Our TPS top tips for navigating peak season.

Peak season is the period of highest demand in the logistics and supply chain industry. It occurs during key retail periods, such as Black Friday and Christmas, (known as the holiday season), back-to-school sales, or special events.

Managing peak season is critical for retailers to ensure stock arrives on time, and their operations are ready for for the upsurge in fulfilment, this includes both delivery and returns (known as reverse logistics).

Preparation starts earlier than you expect – peak season starts in August and ends with Christmas.

Key retail dates 

1. Holiday season (November–December): Retailers experience a surge in demand due to Christmas, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
2. Back-to-School (August–September): Families purchase school supplies, primarily clothing, stationary and electronics.
3. Chinese New Year (January–February): This affects global supply chains, factory shutdowns in China create supply and shipping backlogs and delays.
4. Other sales events: Events like Amazon Prime Day or Singles’ Day also drive-up retail demand.

Challenges during peak season

1. Capacity strain: Increased demand often leads to rolled stock, transportation bottlenecks, port congestion and airfreight shortages.
2. Inventory management: Keeping track of stock becomes more complex, especially across multiple warehouses, ensure customers are kept up to date with ‘out of stock’ and order cut off dates.
3. Delivery delays: The surge in shipments can cause delays in deliveries, especially for international orders or those relying on last-mile logistics.
4. Cost increases: Shipping costs rise during peak season, keep an eye on supply chain budgets.
5. Staffing issues: Managing increased workloads can be a challenge. There’s often a need for temporary workers and they can be in short supply at this time of year.

Ways to prepare for peak season

1. Plan ahead: Forecast demand early to ensure inventory levels match expected order volumes. Prepare for extra fees and longer shipping times.
2. Flexible shipping options: Consider using a service with a slightly longer transit time, the fastest services are most likely to be overbooked. Alternative transport modes and routes could avoid potential disruptions.
3. Consult the experts: Work with your logistics partners to find the best shipping, storage and fulfilment solutions to suit your budget and timescales.
4. Invest in technology: Automated tools can help with inventory forecasting, data analysis and sales modelling. Many integrate with ERP systems (such as our warehouse management system) and ecommerce platforms.
5. Increase staffing: Outsource fulfilment or hire additional staff (even be ready to ask friends and family to step in and help with packing).
6. Stock up on packaging: As well as ensuring you have enough packaging materials, consider the branding and customer experience at this time of year – custom packaging, gift notes, inserts etc enhance the unboxing experience and could make your brand really stand out.
7. Establish a returns management process: make sure you have a well-defined returns and exchange policy in place that is easy to understand, and accessible on your online store or product listings.

Shipping during peak season –

 

• Air freight: Book 6-7 days in advance of the Cargo Ready Date (CRD is the date on which a shipment is ready to be loaded and transported from its origin).
• Sea freight: Book 3-4 weeks in advance of the CRD. LCL Shipping: Note that transit time for LCL shipments will be 7-10 days longer than an FCL shipment. Avoid shipping 45’ HC containers, if possible. These are more likely to be rolled.
• Ports and warehouses will be extremely congested. Expect more time to load/unload at origin and destination.
• Avoid booking multiple containers on a single bill of lading (B/L) try to book 2-4 TEU (1-2 x 40’s) per B/L. If multiple containers are under a single B/L (i.e. 10 x 40’), and that gets rolled, the supply impact would be far greater than a B/L with 1 or 2 containers getting rolled.

How TPS Global Logistics can help

By partnering with an experienced 3PL such as TPS, the chaotic peak season becomes more manageable. We support retailers by offering flexible logistics solutions, with cost-effective shipping, storage, fulfilment and distribution services. Our WMS covers inventory, tracking and reporting. With TPS you can optimise your supply chain to handle the demands of peak season.

As customers expect more from their online shopping experience – free returns, free and fast shipping, packaging surprise and delight experiences – retailers who keep up logistically will bring in more customers and keep them coming back.