2019 Holiday Shipping Deadlines
2019 Holiday Shipping Deadlines
As the holidays creep closer and closer, it’s important to ensure you finalize your shipping schedule. In a perfect world, customers would order gifts with plenty of time to be packed and delivered, but the truth is that 40% of customers are still shopping in the final 10 days of the season, as reported by Shopify. This means you have a very narrow margin of error to get products into your customers’ hands before time runs out. Luckily, our friends at ShipStation have compiled shipping deadlines of the major carriers in the US to ensure you ace shipping this holiday season.
USPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines
| Service | Shipping Cutoff Date |
| Retail Ground™ | Saturday, December 14th |
| First Class Mail® | Friday, December 20th |
| Priority Mail® | Saturday, December 21st |
| Priority Mail Express® | Monday, December 23rd |
FedEx Holiday Shipping Deadlines
| Service | Shipping Cutoff Date |
| FedEx SmartPost® | Monday, December 9th |
| FedEx Ground® | Monday, December 16th |
| Home Delivery® | Monday, December 16th |
| Express Saver® | Thursday, December 19th |
| 2Day® Services | Friday, December 20th |
| Overnight® Services | Monday, December 23rd |
UPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines
| Service | Shipping Cutoff Date |
| Ground® | Friday, December 13th |
| 3 Day Select® | Thursday, December 19th |
| 2nd Day Air® Services | Friday, December 20th |
| Next Day Air® Services | Monday, December 23rd |
ShipStation has also put together an infographic with all of the important dates on one timeline to help you keep them straight. We recommend printing it out and hanging it in your warehouse or order processing areas so you don’t miss any of the deadlines.
Download the infographic here.
Make sure you are a holiday hero and not a grinch by utilizing these shipping cut-off dates to get all of your orders to customers in time for the holidays. Once you know the carrier deadlines, you can determine your own cut-off dates for processing and shipping out orders. You can also use these dates to create marketing initiatives around shipping, like having a countdown on your website.
