected, or someone gets sick during this time, the operations will definitely slow down.
- Shortage of truckers. Are there enough of trucks and truckers to deliver all the goods on time? This is another great question you need to take into consideration when prepping about the shipping holiday delays for 2024. Unfortunately, there is no unified answer to this.
- The pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of warehouses to stop their operations if some of their employees got infected. Whole warehouses are being closed as the virus keeps spreading, causing additional unpredictable holiday shipping delays.