Covid Impact on Product Levels Means Early Shopping for Christmas Decor

This post may contain affiliate links. The Review Wire may collect a share of sales if you decide to shop from them. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

While consumers have indicated their willingness to open their wallets this holiday season, they may find themselves shortchanged by a severe shortage of holiday products if they do not shop early this year. The main reason for the predicted shortage of holiday items on store shelves falls on global supply chain issues that originated in China. Due to COVID and other issues, the cost of shipping containers from China to the U.S. has risen from $2,000 to $20,000 apiece. This price discrepancy has forced many retailers to either scale back on shipping products to the U.S. or not ship anything at all with the hopes that prices would come back down by summer. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“Because supply is short and demand will be high this year, consumers can expect increased prices on their favorite holiday decorations,” said Chris Butler, CEO of National Tree Company. “Those retailers who waited, hoping the cost of containers would fall have now missed their shipping delivery windows and are scrambling to find products for their shelves.”

National Tree Company has an online sales model. Because they predicted container pricing issues this year, they bought containers and shipped products to their warehouses months before the container crunch came. Now, with close to fully stocked warehouses, National Tree Company is for the first time reaching out to retailers who have missed their windows and fulfilling bulk orders as fast as they can process them.

Regardless, no matter where consumers shop, holiday décor will be more expensive and at significantly lower inventory levels, which are expected to be as much as 30 percent lower than normal. This spells trouble for consumers, given regular buying patterns.

“Traditionally, the week before and after Thanksgiving is when purchases of holiday décor peak, but we’re forecasting that the majority of product will already be sold by the end of October,” Chris continued. “Based on our internal data, a good chunk of consumers still plan to buy after Thanksgiving. A lot of consumers will be unpleasantly surprised if they don’t shop much earlier than normal, whether online or in physical stores.”

For those who order their seasonal décor online, Chris warns that even if products are in the country now, they may not arrive in time for Christmas, depending on where the person lives. Both FedEx and UPS have warned consumers that they won’t be able to handle peak volume this year.