Chinese New Year is a Chinese national holiday that is celebrated every year by Chinese natives, but the dates for the holiday change every year. It’s a time they use to rest and spend time with loved ones, and it’s a holiday that almost every Chinese native person observes. You might be thinking, “Great, but what does this mean for my dropshipping store?” -- Let’s get right to it.

This year the official holiday is from February 10th, 2024 to February 18th, 2024, but typically every one in China takes off for 3 to 4 weeks before / after the holiday, and the exact dates differ slightly for everyone. You can expect factories to start shutting down around January 15th, 2024. February 3rd is when the official shut down begins with an estimation of February 25th when factories will start opening back up.

The factories that we buy products from all close at different times, realistically starting on January 15th, 2024 (based on past data). That means if you fulfill an order starting on January 15th or after, the factory that we buy that product from could be closed already which means we’ll need to wait until they return to buy your product and ship your order. If this doesn’t make sense because you’re unfamiliar with the order fulfillment process, you can learn about that in more detail here, but here’s the shortened version:

Dropshipping suppliers (including Zendrop) don’t hold stock of any of the products in their catalog. They buy the products from the factories that produce the goods, after you fulfill your order. Then they re-package the goods and ship them to your customer.

This means that when we go to buy the product from that factory, if it’s already closed, we’ll have to wait for the factory to re-open, AFTER Chinese New Year to ship your order out. Your SAFEST option would be to not run traffic or plan to be able to fulfill/ship orders between the dates mentioned above. You could of course still choose to sell if you wish to, but just know that your orders will not ship between those dates.