Walmart just announced the last days to place orders for Christmas and the deadlines are earlier than last year

• Walmart says orders with two-day shipping should be placed by December 19 to arrive by Christmas.
• The retailer also expanded curbside pickup hours this year.
• Experts have warned of shipping delays during the holidays.
• Walmart set a deadline of December 22 in 2019 for two-day shipping, making this year's deadline days earlier than last.

Shoppers should place orders by December 19 to make sure they arrive by Christmas, Walmart told customers in a statement.

As the holidays approach, Walmart detailed the latest possible time to order each type of delivery and get it in time for Christmas. For two-day delivery, customers should place orders by 2 p.m. on December 19, and for one-day delivery, they should order by 2 p.m. on December 21. For express delivery within two hours, shoppers should plan to order by 1 p.m. on December 24.

Walmart has also expanded curbside pickup options throughout the pandemic, for customers who want contactless service. Pickup slots are available through December 24 and should be booked through the Walmart app.

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Walmart's 2020 deadlines are earlier than in 2019, when the last day to order for two-day shipping in time for Christmas in most zip codes was December 22 and next-day shipping was December 23. This comes as no surprise since experts have been warning about holiday shipping delays this year since at least October when shipping companies FedEx and UPS told retailers that they were nearing capacity.

Smaller companies like DHL and Lasership stopped taking on new customers at that time, saying that they were already booked through the holidays. E-commerce experts have called this chaos "shipageddon" and warned that delays may be inevitable.

Satish Jindel, president of shipping data software company ShipMatrix, told The Wall Street Journal that 86.3 million packages per day would likely be sent between Thanksgiving and Christmas, exceeding the industry capacity of 79.1 million daily packages.

The last day to order packages for Christmas with standard shipping has already passed for many retailers, including Best Buy and Home Depot. See Business Insider's full list of shipping deadlines here.