With an influx of orders and the increased reliance on online shopping, shipping is a key consideration when planning for the holiday season.
Supply chain disruptions and logistics complications over the last few years, are here to stay, so it’s best to plan in advance and ensure enough time for shipping your seasonal products and packaging.
With so many shipping options, routes and prices, it can be difficult for businesses to make a decision on the right shipping method for their packaging supply.
However, here you’ll be able to discover all shipping methods and get a better understanding of your options during the holiday seasons for 2022 and 2023.
Shipping Options
To put it simply, you have 3 main shipping methods to choose from:
- Sea
- Air
- Ground
In essence, your business will likely be using a combination of these methods to ensure on-time and safe deliveries of your packaging supply.
For example, you may choose sea shipping as your primary method, but this will still include ground shipping to get your supply from facility to port and port to you!
Let’s break down these 3 shipping methods even further to get a deeper understanding of your options as a business.
Express Air Shipping
The most time-efficient shipping option available is express air shipping.
Orders are shipped on a day-to-day basis and only take 3 – 7 days to be delivered.
Using DHL as a shipping partner, the orders get fast customs clearance and ensure legal compliance to avoid any issues for businesses and customers.
While Express Air shipping is the most time-efficient shipping method, it is also the most expensive.
It’s the perfect solution if you are in a time crunch to get your packaging supply to your fulfillment centers.
However, if you are looking to be budget-friendly, express air may be out of your price range depending on the cost of your custom packaging design.
Standard Air Shipping
Standard air shipping is a popular shipping method. It is extremely reliable and benefits from fast custom clearance.
Shipments happen on a week-to-week basis, with a 12 – 18 day delivery time frame.
While delivery takes longer than express air shipping, it is slightly more cost effective while still being reasonably time efficient.
Express Sea Shipping
Sea shipping in general takes the most amount of time. However, it is also the most cost-effective, and if planned right, is extremely reliable.
Delivery times range from 35-40 days and are especially cost-effective for large orders as pallets are more space efficient.
Sea shipping can be an incredibly economical shipping method. However, it requires a lot of logistics planning to ensure on-time deliveries, especially during the holiday season.
It’s best to get your orders for seasonal packaging in early to ensure enough time for sea shipping and to account for any delays that may occur.
Standard Sea Shipping
Standard sea shipping takes the longest with a 40-50 day delivery time. However, it is also the most cost effective option available, especially for large-run packaging orders.
Large shipments can also benefit from pallets. However, this can add an extra 7-day delivery time due to space capacity for standard shipping on a week-to-week basis.
Standard sea shipping is reliable, however, requires a lot of preparation to ensure on-time deliveries, especially during peak times of the year, like the holidays.
Production and Shipping Times
It can be difficult to estimate deadlines for businesses to order packaging based on approvals, production times, and shipping times.
Here we clearly lay out the turnaround times including shipping for different packaging styles to ensure you have enough time to approve your packaging design and get it delivered.
Air Shipping
- Folding Carton: 30 – 45 days
- Corrugated: 30 – 45 days
- Rigid: 40 – 55 days
- Countertop displays: 25 – 40 days
- Floor displays: 25 – 40 days days
- Labels and Stickers: 20 – 35 days
- Paper retail bags: 30 – 45 days
- Reusable bags: 30 – 45 days
- Polymailers and bubble mailers: 15 – 30 days
- Pouches (digital print): 15 – 30 days
- Foam box inserts: 25 – 40 days
- Tin boxes: 40 – 55 days
Sea Shipping
- Folding Carton: 65 – 75 days
- Corrugated: 65 – 75 days
- Rigid: 75 – 85 days
- Countertop displays: 55 – 65 days
- Floor displays: 55 – 65 days
- Labels and Stickers: 45 – 55 days
- Paper retail bags: 65 – 75 days
- Reusable bags: 65 – 75 days
- Polymailers and bubble mailers: 45 – 55 days
- Pouches (digital print): 45 – 55 days
- Foam box inserts: 60 days
- Tin boxes: 80 – 90 days
Planning for 2023
The pandemic continues to have an effect on shipping and supply chains worldwide, that’s why it’s so important to start planning well in advance of product launches, especially for seasonal occasions.
Ultimately, businesses should place packaging orders at least 2 months in advance, this does not include the approval process of your designs.
Here are some popular holidays you may want to consider the ordering deadlines for in 2023:
Valentine’s Day
Order deadline: December 1, 2022
St. Patrick’s Day
Order deadline: January 2, 2023
Easter
Order deadline: January 16, 2023
Mother’s Day
Order deadline: March 2, 2023
Father’s Day
Order deadline: April 5, 2023
Halloween
Order deadline: August, 2, 2023
Thanksgiving
Order deadline: September 12, 2023
Start planning your seasonal packaging for the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Make sure to check back on the holiday season deadlines of 2022.
