Free Shipping Day 2014: Retailers Promise Free Delivery By Christmas Eve For Last-Minute Shoppers
Free Shipping Day is a big deal for last-minute Christmas shoppers. Retailers big and small will offer free shipping on December 18, promising delivery before you put cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve.
If you are a procrastinator when it comes to getting your holiday shopping done, Free Shipping Day may encourage you to take a few minutes out of your busy day to shop online for the holiday gifts you’ve been meaning to order. But rest assured, you may be able to wait even longer to order if you still can’t bring yourself to take that credit card out of your wallet.
Even those who don’t place their orders on December 18 may be able to get their orders in time for Christmas, with many retailers extending their free shipping offers beyond Free Shipping Day.
“If you love waiting ’til the last-minute to do your holiday shopping, don’t fret. Many retailers will extend their free shipping offers beyond Free Shipping Day.”
According to Time magazine, Luke Knowles created Free Shipping Day holiday in 2008; a day that has become as popular as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Green Monday. Knowles has watched the shopping day grow from just around 700 retailers into the thousands as companies caught on to the trend of luring in last-minute shoppers with the promise on free delivery by Christmas Eve.
While many think it’s just a day for big-box stores like Best Buy and Walmart, Knowles tells Time that, over the years, there has been an increase in smaller merchants — like Etsy — that sell “unique one-of-a-kind items.”
Most retailers who participated in Free Shipping Day last year will be offering it again this year. Some will require a minimum purchase, while others just want your business and offer free shipping on anything you order.
Delaying your holiday shopping and getting a free shipping offer may sound like a great deal, but it’s important to remember that once your order leaves the retailer, it may encounter an issue that’s out of the retailer’s control — delivery delays by UPS, USPS and FedEx could potentially screw up your holiday gift-giving plans. See a list of 2014 shipping deadlines here if you are shipping items yourself.
In 2013, a lethal combo of bad weather and shoppers waiting until the last possible moment to shop caused nightmares for UPS and FedEx, resulting in some very unhappy customers who didn’t get their orders in time for Christmas. The sheer volume of orders made a mess of deliveries, with a UPS spokesperson telling The Washington Post, “The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity in our network.”
Shop as early as possible, even before Free Shipping Day if you can, to ensure your packages arrive on time.
[Image: The Online Seller]
