Before you start panicking because your supplier isn’t picking up the phone, take a moment to read this!
Starting tomorrow and ending on Saturday (the 15th, 16th and 17th of September – mark it on your calendars) is Chinese Mid-Autumn Day holiday. This is a holiday that heavily centers around the full moon; a symbol of togetherness and reunion in Chinese culture. It’s a festival that celebrates family and familial love – and it’s the second most important holiday on the calendar, after Chinese New Year. This means that all your Chinese suppliers are going to be spending time with their families and celebrating as a pose to manning the phones in their factories and replying to your emails. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong. Your goods are safe, your supplier hasn’t just cut and run – and you haven’t just become one of those online scam horror stories. As of Thursday, it’s business as usual.
So what can you do?
Relax. If you’re worried about your shipment, you can contact us. We have bespoke tracking software, so we can provide you with updates. There’s no need to panic!- Eat some mooncake. Eating mooncake is a traditional Autumn Day celebration; it’s not usually bought throughout the year, but everyone eats it during the celebration! (Fun fact: it’s usually cut into the amount of pieces as people there are in the family!)
During Chinese mid-Autumn day celebrations, one of the most common traditions is to eat Mooncake! #yum
— Shippo (@Shippo_uk) 14 September 2016
- Wish your supplier a good holiday! Having a good relationship with your supplier is never going to hurt your business; talking to them like a person and wishing them a happy holiday is a great way to show them that you value and respect them as people and not just a service, which in turn leads to them valuing you more as a customer.
Of course, these three days off in China may have some knock-on effects on some of our shipments. Here are the things to watch out for:
- Update delays. If your goods are still in the factory, then unfortunately you’ll have to wait until the holiday is over before you receive anymore updates.
However, we’ve taken all the necessary precautions. This holiday is planned out to a T, so we make sure to get containers onto ships before this three day period; hopefully, you won’t even notice that your supplier’s not at work!
Remember, this shouldn’t be a major disruption to anyone and this may not even effect you – but if you think it might, or just want to make sure, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us!