For an online retailer hoping to increase revenue, the holiday shopping season is the most crucial time of the year. Many online retailers make up to 75% of their annual sales during the festive season. It’s critical that you have the appropriate shipping strategy and fulfilment procedures in place if you want to handle the unprecedented volume of orders properly and in such a short period of time.

Those who keep up logistically will attract more customers and keep them coming back as consumers expect a lot more from their online shopping experience (including free returns, free shipping, quick shipping and a great unboxing experience.

In this article, we will share with you all of our best tips and tricks to cope with the craziness of peak delivery season.

Ensure your suppliers can meet customer demand

More and more brands now choose to collaborate with various manufacturers or suppliers to avoid any possible shortages when a primary supplier is unable to supply due to shortages, shutdowns, or even to help mitigate trade restrictions.

Manufacturers may experience peak capacity or shutdowns at any time, which means receiving and replenishing inventory may be significantly delayed, disrupting the entire e-commerce supply chain. Planned shutdowns, like those associated with Chinese New Year, may occur as well as unplanned ones brought on by pandemic-related factors.

Partnerships with several suppliers can help lower the danger of an inventory shortage, regardless of the situation, so you will be able to meet consumer demand despite any delays in acquiring more eCommerce goods. This is part of your business’s contingency or continuity plan.

Additionally, you can order extra stock in advance to avoid stockouts and have more backup stock available during the busiest shipping season.

Get ready well in advance

If you wait until peak season to implement changes, it might be too late to adjust to the change in pace. When peak season rolls along, you should be prepared with a strategy and have communicated that strategy to every employee. Otherwise, you might cause confusion and jeopardise all strategies in place.

In order to prepare yourself, we would advise you to examine the successes and failures of the prior peak season. The next step is to pinpoint problem areas and formulate a strategy to fix them, whether by updating software or switching to a different, more dependable provider. If you are at a loss for where to begin, ask your staff, they will know which areas need strengthening. They are the ones who see your logistics in action on a daily basis, and they may have some terrific suggestions for how to improve things.

Be aware of all deadlines

At the height of shipping season, keeping to both internal and external schedules becomes increasingly important. In order to keep things running smoothly, your staff needs to know when things are due. In addition, it’s important to keep your consumers updated on the status of their orders.

Contact your carriers to inquire as to when their peak season shipping cutoffs are if you are unsure of when your own deadlines are. Knowing this will allow you to work backwards to determine when orders should be placed and sent.

Remember that everyone is busier than usual during the high season, so things may not go as smoothly as usual. We recommend leaving some wiggle room in your schedule in case of delays.

Automation is your friend

An unprepared warehouse or shipping department may be crippled by the large increase in order volume during the busiest Christmas season, and consumers who had to wait too long for their products may be left with a lingering poor taste. Customer experience may also make or destroy a brand in today’s industry.

Companies may improve the speed, agility, and accuracy of fulfilment processes when it matters the most by doing away with manual and paper-based methods and automating warehouse operations with a cloud-based, e-commerce-enabled warehouse management system.

Spiking sales volumes can test the resiliency of fulfilment systems, but an integrated, scalable WMS can accommodate higher-volume order processing with ease and great efficiency. Additionally, because an automated order fulfilment solution is built on simple, system-driven processes, temporary seasonal personnel may start using it right away, saving time and money.

Pick the right logistics company to work with

This one might sound obvious but working with a logistics company that you trust and that has shown its worth in the past is extremely important. In busy times like peak season, it is vital to know that you can trust the people you work with and can rely on them in case of an issue. 

We hope this article has given you all the tools you need to better understand peak season. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about us and our services, simply visit our website or get in contact with us.