2024 Holiday Order Submission Guidance

As we continue to see constraints across the production and shipping landscape this holiday season due to labor and material shortages, we recommend merchants encourage their customers to shop early this year and to expect disruptions around stockouts and transit order delays.

• Holiday Order Submission Dates
• Holiday Order Submission FAQ
• Holiday Cut-off Dates by Product
• Holiday Shipping Surcharges
• Holiday Shipping Delay Updates

Holiday Order Submission Dates 

We highly recommend encouraging your customers to order as early as possible to ensure they receive their packages on time for the holiday season. The table and link to the spreadsheet are our recommendations for when your customers should submit their holiday orders. Share these dates with your customers so that they have the best possible chance to receive their orders in time for the holidays.

With Thanksgiving falling on the last week of November this year, one week later than in 2023, the standard shipping cut-off window for Christmas is reduced to only 15 days (vs 22 last year).

Please note that your orders must be submitted and in the "In Production" status to be considered within these order submission timeframes.

Holiday Order Submission FAQ

Let's check out and answer some questions that you may have about holiday orders and these submission dates!

As part of the VIM program, Elite and Pro partners are supposed to receive tailored guidance on production times. How is this guidance provided?

• If you're an Elite or Pro partner, please get in touch with your account manager to set up a call to review the submission dates for your business if you haven't already heard from them.

How should I plan my campaigns and set expectations with customers? 

We have a few recommendations on this topic: 

• Run your promotions early and avoid offering incentives to buy from your shop on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.
• Do not offer guarantees to your customers. 
  • Be honest with your customers that production and shipping delays are likely to happen.
  • Do not promise specific arrival dates or guaranteed delivery dates.
  • Lean on industry news to ensure your customers understand the industry-wide expectations.
• Keep up-to-date with Gooten’s guidance. 
  • We will update our guidance regularly to give you specific advice in late November and early December. 
  • Order submission dates vary widely. We recommend you pay attention to what you’re selling and regularly connect with your Partnership Manager for the latest information on the production.

How should I prepare for international shipments and customers?

• Encourage your international customers to order even earlier this year. Throughout 2024, international shipping has experienced issues such as faulty tracking links, customs delays, cross-border delays, and lost packages.

Gooten must know what products are likely to have issues vs. perform well. What insights can you give us?

• We are concerned about delays in apparel, cut & sew baby products, and various accessory products. This year, apparel stock shortages have been rampant, so we’ve instituted a substitution policy to keep orders flowing. We’re relatively confident in producing paper and print products and wall art with an automated production process.
• For the below products, we recommend planning toward the conservative side of the date ranges:
  • All baby products (beanies, bibs, burp cloths, car seat covers, changing pad covers, crib sheets, infant Sherpa blankets, etc.) 
  • Porcelain ornaments
  • Accessory items (cosmetic bags, cutting boards, desk mats, mousepads, pet placemats, yard flags, etc.)

Are these the dates when I need to have my order submitted to Gooten? If my order is sitting in the “Needs Personalization” status, does it count as being submitted in the Gooten system by these ranges?

• No, the dates shown are when your order must be in the “In Production” status in Gooten. If your orders are in Gooten but not moved to the “In Production” status, it does not count as being submitted within the order submission window.

How are these holiday order submission date ranges determined?

• These ranges are based on our typical production and shipping timeframes for orders.
  • The majority of orders will spend 4-5 business days in production.
  • For domestic orders (US to the US), standard shipping is a week in transit, expedited shipping is 3-4 days in transit, and overnight is 1-2 days in transit.
  • For international orders (the US to non-US), most orders take up to 21 days in transit and can reach upwards of 30 days.

How confident is Gooten in these order submission date ranges, production, and shipping timeframes for the upcoming holiday season?

• We've collected and analyzed months of historical data and have communicated heavily with our manufacturing partners for this upcoming holiday peak season. These ranges are our best estimate, but there may be uncertainty, risk, and unexpected shipping delays with the increasing shipping demand.

Does Gooten guarantee delivery by the Christmas holiday?

• No, we do not provide guarantees regarding our production and shipping timeframes. All of our dates are estimates and should be used as guidance to help set promotion schedules, and with this, we do not guarantee deliver-by dates.
• We strongly suggest that you set your customer expectations upfront by:
  • Remind your customers to order before our suggested submission dates as soon as possible.
  • Not promising a guaranteed delivery date to your customers. 

What happens if my order ships late or gets delayed in transit and doesn’t arrive by Christmas? Will Gooten refund me?

• No, Gooten will not provide refunds for any late orders. We’re very sorry that your package did not arrive in time, but late orders are a scenario that happens every year with all major retailers. If this occurs, we suggest offering your customer a discount on their next purchase with you as a courtesy.

What can cause production delays?

There are many reasons that can cause production delays. These can include the following:

• One of the biggest causes of production delays is if there needs to be an order change or update.
  
  • Gooten does not accept changes or updates to a product in your order if it has gone into our system’s "In Production" status.
  • Please adjust your pending times if you want more time to adjust your orders before moving to production.
• Labor-intensive products are typically the first to slow down in the production process as they tend to take longer to produce (items that are cut & sewn).
• Stock and raw material shortages can cause delays, especially when a manufacturer is waiting on an incoming shipment or any supply chain issues or stockouts.
• Orders with only a single item tend to move through production faster because they don’t get held up at the fulfillment station. Orders with multiple items may have to wait for other items to catch up before getting packaged, which can cause the appearance of a delay.

Where can I find the most up-to-date production and shipping timeframe information?

• We update this page twice a week. You can also view your estimated ship dates by order on your Gooten Orders page and check out the production stats specific to your account on your Gooten Home page when you log in.

Holiday Shipping Surcharges

Effective October 6th, 2024, USPS will implement a shipping surcharge of $0.50 on lightweight small packages. The majority of single-item apparel and drinkware units typically fall into this category.

For larger packages, typically handled by UPS and FedEx, the carriers will apply a temporary peak-season demand surcharge starting at $2.50, effective October 27th, 2024.

Gooten will align its surcharges with those of the carriers, and these will remain in effect until January 18th, 2025.

Find more details here.

Holiday Shipping Delay Updates

Shipping delays may occur during the holiday season due to the current economic climate for the major shipping carriers. We recommend you keep up-to-date with the latest news from the major carriers to understand any shipping and delay expectations.