Holiday deliveries are a little more complicated than Santa loading up his sleigh. It’s no secret that supply chain issues are affecting businesses worldwide, and the LA Port backlog may lead to IOUs under the tree instead of presents this holiday season. As of last week, more than 100 container ships idled outside the port that accepts more than 40% of the containers to the US. In an effort to start clearing the backlog, the Biden administration announced that the port would remain open 24/7
When White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked whether this move would guarantee holiday deliveries, she replied, “We are not the Postal Service or UPS or FedEx; we cannot guarantee.” Instead, she says, “ What we can do is use every lever at the federal government’s disposal to reduce delays, to ensure that we are addressing bottlenecks in the system, including ports and the need for them to be open longer hours so that goods can arrive.”
While we may not be able to do anything about the goods stuck in the LA Port, there are a few things businesses can to do be prepared for the 2021 holiday season. We’ll talk about the newly released UPS and FedEx shipping deadlines, and how your business can pre-plan your shipping strategy for a successful and profitable holiday season.
We don’t recommend waiting until the last minute to ship holiday items, but sometimes, there’s no way around it. Last week, FedEx and UPS announced their holiday shipping deadlines. Keep these dates in mind when you develop your holiday marketing and promotion strategy.
Packages shipped domestically through FedEx are subject to the following deadlines:
To learn more about deadlines for shipments to Canada, Mexico, and other international destinations, please visit the FedEx website.
Packages shipped domestically through UPS are subject to the following deadlines:
To learn more about deadlines for shipments to Canada, Mexico, and other international destinations, please visit the UPS website.
This may be the most challenging holiday shipping season in recent memory (and we’ve had several over the last decade). The 5Ps of success ring especially true during the holiday season. Proper planning prevents poor performance. Plan your strategy early, communicate deadlines to your customers, and offer incentives to customers who shop early.
Happy Holidays from ShipRx!