--- title: Why the Delivery of Your Holiday Shopping Orders Is Taking So Darn Long description: 'Shoppers should expect the delivery of online holiday shopping orders to take longer this season: Shipping times are up as much as 20%.' authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-12-15T17:36:00.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T10:43:47.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - E-Commerce - free shipping - holiday shopping - online shopping word_count: 236 canonical: https://money.com/free-shipping-delays-holiday-shopping-orders/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A FedEx employee sorts packages for delivery in Midtown New York, on December 4, 2015.](https://img.money.com/2015/12/151215_em_shippingtoolong.jpg?crop=0px%2C219px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) If you're still waiting for an online holiday shopping purchase to be delivered and are beginning to wonder what the heck is taking so long, you're not alone. According to a study from Kurt Salmon cited by the [*Wall Street Journal*](http://www.wsj.com/articles/holiday-online-orders-taking-longer-study-says-1450102912), the average delivery time for items purchased online on Cyber Monday 2015 was nearly seven days—an increase of about 20% over last year. What's the holdup? Basically, e-commerce is absolutely booming, with sale after [sale](https://money.com/best-deals-amazon-gap-target/) after [sale](https://money.com/green-monday-best-deals/) enticing online shoppers to buy more on any and every screen available. While traditional in-store sales have been mostly flat, online shopping has flourished, with e-commerce purchases up 10% to 20% on key holiday shopping days. It's been difficult for e-retail operations and delivery services like Fedex and UPS to keep up with the mad rush of online purchases. This goes especially because consumers have come to demand [free shipping](https://money.com/free-shipping-every-time/) with online purchases, and retailers have been trying to minimize the costs incurred by offering free shipping on standard ground (i.e., slower) shipping. The bottom line for shoppers is that they should expect the delivery of online orders to take longer than it has in the past. That means in order to avoid disappointment during upcoming gift exchanges, it's wise to get orders in two or three days earlier than what's been necessary in prior years. 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