This holiday season is starting out differently. Traditionally, holiday shopping began to show up about the third week of October. It sort of mimicked catalog shopping. And it would more or less end around December 15, to allow USPS, UPS, DHL, and FedEx to make their deliveries on time.

As more and more stores began to offer last minute, fast shipping, the end date for holiday shopping was more like December 21 (or even the 23rd if you were willing to pay a premium).

This year, holiday shopping didn’t seem to start until this week. It’s a strange year from any number of perspectives, so it’ll be interesting to see when it slows down.

Many merchants are prepping for higher demand for shipped items, and to avoid last-minute supply issues, they have pushed out their “best deals” and “Black Friday” offers earlier than usual. (Have you seen the Cyber Week Deals category?) Whether this will entice shoppers to click Add-To-Cart prior to Thanksgiving or not, remains to be seen.