Final dates for pre-Christmas delivery revealed by retailers

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 - 12:31 by Graham Miller

The majority of the UK’s biggest retail outlets have now finalised the dates upon which customers can place orders via safe shopping online, in order to receive their deliveries before Christmas.

For people who favour shopping with Amazon, the last point at which you can order goods and receive their standard delivery is December 19th. But the good news is that you can still get express next-day delivery from this e-commerce giant right up until the 23rd, with the gifts arriving on Christmas Eve.

Only a handful of other retailers are committed to this kind of last-minute delivery service, including big names like ASOS, Debenhams and House of Fraser.

At the other end of the scale are the companies that do not want to leave customers disappointed and so are making no promises on delivering products right up until the last minute.

Burton, for example, has its final pre-Christmas order slot scheduled for December 18th. The same goes for Urban Outfitters and card provider, Moonpig.com.

It is understandable that companies offering safe shopping online would be reluctant to commit to being able to get gifts shipped to customers in time for December 25th. Failure to do so would mean that people would be severely disappointed and businesses may end up losing custom in the long run.

In spite of this, things have become much more flexible in recent years, so rather than having to rush down to whichever shops are open on Christmas Eve, people can, instead, buy online almost up until the last minute on the evening beforehand, as long as they do not mind paying a little extra for express delivery. It will be a small price to pay when the reward is keeping loved ones happy on Christmas Day.