2022 Holiday Shipping GuideUpdated 10 months ago
2022 Nice Commerce Holiday Shipping Guide
In this guide you will find:
- Holiday shipping deadlines by carrier
- Observed Holidays by carrier
- Carrier holiday rates and best options for your products
- Fun fact, Shopify reports that 40% of customers are still shopping within the final 10 days of the season.
Holiday Carrier Deadlines
- Please note, Nice Commerce is a fulfillment service partner and we will do our best to ensure your orders meet their fulfillment timelines and windows (under normal circumstances*).
- When Nice Commerce is operating outside of normal circumstances, we will send proactive communication around our timing and expectations. Rest assured that we do our best to get the orders out the door as soon as they come in!*
FedEx
FedEx: This link contains FedEx's published Domestic and International Last Days to Ship.
Our FedEx Recommendations:
- FedEx Ground | Ship by December 14th, 2022
- FedEx Home Delivery- Ship by December 14th, 2022
- FedEx Express Saver- Ship by December 19th, 2022
- FedEx 2day Service- Ship by December 20th, 2022
- FedEx Overnight Service- Ship by December 22nd, 2022
UPS
UPS: This link contains UPS's published Domestic and International Last Days to Ship.
Our UPS Recommendations:
- UPS Ground- Ship by December 14th, 2022
- UPS 3Day Select- Ship by December 19th, 2022
- UPS 2Day Air- Ship by December 20th, 2022
- UPS Next Day- Ship by December 22nd, 2022
USPS
US Postal Service: This link contains USPS's published Domestic and International Last Days to Ship.
Our USPS Recommendations:
- USPS Media Mail- Ship by December 14th, 2022
- USPS First Class Mail- Ship by December 16th, 2022
- USPS Priority Mail- Ship by December 17th, 2022
- USPS Priority Mail Express- Ship by December 20th, 2022
NC & Carrier Observed Holidays
- Thanksgiving | Thursday, November 24th
- Nice Commerce and the following carriers will be non-operational (no order fulfillment, shipping, or delivery): DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS
- Christmas Day - Observed | Monday, December 26th
- Nice Commerce and the following carriers will be non-operational (no order fulfillment, shipping, or delivery): DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS
- New Year's Day - Observed | Monday, January 2nd
- Nice Commerce and the following carriers will be non-operational (no order fulfillment, shipping, or delivery): DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS
Carrier Holiday Rates
Due to high volumes of shipments during the holiday season, carriers often impose additional charges and holiday surcharge rates to account for the increase in volume.
Below is information on the following surcharges and our recommendations for best rates:
USPS: The surcharges for using USPS services will depend on the recipient Zone (Zones 0-9 cover the US), the weight of the package, and the service level selected. We have linked a USPS article that gives a detailed breakdown of the 2022 Holiday increases.
We recommend using USPS for smaller packages, and non-expedited orders during the Holidays. To this, we are negotiating a 15% decrease in the surcharge across all USPS services.
FedEx: FedEx will have a surcharge ranging from 6-15% for most Ground packages until Jan 15th, 2023. We are currently negotiating to waive additional fees for Ground packages
We recommend enacting FedEx Ground Economy (formally known as Smartpost) to your Cheapest/ Ever or other less expedited services where shipments average 2-7 days in transit.
Ground Economy is now sorted and processed in the FedEx Ground network. This service was created to specifically target 1-10lb shipments with less expedited shipping times. When we looked at Ground Economy with our FedEx reps, 64% of orders shipped saw a decrease in charge as compared to comparable shipping carriers and services.
UPS: We are going to be turning off UPS services due to the carrier's increase in fees starting October 31st - Jan 14th, 2023.
If you have orders mapping specifically to a UPS service, we will assist you in changing the carrier to FedEx or another carrier.