September 26, 2013
The 2013 holiday season is expected to be the best in years, and we have important dates and best practices to share with you from our many years of experience with holiday logistics. Be sure to download the holiday shipping calendar below.
Pre-November 22nd — Land Your Inventory Early
Until November 22nd, your primary focus should be getting your inventory into a Shipwire warehouse. In preparation for the holiday rush, every merchant is working to get products into warehouses, so ports, customs offices, and transportation hubs will be very busy managing all these pre-holiday inventory moves. High traffic may cause delays prior to your product arriving at the warehouse, so get your inventory in early!
Set Up Your Shipwire Account
Successful holiday sales require that all your systems be configured and tested before orders start to flow. Every year, we meet new merchants who put this task off to the last minute and they always wish they had begun everything sooner. Don’t waste another minute, set up your free Shipwire account now.
Get Educated
Set Up Sales Channels Now is the time to be developing new sales channels for the holiday season. We’re seeing successful merchants setting up these things:
- Flash Sales – More and more merchants are moving significant order volume through 3rd party flash sale sites via Shipwire. Establish your flash sales relationships now so you can be the deal of the day during the buying season.
- eBay – Every year we see a significant spike in orders from merchants who sell their products on eBay. Don’t ignore this growing sales channel to drive incremental sales during the holiday season.
- Backorders – While this isn’t a sales channel, consider taking pre-orders for inventory that won’t be here until the holidays. Partner with Shipwire and we can receive and ship your orders in time for them for be the hottest gift of the year!
Post-November 25th
After November 25th, our focus will be on providing an amazing buyer experience for our merchants’ customers. Our sales, operations, and warehouse teams will be completing projects, fulfilling large backorders, and making sure all shipments are processed correctly.
To stay current on the most important dates, download and print the holiday shipping calendar included in this article. For additional documentation, see our Support Center.
We hope this helps you plan out your 2013 shipping and look forward to working with you to make this holiday sales season the best one yet!