Tips for Shipping Holiday Gifts That Arrive Safely and on Time

December 8, 2016

The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for the post office and many other shipping businesses. This is when so many people around the world are sending gifts, cards, and special packages to friends and family to celebrate the season. Not only do winter weather conditions put shipped packages and gifts at a higher risk of damage, but as a result of the high volume of delivery requests that take place during the holiday season, it is not uncommon for packages and letters to get mixed up during the shipping journey and get delivered to the wrong address or get lost in the system entirely. 

In this article, we discuss a few ways that gift-givers can ensure that their holiday packages arrive at the correct destination on time and in good shape.

Winter Weather and Shipping

Winter weather comes with a wide variety of challenges, including icy sidewalks, hazardous traffic conditions, and slip-and-fall accidents. All of these unfortunate events can lead to more packages being damaged during transit. Water damage, warping, cracking also tend to more common among shipped packages during times of inclement weather.

During the cold, snowy, and busy shipping season, packages have more of a tendency to become delayed, dropped, and even lost. One study conducted by StellaService found that at least one-in-ten e-commerce packages arrive damaged, and that study didn’t even take into account the factors of winter weather and the holiday rush.

Incorrect and Lost Deliveries During the Holiday Season 

Year after year America’s gift givers heavily rely on ordering holiday gifts online and having them shipped to their own house or to their loved one’s home. Some of the biggest holiday shopping days are still ahead of the online shopping and gift shipping industries. Green Monday occurs on December 12th and in 2015 totaled $1.89 billion in online sales. Free Shipping Day on Friday, December 16th will include hundreds of online retailers planning to absorb all shipping costs throughout the day. Lastly, Super Saturday on December, 17th (the 17th earns this title because it is the last full Saturday of shopping before Christmas), and the National Retail Federation expects 156 million shoppers in stores and online to take advantage of the last minute deals offered to shoppers who have waited to finish their Christmas lists until now.

With all of these millions of gifts being purchased with the hope of a pre-Christmas delivery, added to the regular workload postal services shoulder, the system can become very fragile over these next few weeks. Since the system is already stressed and overloaded with orders and shipping requests it is important to follow these shipping tips below to make sure that the gifts you send do not get lost in the postal system among the millions of other presents.

How to Make Sure Your Gifts Get To Your Family and Friends

Whether you’re shipping holiday gifts to a nearby town or around the world, there are a few things you can do to make sure they arrive safe and sound. Here are some shipping tips to keep in mind this holiday season.

• Ship early to plan ahead for possible weather delays
• Ship before the last week before Christmas when the rate of delivery requests greatly increases
• Cushion gifts with bubble wrap or foam peanuts to avoid shifting during transit that may damage the gift
• Ensure that you have enough postage to deliver your packages so it reaches its destination
• Do not reuse boxes or envelopes that are worn, ripping, or tearing
• Use online tracking to track packages that you send
• Make sure to label packages with correct addresses and shipping information

The way that you address your envelopes and packages are incredibly important. Remember to print the recipient’s address clearly with all necessary information and print the delivery and return addresses on the same side of the envelope or box. Always include a return address in the upper left corner just in case the delivery service needs to return the item back to you for some reason. Make sure to use waterproof ink or tape over the information with clear packing tape to ensure winter weather conditions doesn’t cause this pertinent information to fade or bleed in transit. 

Shipping Products from Superior Bag

Superior Bag is the name that retail stores, banks, casinos, pharmaceutical businesses, and law enforcement have come to know and trust to ship and deliver important goods. Our postal and shipping bags are perfect for safely and securely delivering documents, and other small yet valuable products. Our level of quality and attention to detail we put into our bags enables us to offer professional-grade shipping and postal supplies that are perfect for a hectic shipping season like the one that is quickly approaching.

Small, medium, and large postal bags, as well as secure document pouches, can be ordered on our website to take the guesswork out of gift-giving and all delivery needs during the holiday season and all throughout the year. Having the right size envelope or box is crucial for shipment success, so don’t skimp on packaging if you care about the items you’re sending and your recipients.

Back to Blog