Plan Your Christmas Deliveries

As I write this article we are one month to the day to Christmas Eve. My question to you is “have you planned your Christmas Deliveries ?” Each year we see and hear more about people moving away from High Street Shopping and moving more into the world of online shopping. Yes we will always have the High Street and Shopping Malls, but I believe what we will see is people will try a shop to buy an item and then unlike the past where they will try shop after shop and town after town to track down that present, and if the first shop is out of stock they will hit the world of online shopping.

But what is very interesting is to see facts and figures coming out saying a large amount of online sellers close down for business up to a week before the Christmas Holidays. This is the time when they could make money, people are now in hyper mode of buying, they are busy with cooking and parties and do not have the time to hit the shops so they hit the Internet only to find sorry we are closed for holidays. Now what is interesting is when you look at the reasons why they are closed so early.. We cannot get the items to our clients in time. I had to re-read the question a few times, as I too could not believe what I read.

This year Christmas Day is on a Saturday so these online sellers who close down early have lost a whole week of business, and maybe lost customers for good. Yes as online sellers we need to be careful of delivery plans, and plan your Christmas deliveries with great care as you do not want to have upset children and adults when there is no present. But did you know with Next Day Special Delivery and using a carrier such as DHL you can stay open right up to the 23rd December ? Companies such as DHL, Fedex, offer a next day delivery service, so you can have them pick up your parcel on the 23rd December and have them deliver it on the 24th. (Of course this works as long as we do not have storms or large amounts of snow – but even then these companies will do all they can to get your parcel there on time.)

Royal Mail offer their Special Delivery Nexy day services and as long as the weather is Ok your items will get there on time. When you list your items on eBay you can offer your normal delivery services and you can also offer these special services to keep your customers happy and at ease. If you are planning on using a service such as DHL near to the Christmas period it is always worth while speaking to them and give them warning, as you could run into problems if just out of the blue you phone them up at 4pm on the 23rd and say I have some parcels, they could say sorry. You will need to find out from these carriers their cut of times for pick-ups etc. As long as you plan your Christmas deliveries starting today, you will be able to stay open for business right up to the 23rd December and pick up all those late orders.