Get your gifts now before shipping delays impact your holiday season.
COVID, storms, and a lack of essential materials have all impacted supply chains. As a result, some products will be out of stock by the time Black Friday rolls around with potentially long delays for them to arrive.
It’s only the beginning of the school year, Halloween is just around the corner, and Thanksgiving preparations are still a work in progress. So, many of us have a lot on our plates right now. Even so, if holiday gifts are significant to your celebrations, you should take the time to order them now, if at all possible.
If you’ve ordered anything online in the last year, you have likely experienced at last some delays in processing and shipping. That is only going to become more likely as the 2021 holiday season approaches. Production on many products has slowed to a crawl due to a global shortage of microprocessors, magnets, and plastic, among other materials. Products have often been hard to get due to the combination of high demand, port closures related to COVID, and challenges caused by recent weather (hurricanes and tropical storms). Recently, a record number of cargo ships were expected to be waiting to be unloaded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
There is no way to predict whether a specific laptop, set of speakers, or pair of jeans will be available during the holiday shopping season. Plastic is in short supply due to an unfortunate chain of events that began with early pandemic shutdowns. This impacts a huge number of products, from automobiles to PVC pipe.
The Impacts of Port Closures
The various port closures have created a cascade of challenges for companies attempting to get products delivered to warehouses. When ships are lined up, waiting to get into ports, the shipping containers that are normally filled, delivered, emptied, and then reused, are not moving as quickly as they should. This has actually created shortages of shipping containers in some locations, adding to the supply chain challenges.
Basically, when ports are shut down, it impacts many aspects of the supply chain, beyond simple product delivery.
A Longer Holiday Shopping Season
There’s nothing new about holiday shopping rushes and stocking issues, and the sales season keeps getting underway earlier and earlier each year. The day after Thanksgiving, (Black Friday), has come to symbolize the start of the holiday shopping season. However, online sales frequently begin earlier.
The holiday shopping season is so deeply ingrained in our psyche that it is often used as part of the plot for various movies and TV series episodes. We also all remember when a single product (often a child’s toy) comes to dominate a holiday shopping season (think Elmo or Cabbage Patch dolls).
Common Production Materials are Hard to Find.
Every product that runs on software (and it’s an even larger list than you may think), is powered by microchips. During COVID lockdowns, many manufacturers struggled to meet demand due to a shortage of chips caused by a production lag early in the pandemic followed by an increase in supply.
This shortage affects a huge number of products, forcing some manufacturers to shut down production entirely in some instances.
What Can Consumers Do?
The obvious first option is ordering your products and holiday gifts early. But, there are other things to consider, as well.
You may want to avoid ordering certain products from overseas, if possible. While simply ordering from inside the U.S. won’t guarantee your products will arrive on time, it can remove some of the challenges and likely delays.
You can take this strategy even further, by focusing on products that are made and sold locally (right in your area). You also have the added benefit of potentially helping smaller businesses in your community.
Gift certificates may not be the same as giving a loved one that special gift they want, but they also represent an option when obtaining a physical gift in time for the holidays simply isn’t possible.
Whatever strategy you decide to employ for your holiday shopping this year, starting as early as possible should be your first priority.
