Get ready for peak

To help get your eCommerce business ready for peak season, Whistl has outlined ten top tips to create a smoother customer process, during periods of high demand. 

When is eCommerce peak season?

In the UK Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day and January sales typically represent a large proportion of total annual sales and are the key eCommerce peaks; eCommerce retailers report up to a 240% and 380% increase in revenue on Black Friday and Cyber Monday respectively. 

Globally, special occasions such as Singles’ Day in China, Thanksgiving in the US and Diwali in India are fast-becoming events that UK online retailers are optimising their marketing and operations towards. 

While often associated with special occasions, peaks aren’t exclusive to events and aren’t always periodical, they can be a one-off occurrence. DIY retailers, for example, experience summer peaks, while lockdown catalysed a surge in demand for automotive and cycling goods.

Outlined below is a snapshot of our Preparing for Peak Guide:

1. Understand your audience 

By getting to know your customers’ behaviours, quirks and media preferences, you will better understand how to stimulate sales from them during peaks in demand.

2. Review your supply chain and monitor industry trends

Preparing for peak means looking externally from your organisation. What is the current state of play with international commerce? By anticipating seasonal trends and monitoring changes in cross-border trade you will be able to minimise understocking of packaging, as well as your products. Historical patterns in your business’s sales will also help you predict times of higher demand.

3. Avoid understocking with effective inventory management

During peak trading times it becomes all the more important to increase your stock levels and accelerate throughput.

4. Optimise your technical infrastructure 

When did you last review your technology stack? Maintaining your stock level accuracy can improve the efficiency of your order processing.

5. Preparare your marketing campaigns for peak season offers

By mapping out the times of year that you expect sharp rises in demand to occur, you can conduct reverse promotional planning for campaigns.

6 . Accelerate your order processing 

The faster you can pick, pack, and dispatch your customers' orders, the quicker you can respond to peaks in demand. Reviewing your fulfilment strategy might help determine the most efficient route to despatch. 

7. Deploy a multi-carrier shipping strategy to minimise risk

Just like political unrest and natural disasters, peak demand can impact logistical operations globally. By working with a multi-carrier consolidator you will mitigate risk. 

8. Outsource eCommerce fulfilment for extra scale 

Create better visibility of your supply chain processes, with an outsourced fulfilment specialist you will have the scale to handle large order volumes and unpredicted peaks.

9. Get your contact centre ready for peaks and troughs in demand 

Historical patterns may help your business plan for customer contact surges, when unanticipated growth or call surges occur, does your customer service levels fall?

10. Leverage proactive and reactive technology to minimise delivery failures

Failed deliveries have a significant impact on customer retention, loyalty, and brand perception. Proactive tracking support specialists can help you minimise the
likelihood of deliveries failing.

Whistl is the UK's leading logistics company, uniquely placed to help businesses effectively manage their eCommerce supply chain.