Will the deadlines change, and what happens if they do?

We can’t promise that our holiday order deadlines won’t change, but we’ll work our hardest to ensure the deadlines stay the same. We may recalculate the deadlines for the following reasons: If our fulfillment times fall behind or are faster than we estimated If fulfillment is affected by unexpected events like severe weather If some of our carriers change their projections or experience delays In case our deadlines get updated, you’ll see a red badge next to the dates you'll receive an email, so make sure your email notifications are on.

Holiday Order Deadlines

Holiday order deadlines, also known as order-by dates, are suggested dates by which you should place orders for the best possibility to receive them in time for the holidays. Be transparent about order deadlines with your customers, and you’ll improve your overall customer loyalty because they’ll know what to expect. After the set order deadline, it’s unlikely that your customer will receive the order in time for the holiday, so keep your customers informed before it’s too late. Also, make sure that your products match our content guidelines.

Here’s how you can share order deadlines:

1. Take a look at the order-by dates and see which apply to the products you’re selling

2. Make a marketing plan to determine when you should promote specific products with the shortest deadlines

3. Go over our holiday order deadlines guide to get ideas for marketing

4. Post the order deadlines in each product description

We can’t promise that our holiday order deadlines won’t change, but we’ll work our hardest to ensure the deadlines stay the same. We may recalculate the deadlines for the following reasons:

If our fulfillment times fall behind or are faster than we estimated
If fulfillment is affected by unexpected events like severe weather
If some of our carriers change their projections or experience delays

In case our deadlines get updated, you’ll see a red badge next to the dates you'll receive an email, so make sure your email notifications are on.

If you want to extend your sales period to draw in last-minute holiday shoppers, here’s how you can do it:

1. Offer and promote express shipping when it’s no longer possible to get products in time with standard shipping. Express shipping is available for stores with live rates, but you can place your orders manually and access this shipping method during checkout. If you ship your products with Express shipping, consider raising the shipping costs on your storefront.

2. See which products have the furthest order-by dates and consider selling them as last-minute holiday gifts.

3. Pre-order your best-selling products in bulk and store them in Printful’s warehouses. Warehoused Printful products have order-by dates closer to the holidays as orders get shipped out as fast as in one day.

There might be cases where you have to troubleshoot delays or issues with orders. It’s best if you:

1. Fill out a problem report if your shipment arrived damaged or was lost in transit. Note that for all orders placed between November 1 and December 31, 2021, problem reports can be submitted until January 31, 2022.

2. Go over our Return Policy to learn more about returned orders.

3. Read Printful Policies Your Store Should Copy blog to get free policy templates and talking points to use with your customers.

Our order deadlines differ by region because of local carrier delivery estimates, our product availability, and stock levels at the nearest fulfillment centers.

Cut-off dates can also vary based on product category fulfillment estimates. For example, it usually takes longer to create apparel products. On the other hand, warehoused products have deadlines later in the month because we don’t have to factor in fulfillment time—they’re ready to ship at any moment.

We’ll do our best to get in touch with you to see if you’ll want to ship those products separately. It’ll ensure the product with current deadlines has a better chance to arrive before the holiday.