Holiday Shipping Preparation for Your Online Clothing Business
Rob The T-shirt Guy December 7, 2018 0Did you know that many online clothing businesses generate nearly 50% of business revenue in just two months of the year? Whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday, retailers must develop a sound game plan to handle holiday shipping requests
Did you know that many online clothing businesses generate nearly 50% of business revenue in just two months of the year? When it begins to feel a lot like Christmas in November and December, customers flock to eCommerce websites to avoid the manic brick and mortar retail push of the holiday season. This means retailers have a limited number of business days to turn online sales into business models that deliver products in a timely manner.
Whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday, retailers must develop a sound game plan to handle holiday shipping requests.
Busiest Holiday Shipping Days Create “December Madness”
Two organizations have mastered minimizing delivery times for holiday packages. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers nearly 900 million packages. The bustling business during the holiday season includes the holiday shipping of more than 15 billion pieces of mail just on every Sunday between turkey day and the day before Christmas Eve.
The USPS released a press release shortly the 2018 holiday season began on Black Friday. “Customer mailing and shipping traffic is expected to increase beginning December 10 and the Postal Service expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages per week during these two weeks. The week of Dec. 17-23 is predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping, and delivery week, when nearly 3 billion pieces of First-Class Mail, including greeting cards, will be processed and delivered.”
United Parcel Service (UPS) has predicted to handle holiday shipping demand that easily exceeds what the company delivered during holiday business days in 2017. The company has forecasted 2018 holiday package deliveries to hit the 750 million mark, which represents about an eight percent increase from the same period in 2017. UPS plans to ship around 30 million packages on 17 of the 21 business days leading up to Christmas.
How do the two leaders in holiday shipping turn the commercial march towards December 25th into a retail bonanza?
How Your Online Clothing Business Should Handle Shipping for the Holidays
Minimizing delivery times and establishing product cut off dates are two important elements in implementing a successful holiday shipping program. However, both small business retailers and giant corporations such as WalMart have to ensure the retailers have enough supplies on hand to pack and deliver products efficiently. It is not just making sure you have enough product in stock to meet demand. You also have to order more than enough packing and delivery supplies to handle the high demand for holiday packages.
Plan for Extra Holiday Shipping Times
With priority mail express, the USPS is able to send packages throughout the United States with an incredible sense of urgency. Nonetheless, most retailers do not have the resources to deliver holiday packages that fast. Airlines typically add estimated time to flight arrivals and departures to avoid ticking off customers. For holiday shipping times, savvy retailers pad delivery times to keep customers happy on both ends of the holiday shipping equation. Add a day or two for shipping deadlines to ensure stressed out customers return to conduct more holiday business.
Delight Your Customers with Multiple Holiday Shipping Options
A report released in 2016 by State of Shipping in Commerce presented the following statistics:
“All retailers surveyed reported that increasing the number of shipping options at checkout helps increase sales (86%), reduce cart abandonment (75%), meet customer expectations (86%), meet shipping deadlines (84%), and ship to a wider geographical area (78%).” From limiting the number of days for shipping to increasing package size limits for bulk apparel clothing, you can delight your customers by implementing different holiday shipping strategies.
Order bulk apparel, stock up for Christmas and establish set in stone delivery times to create the ultimately successful holiday shipping strategy. Ordering from a wholesaler like Bulk Apparel can save you time and money in the hectic holiday season.
