Holiday 2010 shipping deadlines – this week is THE week!

FedEx predicts that today, December 13, will see its busiest day ever, moving close to 16 million shipments globally – and that’s up from 14.2 million on the same day last year.

So it’s hardly a coincidence that standard shipping deadlines will hit this week for online retail.

Newly released results from our 2010 eHoliday pre-holiday study, conducted in partnership with BIGResearch, show that nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of retailers’ standard shipping deadlines for Christmas delivery will expire on or before Saturday, December 18.  No surprise then, that free standard shipping promotions will also end this week.

Of course, retailers know that last year almost two-thirds of consumers finished their holiday shopping the last two weeks of December, so there’s a ripe market for express shipping (and print at home gift cards, but that’s a separate topic!).

Four out of ten retailers who will offer express two-day shipping have set December 22 as their deadline, while others are more cautiously cutting that off the day before.

As an aside, Nordstrom this year has repeated its well done holiday shipping deadlines page, clearly outlining shipping deadlines specific to Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa – a nice customer-centric touch.

Shop.org members can download the eHoliday results from our site.