It’s that time of year again where peak preparations and peak management come into play. There’s lots of things you can do to help ensure a smooth journey through increased order volumes and to maximise your sales volumes.
Now we’ve hinted to a few top tips in our previous posts on preparing for peak, but let's delve a little deeper into how you can optimise your eCommerce operation for peak.
Forecasting
This is beneficial for not just your company, but for your fulfilment provider, including both your delivery partner and the carriers that you use. At MHI, we typically see a 30-40% increase in volume throughout the peak period and this is something that requires additional operating hours and we forecast extra staff to be on hand to ensure our efficient and seamless services run optimally. We recommend reviewing your sales volumes from the past few years during peak, then combining this data with current volume trends to get a more accurate prediction of what to expect for peak 2024.
Annually we offer reporting support to our existing MHI customers, pulling from our database of sales stats from previous years and creating a concise overview of how to best prepare for peak when it comes to meeting an increased demand.
Another key tip we have learnt over the last three decades is to prioritise communication between your business and your suppliers or partners. Timely updates and more accurate forecasts will ultimately minimise any delays for your customers, boosting customer satisfaction and online reviews of your brand.
Last shipping dates
It’s important to manage your customer’s expectations by publishing the latest recommended dates that customers can purchase an item in time for it to arrive before Christmas. Transparency here is crucial to mitigate unnecessary customer queries and complaints and freeing up your team to focus on more important tasks.
You can find our general list of recommended last shipping dates here. Please note that these are just a guideline and may vary per courier and country. These are also subject to change, however they give a general idea of cut-off dates which are often earlier than you’d think.
Global supply chain and delivery disruption
Factor in any planned strike action, public holidays and known disruptions, in addition to keeping an eye on current global events that may cause delays.
At MHI we provide a weekly service bulletin to our clients, informing them of the latest news that may impact delivery. This includes unforeseen circumstances such as floods, Hurricanes and Earthquakes in addition to customs delays and national lockdowns.
In the past within the UK there have occasionally been postage strikes by Royal Mail staff for example, which can cause delays. Whichever country you are shipping to / from, be aware of what delivery providers / couriers are doing to stay ahead of the curve.
Collections
It’s important to optimise your delivery collections and remain agile to fluctuations in volumes.
At MHI we love to offer flexibility to our clients. Maximising pallet-fill, keeping consumables such as pallets & magnums well-stocked and replenished regularly, and adapting collection arrangements to suit increases in volume are just some of the ways that can help maximise peak efficiencies.
Remaining agile with collections is key, however, when changing collection times, ensure that your packing and fulfilment timings are also altered to sync harmoniously with collection times.
Switch to tracked services
Increase transparency, reduce queries and improve customer experience by switching to tracked delivery services for the peak season.
If there is anytime to switch to tracked its peak. With 90% of consumers wanting to track their orders, it’s key to meet their expectations, particularly when a deadline such as Christmas is involved. This is especially key for those last-minute gift-buyers and December shoppers.
We offer the flexibility for our clients to switch whenever they like to tracked services and back again when it suits them. You can switch for peak, just for Black Friday, the week before Christmas, or, just for the January sales. One of our USPs is the flexibility and combined service solutions we offer.
Our dedicated client services team is also on hand to consult and support you through the peak season; they’ll be great at informing you what is the most cost-effective solution for the level of service you require. With no need to commit to minimum time-frames or requirements, we can mold to be as agile as you.
Monitor and control
We love data and analysis. As firm believers in monitoring for continuous improvement, we couldn’t finish our top tips off without mentioning reporting.
We offer our clients full visibility of items processed each day, in addition to tracking, daily scan reports and missing data reports. These enable the process to be as efficient as possible.
Any queries or discrepancies are flagged immediately. If we notice certain days are busier, then we organise additional staff or shifts where needed. It is this data that allows us to be seamlessly agile.
Whilst real-time data is great to make instant changes, it also helps with next year’s forecasting, getting you ahead of the game before anyone else.
Are you looking for extra support this Peak?
For expert advice on eCommerce cross-border solutions get in touch with our friendly team. Through our global carrier network and AI informed postal optimisation engine, we help businesses reach international markets easefully.
If you want to know more about optimising marketing and boosting sales check out our previous blog post in this peak performance series.
Get in touch at: enquiries@mhi.co
