Show of hands if you’re also a gift shopping procrastinator. The holiday season usually starts off with good intentions; I take advantage of Black Friday like everyone else, when I’ll usually get maybe half of my gifts taken care of. Sometimes, I’ll order something on Cyber Monday. But then the gift shopping quickly takes a backseat, and next thing I know, it’s just one week before Christmas and I’m scrambling to get items shipped on time. Before Amazon, this was a hellish task, but now Prime customers have up until Christmas Eve to ship gifts. The same can’t be said for non-Prime customers, though. Pull up your calendar because you need to jot down the following gift shipping dates.
For Prime customers, you have up until Dec. 24, but only if you’re ordering items over $35 eligible for same-day delivery. For items that are free for one-day delivery, you have until Dec. 23; and for the rest of the items, you have until Dec. 22. Do note, though, that “delivery cutoff times may vary by item and delivery speed,” Amazon states on its website.
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For non-Prime customers, however, cut-off for free delivery (usually five to eight-day shipping) is Dec. 14, according to AccuWeather. For two-day shipping, the deadline is Dec. 22. So, now might be a great time to sign up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime if you aren’t a member yet.
Ordering outside of Prime and shipping the ‘ole UPS or USPS route? UPS Flight Operations Meteorologist Jeff Sarver told AccuWeather that it’s best to ship as soon as possible. “Have your packages shipped early because winter weather could possibly impact or delay a delivery. But as long as everyone is on time with shipping and purchasing, there should be no issues with getting the packages to where they gotta go,” he said.
If you’re shipping with USPS, their deadline for First Class Mail is Dec. 20, UPS’s deadline for ground shipments is Dec. 13, and FedEx’s ground shipments deadline is Dec. 16.
Good luck out there!
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