I don't close, usually, but what I do to slow sales between the 23rd to 27th is allow most of my Markdowns to end. I do like to spend time with my family at Christmas without the ever-present concern that orders have been placed and must be same-day shipped. As a toy seller, however, I can't afford to halt sales completely.
After Christmas, there can be a looooong delay before any trucks arrive to restock retail store shelves and, more than once we have stood aghast in EMPTY aisles looking for something -- anything! -- to purchase for all the people who have birthdays in January and early February: three adults and five children. More birthdays than at any other time of the year.
In the weeks and days leading to Christmas, however, I am careful to add a section to the bottom of each listing that states the Canada Post Deadlines for my ship-to destinations. Likely, no one has ever read it but it helps to have a published reference for any buyers that might have placed a last-minute order and chose the slowest possible service to ship it. I do dearly wish that ebay could set ACTUAL delivery estimates to accurately coincide with their calculated domestic shipping costs displayed to buyers.
When a buyer sees that Expedited Parcel takes one to seven business days, they don't think, 'Oh, it will take only one business day if I happen to live across the street from the seller in Winnipeg!' they think, 'Oh! My order will arrive to the farthest reach of Newfoundland in only one business day if I am lucky! I feel lucky.' Not so.
And international Xpresspost: 'Delivery times may vary' does not imply that for $60 CAD in postage, you're guaranteed delivery within a set amount of time (usually six to 11 days) unlike with Small Packets Air or Tracked Packet.
Anyway, the Holiday Deadlines box I add is very time consuming to do because you can add a clump of text with the Bulk Editor more easily than you can remove it. So I end up having to do all that manually. I do like to revisit my listings to ensure everything looks as it should. I also intent to edit them for brevity in the New Year to reflect more accurately the new standards by which we will be judged as sellers. If all that now matters is ship- and delivery-time, that's all I intend to clarify in my terms that I don't think anyone has ever bothered to read anyway.
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