The holiday season is both the most lucrative and stressful time of the year for online retailers. A big part of the aggravation comes from shipping. Customers have high expectations and they often want you to do what’s beyond your control. To avoid the wrath of your customers, here are a few things you can do to minimize your shipping woes:

1. Encourage Early Birds
The best way to guarantee holiday delivery is by getting customers to order early. You can do this by offering special incentives for early birds. Send out Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions to your mailing list contacts and social media contacts. Offer a special coupon code for customers who order before December 1st.

This offer may get your biggest fans to order early. This will get them their orders in plenty of time and keep your company in their good graces.

2. Post Shipping Deadlines Clearly
Figure out what the dates are that you must have orders in by in order to offer delivery by Christmas, and then post this information on EVERY page of your website. Your home page is NOT sufficient. People will enter your site from product pages and may never see your home page. This is why it’s so important that customers are able to find these deadlines from every page.

You may need to create a table like this:

This will allow customers to easily see the options they have available.  Be sure that the dates you select not only account for delivery time, but also for the time you’ll need to get your orders ready to ship. Your business will be busier than ever and you may not be able to get orders packed the day they come in.

3. Offer Multiple Shipping Options
If at all possible, allow customers to select an upgraded faster shipping method, in case they’re ordering later in the month. This will be a more expensive option, but it still gives the procrastinators the option to get their order delivered on time.

4. Be Honest With International Customers
International shipping is by far the most problematic part of holiday shipping. Global customs and postal agencies are flooded with packages and it’s very hard to know how fast your order will be delivered. I had a package arrive at a Canadian customer’s home over a month after I shipped last year. I shipped at the end of November and the package didn’t show up until mid January!

The honest truth about international shipping is that the only way you can 100% guarantee delivery by a certain date is by using a private courier like UPS or FedEx. These services will not only charge a hefty delivery fee, they’ll also charge a hefty fee for expediting your package through customs. If you offer this option to customers, be sure to warn them about these charges.

If you go with USPS international shipping, using Priority or Express options will help get your package to the destination country faster, but it can’t force your package through the destination country’s local customs and postal offices by a certain date.  Be honest with international customers about your international shipping offerings. You can tell them how long it should take to get their order with your chosen delivery method, but unless you use a private service, do not make iron-clad guarantees.

5. Offer Gift Cards
Gift cards are the perfect solution to holiday shipping woes. They can be delivered as late as Christmas Eve, and they make a great gift since the recipient can pick exactly what they want.

I link my gift card page on my shipping deadlines page. That way I can send customers to the gift cards if they’ve missed cut off dates.