11 Reasons Early Holiday Shopping Is Ideal

The holiday season.

The lights.

The music.

The joy.

The crowds.

The lines.

The sold-out items.

While holiday shopping during the holiday season can be joyful and certainly a family tradition, it can also be unbelievably stressful. Trying to do your shopping with shipping delays hanging over your head as well just isn’t worth it.

Why not start your holiday shopping early?

No worries on shipping.

The closer you get to the holidays, the slower the shipping is and the more expensive the faster shipping options become. The stores aren’t dummies. They know that people shopping at the last minutes are going to wind up racing the clock and they find ways to make some money on that sense of urgency.

You can easily beat the stores at their own game, however, by shopping well before stores think about hiking up shipping rates. Shop in the early fall and get most of your shopping out of the way at your leisure. Best of all, you can use MYUK to bundle your packages together and ship them directly to you without any additional delays or hassles.

Stores moving out older merchandise.

There are only a few instances where the absolute latest model is better than the one that was released just a few months previously. Stores have seasons, and shopping is big in the summer and back to school times and then its big again – tremendously so – as the holiday season approaches.

But there is a lull in between. Once school is back in session, but before winter break, stores have a job to do. They have to move out the merchandise that didn’t sell over the summer and prepare for the items that will be coming in for the holidays. That means big sales and clearances on items in virtually every category. It’s a win-win. The stores clear out merchandise to bring in higher-priced goods, and you score great bargains on everything you need for holidays gifting.

End of the model year.

The holidays also fall at the end of the calendar year, and for many companies and brands, that means the end of the model year as well. Brands are savvy, though, and they don’t wait to release the 2017 models on January 1 of 2017. They release them in time to be snatched up for the holidays by eager shoppers.

That means the 2016 brands stores are trying to move out in the late fall are excellent bargains for the customer who knows what he wants and is willing to opt for a brand new 2016 instead of paying a significant premium for the latest and greatest 2017.

“Special” items for the holiday season.

There are some amazing door-buster sales as the holiday season approaches. Many shoppers plan their shopping around these big sales hoping to get big ticket items for considerably less than they would any other time of the year. This is especially true for electronics like big screen televisions and such.

What many customers don’t realize, however, is that some brands and stores bring in “special” bargains that may have the same name brand as the big ticket items, but don’t have the same level of construction or warranty that customers might expect. They wind up saving money, but the store isn’t going to take a loss – they simply sold the cheaper model. For real savings on quality items, don’t wait for the door-busters, look for companies making room for the cheap-o items before the holiday season.

Double-down on deals.

It may not be the holidays yet, but it is the season of clearances! The savvy shopper knows to double-down on the various sales and clearances by stacking coupons and special offers. Of course this takes a bit of skill and the time and energy to find the great coupons and offers. Fortunately mailing lists will often help do this job for you.

A store marks down merchandise to clearance prices. Then the savvy shopper finds a coupon for an additional 30 percent off. Add to that another deal for free shipping and you’ll find yourself paying just a small fraction of the retail price.

Plan ahead.

One less financial, but more sanity-saving perk of shopping for the holidays early is that you can plan and think about what you’re buying and why. The most meaningful gifts aren’t the ones that cost the most, despite what commercials may tell you. Instead the most meaningful gifts are the ones that are carefully thought out.

Plan carefully for your presents and then use the extra time to shop around for great deals. This is especially true if you’re buying a little something for yourself, of course. Brainstorm, plan, make lists and buy items mindfully. You’ll save money and save yourself the drama of the last minute frenzy of gift buying.

Buy in bulk.

Clearances and sales make it easy to find great deals. Sometimes those deals are just too good to pass up and you wind up with items you probably didn’t actually need to buy, but couldn’t resist. When that happens any other time of the year you may feel guilty about the splurge, but around the holidays, your good finds are excellent bulk purchases!

How many surprise gifts do you need to buy every year? How many toy drives and gift exchanges happen that you haven’t planned for and wind up paying for in stress, lost time and high dollar amounts? With the luxury of extra time, you can easily grab five universal gifts and then keep them in reserve for hostess presents, office gift swaps and who knows what else!

Store gifts for emergencies.

Your holiday bulk buys also make great birthday presents year-round if you shop wisely. Find a great deal on a popular toy? Buy three of them – one for your own child and two more for future birthday presents! Find an amazing deal on gift sets and delicacies? These make excellent throw down presents for the holidays, but may also make excellent teacher presents at the end of the year.

As you’re buying gifts for emergencies and simple to store for future use when you’re too busy to run to the store, purchase items that don’t come in holiday boxes or in holiday scents. Avoid food items that may not store well and look for things that almost anyone would find useful or at least a bit of a treat.

Great selection.

As the holidays get closer, the selection gets thinner. If your child has a particular item in mind, the best time to buy is before everyone else thinks to buy it, too. Right now the stores have practically everything and nothing is backordered. Many of the items will be on sale as well.

If you wait until winter to start buying things, however, you’re going to run into shortages, back orders and shipping delays. That’s no way to enjoy the holiday season and certainly no way to bring the fun to your child who had a big request that you couldn’t fill for him.

Spread your spending a bit.

Even if budget isn’t a concern for your holiday shopping, it’s nice to spread that spending out a bit. Shopping on a budget gets tricky, but when you’re buying things over time you can easily pick up one new item per paycheck or a few things every week and avoid going into credit card shock when you make a huge series of purchases that max out your daily limits.

Increase other holiday traditions.

Finally, when you shop ahead for the holidays, you are able to use your time the way you want to use it. Shopping before the season means you have more time for spending with family, holiday baking, taking in holiday lights and finding other holiday traditions to enjoy.

When you take rushed and crowded trips to the stores or hours spend searching online out of your precious holiday weeks, you wind up with a significant surplus of time you can spend any way you want – and that is a real gift this holiday season.

The holiday season is magical for many of us, and having presents purchased, wrapped and ready for giving makes everything so much more fun. It’s hard to feel the spirit of the season when you’re feeling frantic to cross last-minute items off the list and hoping there isn’t a shipping delay.