The holiday season can be both the most profitable and most challenging time of year for online retailers. By refining shipping strategies, hiring and training seasonal staff effectively, and implementing right-size packaging, you can reduce costs, protect products, and keep customers happy all season long.
For consumers, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year. For retailers, it can also be the most challenging. With peak season—spanning from Thanksgiving through New Year’s—often driving 40% or more of annual sales, preparation is key. Here are three strategies online retailers can implement now to streamline fulfillment, reduce stress, and keep customers smiling.
Step One: Tighten Up
Step One: Streamline Your Fulfillment
Efficient fulfillment saves time, reduces costs, and helps you stay ahead of peak season demand. Start by rethinking your shipping strategy to ensure every order reaches customers quickly and reliably.
First, identify which items you’ll fulfill in-house versus drop-ship. Many retailers benefit from processing some orders locally at the store level, which can:
- Utilize employee downtime effectively
- Reduce excess store inventory
- Optimize fulfillment center stock
- Lower shipping costs by minimizing parcel zones
Next, communicate expected holiday order volumes with your shipping partners. This allows them to scale capacity, ensuring on-time delivery, reducing costly delays, and protecting your sales.
Late shipments can raise shipping costs by as much as 500%. Meeting fast-delivery promises, like Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping, is critical to keeping customers happy and securing every possible sale.
Step Two: Staff Up for Success
Competition for quality seasonal workers can be intense during peak periods, and attracting the right talent often requires starting your recruitment early. Engage with staffing agencies and begin interviews well ahead of the busy season to secure dependable employees.
Once hired, proper training is essential. New technologies can help staff learn faster and retain more knowledge, improving overall efficiency.
For example, Pregis offers virtual-reality (VR) tutorials to quickly get new hires up to speed on proper packaging techniques. These immersive experiences ensure employees retain what they learn, standardize training across the team, and reduce the risk of damaged items — helping your fulfillment operations run smoothly no matter the season.
“Running low on protective packing materials can lead to more damaged items, returns and delayed shipments, which in turn lead to dissatisfied customers and higher shipping costs.”
Step Three: Optimize Your Packaging
Running low on protective packing materials can lead to damaged items, returns, and delayed shipments — all of which frustrate customers and increase costs. During peak periods, falling behind on order fulfillment may push retailers to rely on expensive air or overnight shipping to meet delivery expectations.
Before reordering shipping supplies, consider the benefits of right-size packaging. Parcel carriers now charge based on whichever is higher: a package’s actual weight or its dimensional (DIM) weight. DIM weight is calculated from a package’s length, width, and height to determine a minimum theoretical weight.
By switching bulky parcels to poly bags or custom-sized boxes, retailers can reduce DIM weight, save on shipping costs and improve efficiency — all while keeping products protected and customers happy.
Wrapping Up
The key to a successful peak season is preparation: refining shipping strategies, hiring and training seasonal staff effectively, and using right-size protective packaging. Focusing on these steps helps retailers reduce costs, protect products, and deliver a better experience for their customers.
Discover how Pregis full range of eCommerce and fulfillment solutions can support your business at www.pregis.com/ecommerce-fulfillment.
