Holiday shipping cutoffs: what to tell shoppers on-site, and when

As holiday deadlines get close, shoppers start asking one question: will it arrive in time? A shopper who isn't sure may hold off, or buy from a store that answers the question for them.

This guide shows you how to post your holiday shipping cutoffs on your own store, where shoppers are browsing, and how to change the message as each deadline passes. You will plan a cutoff calendar, write one message per deadline, add a short reminder for the final days and set everything to switch over on time.

It works alongside the emails and texts you already send. Those reach your subscribers. On-site messages reach every shopper on the site, including first-time visitors who are not on your list yet.

Start with a cutoff calendar

Before you write any copy, list every date a shopper might care about. Take each one from your carriers and your own fulfillment team, not from memory or last year's post. A typical list covers:

• The last day to order with standard shipping for delivery before the holiday
• The last day for express or expedited shipping
• The last day for local pickup or local delivery, if you offer it
• Days your warehouse or store is closed
• When orders placed after the cutoffs will ship

Write each date with the time and time zone your team actually works to, such as "order by 2 pm Eastern". Shoppers read a cutoff literally, so a vague one causes more questions than it answers.

Give each deadline its own feed message

The notification feed opens from the bell on your store, so it suits news a shopper can read when they choose. Cutoff dates fit that well: they matter to anyone buying a gift, and shoppers can check them again later in the visit.

Click Create Campaign in the sidebar, then open Promote a sale or launch and start from the Holiday Announcement template, which is built for holiday closures and delivery dates. Replace the sample image and dates with your own before it goes live. Switch on Call to action, then set the Button text and Button link to your gift collection or shipping policy page, so the message leads somewhere useful. See Add an announcement to the NotiFeed for each field.

When a deadline passes, add a new message rather than editing the old one. Editing keeps it the same message, so a shopper who has already seen it will not see it as new. A new message counts again on the bell's unread badge. We covered this in more detail in What the unread badge on your bell means for your store.

On the free Starter plan, you can run one active NotiFeed campaign with one message. When a date passes, pause or end that campaign, then create a new one with the new date. Editing the existing message changes the text, but shoppers who have already seen it will not get a new unread count. On Scale and Enterprise+, a campaign can hold up to six messages, and you can run as many campaigns as you need.

Add a NotiPop for the final stretch

A NotiPop is a small message that appears over the page without blocking it. It is useful as a short reminder in the last days before a cutoff, when a shopper may not open the feed.

Open Encourage shoppers to take action and start from the Shipping Update template, which is designed for shipping delays, closures and schedule changes. Keep it focused on the shoppers it helps most with targeting rules, which are on every plan:

• Page URL Contains /products/, so it shows while a shopper is looking at an item
• Cart items Is greater than 0, so it shows once something is in the cart

Choose any condition so either rule is enough. A NotiPop waiting on a cart rule shows as soon as the cart matches. Once a shopper closes it, lets it hide or clicks it, it does not show again on later pages in that browser. The targeting rules guide explains every rule type.

A worked example: three cutoff stages

Here is how a store on the Scale plan might set this up. The dates below are placeholders; use your carriers' dates.

A schedule belongs to a whole campaign, not to a single message, so each stage is its own campaign with its own start and end.

1. Early notice campaign (NotiFeed), starting 1 December and ending when standard shipping closes:

   Holiday shipping dates are here. Order by 15 December for standard delivery before the holidays. See all gift picks.

2. Express only campaign (NotiFeed, with a matching NotiPop campaign on the same dates), starting when standard shipping closes and ending when express closes:

   Standard shipping has closed for the holidays. Express orders placed by 2 pm Eastern on 20 December should still arrive in time.

3. After the cutoff campaign (NotiFeed), starting when express closes and running until you are back to normal:

   Holiday delivery has closed. Orders placed now ship from 27 December. Need a gift today? Our digital gift cards arrive by email.

Before:

Happy holidays from all of us. Shop our gift guide.

After:

Order by 15 December for standard delivery before the holidays. Express is open until 20 December.

The second version answers the question a shopper actually has, with a date and a next step.

Set the timing so nothing runs late

Campaign scheduling is on Scale and Enterprise+. On each campaign's Schedule tab, choose Run the campaign according to the schedule, pick a start date and time, tick Set end date, pick the end, and save. At the start time the campaign goes live; at the end time it becomes Completed and stops showing. The schedule runs on Atomato's servers, so you do not need to keep the app open. See Schedule a campaign to start and end.

A few details to check:

• Times are in whole hours.
• Times use the time zone of the computer you schedule from, not your store's time zone. If they differ, convert first.
• Line up each stage's end with the next stage's start, so there is no gap and no overlap.
• Preview each campaign on desktop and mobile a few days early.

On Starter, scheduling is locked, and you can't save the next campaign while one is active. When a stage ends, pause the current campaign on its summary page, then create and save the next one as Active.

If you are also running Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, plan the cutoff campaigns in the same calendar. Our BFCM planning page covers the wider season.

What this does not do

• Atomato does not calculate delivery dates. It shows the dates you write.
• It cannot target shoppers by location, so a single message has to work for every region you ship to. If your cutoffs differ by country, list each one or link to your shipping policy page.
• Messages do not show on Shopify checkout or the thank-you page, so state your cutoffs there through Shopify as well.
• It does not send emails or texts. Send cutoff reminders to your list from the email or SMS tool you already use.
• Each message has no schedule of its own. To change wording on a date, use a separate campaign or update it by hand.

Next step

Write down your cutoff dates this week, then build the first feed campaign from the Holiday Announcement template and, on Scale or Enterprise+, schedule it. Compare plans on the pricing page if you need scheduling or more than one message per campaign.

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