The fourth quarter of the year is always the busiest time in terms of shopping because of the holiday season. With e-commerce making shopping simpler and faster, your business will likely receive a ton of orders during this period. That’s why it’s important to fulfill each of them to establish your business as a good choice for online shoppers.
The best way for your business to do that is to prepare accordingly. Regardless of the size, businesses must be ready for the incoming e-commerce orders they will receive in the holidays. Their readiness will be the deciding factor for successful order fulfillment, perhaps the most essential step in e-commerce.
Your customers expect you to deliver during the peak season. So if you haven’t started, don’t worry because it’s never too late to prepare. Here are some tips for peak season preparations for e-commerce fulfillment.
Build a forecast model
Building a forecast model will help you anticipate what may or may not happen this year. You can do this by using data from last year to come up with an accurate forecast of the trends for this year. If you only have little data to base your forecast on, you can ask other businesses or connections in the same industry for insight.
By having a forecast model, you can capture the increase in sales that will trend during quarter four peak season. That way, you can prepare products that are likely to be in demand to streamline fulfillment. In addition, it also enables you to anticipate and address consumer complaints effectively.
Communicate with your carrier
Communicating with your carrier is imperative, especially during the peak season. You have to ensure that you can rely on them for fulfillment when it’s busiest. That’s because transit time, the interval needed for a shipment to be delivered from its point of departure is crucial for order fulfillment.
Understand your carrier’s cut-off times during the holiday season because your customers need to be aware of them as well. It’s essential because your customers need to be ensured that their orders will come in time for the holidays. Another thing you need to talk about with your carrier is their capacity to handle your projected sales volume, which will come from your forecast model.
Ask them if they can deploy additional trucks to accommodate your increased orders during peak season. Also, be sure to ask about any peak season surcharges they may employ. You should also communicate this information to your customers to reduce any possible issues.
Hire additional help
Since peak season is the most crucial period for effective order fulfillment, you may need more help than you already have. If you can, hire part-time staff to help improve your e-commerce fulfillment during a busy shopping season. Keep in mind that this move for expansion entails additional obligations your business must fulfill.
Additional employees you’ll hire for the peak season must be fairly compensated, whether part-time or full-time. Besides that, you should also provide them with proper training; otherwise, you’ll just throw away money for hiring additional people that don’t know what they’re doing. You also have to ensure they understand their workload and responsibilities so they know what you expect from them and vice versa.
Wrap up
It’s a must for businesses in e-commerce to effectively fulfill orders because customers expect them to do that. But, if you want to accomplish that, you’ll need to prepare. That’s the key, and you should do it as soon as you can.
Author’s Bio:
Luther Abrams is quite a jack of all trades type of guy. He loves exploring new things and cultivating his knowledge every now and then. Today, he grows more and more interested in jewelry and watches and even writes about such things in his free time.
