The Early Bird Gets The Worm

1335 words, 5 minutes

Are you a chronic last minute holiday shopper? Around 40% of Christmas shopping is done between the 15th and the 25th... We hate to be the bearer of bad news but that just doesn't work for online retail this year.

To help out our customers this year, we are started part of our Black Friday sale early with our Early Bird special. From November 23rd at 8:00pm EST to Cyber Monday, Monday, November 29th at 11:59pm EST. 

TL;DR

• 20% off site-wide starts today: Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 EST
• Carmico's holiday cut-off date: Thursday December 2nd
  • the shop will still be open for orders but the date is set to help you know when you need to buy
• Holiday order volume increases
  • we are doing our best to get ahead of the holiday season by extending our Black Friday deals. We are still a small team and depending on when you place your order the holiday rush may push fulfillment on your order for up to a week
• Distribution centre outbreaks
  • last year, central distribution centres worked at limited capacity while they handled active outbreaks, this delayed holiday shipments well into late January
• Inflation, suffering economies, and congested ports are causing increased cost of goods
  • expect to see higher prices and lower stock at other stores
• Carmico has not adjusted prices despite higher shipping costs
  • we strive to keep our products accessible and have done all that we can to stock up on as many products as possible

The pandemic has certainly turned the world on its head. Cascading effects stemming from Covid restrictions, closures, and quarantines are delaying imports and exports. Luckily, it's letting up in some areas of the world and we got ahead of the import game. We restocked 2 weeks ago! You may notice that many shops are selling out or may be close to selling out as BFCM approaches. The best bet is to order early to avoid fulfillment and shipping delays.

Out of an abundance of caution, we're setting our Christmas cutoff at Thursday December 2nd. We're setting our cut-off earlier than some other retailers because we are a very small team and do all of our fulfillment in-house. We want to make sure we have enough time to fulfill orders that are backlogged by holiday traffic. Having a shipping cutoff does not mean that we are guaranteeing delivery in time for your holiday events. We work with third-party shipping companies that we are not affiliated with beyond our working business relationship. We have no control over the intricate network and advanced infrastructure that comprise their logistics systems; we just design and sell the products in hopes that some other, smarter people have what it takes to manage such an elaborate enterprise.

What does that mean for your order?

Our shop will be open after December 2nd so you can shop whenever you want! It's totally up to you when you want to shop but we're trying to give you a leg up with the cutoff date. Who doesn't appreciate a little guidance when making a decision? Informed decisions are the best decisions!

Our Recommendation

Order before Black Friday if:

• you live outside of North America or don't live in a mainland US state
• having holiday gifts arrive in time for important holiday dates is important to you
• you want to ensure availability of a certain item
  • this is our first Black Friday sale, we stocked more product than ever but we could sell out

If your holiday dates fall before December 24th, we recommend shopping earlier than the shipping cutoff date. As a retailer, it's important that we prioritize Christmas as the major holiday date for cutoff as 85% of North Americans celebrate Christmas. We stay mindful of other celebrations and want to account for unexpected delays. The cut-off date is meant to look out for you so that you can make an informed decision about your gifts this holiday season, no matter what you're celebrating.

DHL, FedEx, UPS, and other express shipping services have all set their holiday shipping cutoff dates around December 15th and that's for express shipping services. USPS and Canada Post have set their dates later, but we'll believe it when we see it. Last year around this time, USPS had estimated shipping times of 2-10 days. We saw packages take 2-4 weeks to travel from our warehouse in southern Ontario to anywhere in North America. Some of our packages to Toronto (a 1 hour drive from our warehouse) took up to 3 weeks. This was partially due to an outbreak in one of Canada Post's main distribution centres in Mississauga which most of our Canada bound packages go through. If that location has another outbreak like they did last year, there is no way you're getting that Frog Finder shirt in time for Christmas. 🐸

We'll be pleasantly surprised if shipping companies can hold it together this year; it may give us a more resilient sense of normalcy. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is buy early and be proactive!

The dry stuff; for all you research-y folk

Increased Costs

Costs are up everywhere. Compounding economic issues caused by COVID restrictions are increasing the costs of goods. National economies have faltered under the strain of COVID which devalues the national currency and causes inflation. If you haven't heard mention of inflation yet, you can certainly expect to see it reflected in the cost of the products you intend to buy this holiday season. Experts have been analyzing the effects of COVID on all aspects of consumption. From food to clothing and everything in between, it's expected that we'll see little to no improvement until the end of the year at the earliest.

Import Issues

Thankfully, we imported all of our restock products for the holiday season in early November. The unfortunate truth is that if we sell out, we will not be able to replenish out of stock items until February 2022 at the earliest.

We're fortunate to be better off this year than last. The problem is that maintaining a normal year's demand amidst a pandemic period causes no end of supply issues. Shipping container availability is down during the year's period with the highest demand for imports. Many companies have started diversifying their sources to avoid bottlenecking at ports and manufacturing factories. In some cases, the congestion at ports is getting so bad it's affecting air quality for local residents.

All this to say, shopping this year may be harder than ever as supplies are low and prices are high

Despite import delays and some increases to our shipping costs, we have not increased the prices of our products and are more stocked than ever before! We want Carmico apparel to be as accessible as possible and we know (as former college students and minimum wage workers) that sometimes the things you love come at an unreasonable cost. We do our best to reflect the quality of our clothing, the mindfulness instilled in the design process, and all of the other services we offer into a fair price.

If you need any help placing your order, please reach out to our customer service team at hello@carmico.ca, open the Contact Form at the bottom right of this page (the ? button), or mention us on Twitter and our lovely Carmico Customer Service reps will happily help you to the best of their ability.

Thanks for reading,

The Carmico Team

For more detailed info about our third-party carrier's holiday schedule, see ChitChats for standard shipping times and DHL for express shipping times. ChitChats delegates packages to local carriers based on shipping address. If you choose standard shipping at checkout then your package will ship via USPS (Priority Mail) or CanadaPost (XpressPost) for US and Canadian addresses respectively.