UPS Won’t Commit to a Holiday Ship-by Date for Ground

For the second consecutive year, UPS is not providing a universal ship-by date for UPS Ground packages for arrival by December 24th, instead advising shippers to get a custom estimate using its online form.

The UPS Store, however, is recommending a ship-by date of December 15 for UPS Ground packages to arrive by the Christmas holiday.

UPS published the following recommended ship-by dates for its expedited services:

• December 21 for packages shipped UPS 3 Day Select
• December 22 for packages shipped UPS 2nd Day Air
• December 23 for packages shipped UPS Next Day Air

More information is available in the UPS 2021 Year-End Holiday Schedule (PDF format).

A spokesperson for the UPS Store said early shipping is important this year due to the volume of packages expected combined with the pandemic’s lingering effect on the supply chain and said the UPS Store’s “Certified Packing” experts offer a Pack & Ship Guarantee, which offers the shipper reimbursement of packing, shipping and declared value if the package is lost or damaged.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.