SAN ANTONIO — The closer to Christmas the more likely you will face a shipping snarl.
“This year we expect a lot of the buying to be postponed because people are playing it safe lately,” said Sri Sridhar, the founder and CEO of LateShipment.com. “They’re holding on to their dollars. So eventually they’re going to spend.”
That means there could be a lot of last-minute shopping and shipping all at the same time. A LateShipment.com for 2022 study found this holiday ground shipping delays are expected to be one to five days as well as one to three days for premium shipping.
Paying more for premium shipping like two day or overnight will not necessarily guarantee on-time delivery, so save by using ground shipping. The deadlines to send a package by ground are quickly approaching. It is December 14 for FedEx, December 17 for the post office and dates vary for UPS.
Ship directly from the retailer to your recipient to save since you will not have to pay for shipping twice.
If you are doing the shipping, use a sturdy box.
“The biggest mistake that customers make and we see it most commonly, is they use the wrong box,” said Sean O’Neal, the vice president of operations for The UPS Store. “We’ll even see customers come in with a cereal box, a shoe box. These boxes aren’t intended to make it through the shipping environment.”
Keep the package light so you pay less. Start by taking it easy on the tape.
“You don’t need a ton of tape,” O’Neal said. “You just want to cover each one of the seams.”
O'Neal suggested making an "H" shape with the tape along the seams of the top and bottom of your box.
Plus, do not over pad your gift.
“Make sure you use a little bit of bubble wrap on your item. Then create a nest for your item, probably two inches around that item all around,” said O’Neal.
Shop close to your gift’s destination the closer Christmas gets to get it under the tree in time.
“Shop from merchants who are shipping from within the state or maybe the next state over,” said Sridhar.
The closer to the package is to its destination, the fewer shipping delays it likely will see.
One more date to put on your calendar: Monday, December 12. That is known as Green Monday. It is one of the last sales holidays before Christmas. It also is traditionally the last day to shop online and safely have your gifts delivered in time for Christmas.