Why do we shop online for our Christmas gifts? Some obvious answers include that it's easy and offers you more choice with thousands of online shops to choose from.
Lets talk about the 'easy' notion a bit more.
When we think about online gift shopping being easy, it's because we can sit in the comfort of our own homes and can potentially buy several items in the span of one hour. Compare that to traveling to and from the shops and walking around each and every one of them; we all know it's quicker and more efficient to shop on the Internet instead, hence the ever growing popularity of online shopping.
The downside of online shopping is that you have to wait for your item, and this is where what is supposed to be easy can turn into your worst nightmare. It's very important that online retailers are honest about their processing times, dispatch times and delivery times.
Lets first of all demystify these things; 'processing' time, 'dispatch' time, and 'delivery' time.
Processing Time: The length of time it takes to get your item out of storage, package it up and have it ready to go into the post.
Dispatch Time: How long from the time you made your order that you can expect the item to be deposited with the delivery service.
Delivery Time: This depends on what delivery service is used at the point of dispatch ... was it next day? same day? First Class? It's worth noting that outside of Christmas Royal Mail's First Class postal service within the UK can be as quick as next day or the day after.
Shoppers are becoming ever more impatient, and I'm no exception and buying choices aren't only hinged on price and desirability but also on if the item can reach us relatively fast. Indeed online retailers are not competing with each other for faster and faster services; 50% of big brand retailers now offer same day delivery.
While a small online business can't hope to compete with the giants in terms of same day delivery speed, we can still offer fast delivery. The same day might be a bit out of our scope but certainly within 2-3 days (from order to your item reaching you) is within the realms of any small business that aims to put delivery speed as one of their main priorities.
At Taylor Two we can't 'guarantee' you same day or even next day delivery within the UK as we cannot work the infastructure of expensive 'guaranteed timescale' delivery services into our shop without our price for each item becoming uncompetitive but we can promise you that we're still fast.
Our processing AND dispatch time for anything other than customised products is approximately 24 hours.
That means from the moment you make your order, the time it takes us to package that up and put it into the First Class post for you, is typically no longer than 24 hours.
That's fab news if you're in the UK, because your item is probably going to reach you within 2-3 days from the moment you ordered it, if you're overseas ... sorry guys ... but you've got more like a 6 - 8 day wait, still not bad for crossing a whole bunch of water in a plane!
Obviously during Christmas these delivery times can become extended as the postal services try to cope with the load.
We've Been Busy!
We haven't blogged for a few weeks because we've been WAAAY to busy with Christmas orders and getting them out to you as fast as we can so you don't end up apologising to family and friends about why their gift isn't there yet - BUT ... we did find time to record this silly little Christmas postage video.
This is the actual post box that most of your gift shopping orders go into! As you can see, last pick up is 4pm, so if you can get your order to us earlier in the day, chances are it will be the post box, via First Class post the same day.
What have we been putting in this post box? Here is a round up of our best gift shopping sellers this Christmas, why not pick one up for yourself?
They're all very reasonably priced and our prices include UK postage because we don't like it when people abandon their cart at checkout :D
Indeed, you've been mad for rings this Christmas, either that or we make exceedling good rings ...
Some of our hip flasks are personalised >>
Including this nebula hip flask below, you've been adding
some really cool wording on these for your friends and family.
Thank you for all your purchases this year, and we wish you a wonderful holiday!
Though this sounds like a sign off, we're not over and out for the year, so still carry on shopping to your hearts content ... you might need New Years Eve jewellery, Valentines Gifts, Birthday gifts ;)
