Peak Thanksgiving shipping season is the time (October through December) when order and shipment quantity experience rocket, resulting in more orders to fill and returns to handle, as a result of the busy holiday shopping season surrounding popular retail days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as general gift-giving leading up to Thanksgiving.
During this high season, you can anticipate an increase in freight rates and a decrease in freight capacity. Retailers may have major difficulties as a result of this action, and supply chain and logistics managers may face much greater difficulties.
Common Thanksgiving season challenges
Warmer Weather
In shopping, the weather is important. In contrast to prior seasons, the weather in Europe and the US is warmer this time of year. If you own an online store and sell clothing, this should be of significant concern to you.
Largely impacted items include clothing and footwear. At this time of year, shoppers are typically prepared to pay full price for warmer clothing because, well, they need them. This year, though, that won’t be the case since kids can still wear their fall-season attire.
You should therefore get ready and give clothing that is more suited to these temperatures rather than clothing for the coldest ones.
Mobile Is Still a Big Deal
On Thanksgiving, customers will place more orders from their mobile devices than from their computers. This is a major justification for paying attention to your website’s mobile layout.
Make sure everything works as it would on a desktop layout and that all features are optimized. Make scrolling as simple as you can while attempting to speed up your loading time.
Buyers may make fewer purchases on mobile devices than on desktops. This means that when it comes to optimization, you should clearly distinguish between the many product kinds you’re selling.
However, smartphone purchases of clothing, toys, and flowers are more likely than desktop purchases of furniture, electronics, and other items.
Inexperienced 3PLs (Third-Party Logistics)
Make sure the 3PL – third-party logistics you choose to work with has the knowledge, tools, and experience necessary to manage the busiest shipping season. The wrong 3PL partner can seriously hinder your fulfillment process, resulting in incorrect inventory levels, incorrect picks, and slower delivery.
Tips to Optimize Your Shipping Deadlines on Thanksgiving
How can enterprises and logistics providers get ready for the busiest shipping period in 2022?
Manage customer expectations
Additionally, shippers need to control and ensure that their clients’ and customers’ delivery timing requirements are understood. At the beginning of the epidemic, many retailers began including information on their websites regarding potential delivery delays.
These statements have persisted on the majority of sites and have been added to many customer emails over time due to supply chain sourcing delays, labor shortages, and capacity restrictions on delivery. This is a sizable portion of both the retail sector and the logistics sector overall.
Stock up on extra shipping materials
If you keep fulfillment in-house, make sure to stock up on the cartons, poly mailers, and other materials you’ll need to avoid slowing down fulfillment due to a lack of packaging materials.
Additionally, you should consider how to distinguish your business this Thanksgiving season. For instance, you can use personalized packaging, advertising inserts, and gift notes to make the unwrapping experience unique.
A memorable unpacking experience can satisfy your customers in the social media era and raise the likelihood that they’ll tell their friends and followers about it.
Keep in touch with suppliers
To prevent possible stockouts throughout the holiday season, work directly with your manufacturer or supplier and share the anticipated Quarter 4 order volume as soon as feasible. Work with lengthier lead times than usual because of the demand for goods during the fourth quarter as well as port delays and other supply management difficulties.
Inventories, backorders, and running discounts on out-of-stock items are less likely if you are aware of the production lead times.
Utilize multiple warehouses
You can distribute goods over several fulfillment centers to reduce shipping costs and cut down on transit times, especially if you work with a 3PL.
You can provide competitive, quick, andeconomical shipping choices that satisfy consumer expectations by using a distributed inventory technique (for example, 2-day or free delivery with a minimum purchase requirement that exceeds your AOV, or average order value).
What additional Thanksgiving shipping seasons are there? Contact us to find out more about cutting-edge supply chain optimization solutions.
ConnectPOS is a all-in-one point of sale solution tailored to meet your eCommerce POS needs, streamline business operations, boost sales, and enhance customer experience in diverse industries. We offer custom POS with features, pricing, and plans to suit your unique business requirements.
