How to Navigate Peak Season Shipping
We Asked 5 Experts!

When sprucing up your site for peak season, Ryan Davidson, Founder of Raw Juicery, partakes a golden strategy for creating a branded tracking page:

“Make sure your store’s shipment notifications are updated in a way to better manage customer expectations during this time. Create a branded tracking page if you haven’t done so already that answers common shipping-related questions.”

The idea is to create a branded tracking page with precise shipment info on your site. Answer FAQs about shipping times and how to reach customer support. This transparency will boost customer satisfaction.

John Webber, Founder/CEO of Carved— a company that deals in bespoke wooden accessories—

advises an online store feature for e-commerce sellers to minimize disruption to their regular operations while generating extra revenue during peak seasons:

“Consider offering a “Jump the line” upgrade during the holiday season. Have the customer add the “Jump the line” product to their cart, and then you can easily filter these orders in your OMS. Have your team just process these first, and you’ll have minimal operational impact, but you’ll generate additional revenue from customers who need gifts as fast as possible.”

So, think about offering a “Priority Processing” upgrade on select items for the holidays. Customers can pay extra to move their orders to the front of the line.

Your OMS can identify these orders, allowing your team to handle them without disrupting operations. This will lead to customers receiving their packages quickly.

Be ready for returns as well because they can go up during the busy season. So, have a smooth process for handling them.

Handle Returns Smoothly

Handling e-commerce returns in busy times can be tough due to various reasons. Yet, a solid return policy can boost customer loyalty and repeat sales.

A company’s return policy matters to 67% of customers, as per Business Insider. Therefore, it’s crucial to incorporate the following elements for a customer-centric return policy:

• Simplify your policy language and offer a clear, step-by-step guide.
• Provide free return services to align with industry norms; not doing so may drive customers away.
• Offer the choice between cash refunds and store credit; store credit encourages reinvestment.
• Communicate refund processing timelines for customer financial planning.

After handling the essentials for peak season, the next focus is efficient freight management. The aim: smooth shipping despite surging demand, all while being cost-effective and impressive.

Optimizing Your Freight Shipping Strategy with Tips from Industry Experts

Optimizing your freight shipping strategy involves hiring a 3PL provider and optimizing warehouse space. It also includes identifying the fastest delivery areas, selecting the optimal shipping methods, and optimizing last-mile logistics.

Hire a 3PL Provider for Outsourced Fulfillment

Handling seasonal demand alone is hard, and renting a warehouse is costly and time-consuming. So, consider a third-party logistics (3PL) provider for warehousing and shipping.

This lets you grow your operations for higher demand while focusing on your core business. Here’s how partnering with a 3PL provider like Unicargo can ease the holiday chaos:

• Provide technology benefits and business monitoring on one platform, monitoring several warehouses on a global level (not all logistics companies have this capability).
• Manage COD orders and settle transactions quickly.
• Handle order fulfillment for you and manage orders from multiple sales channels.
• Offer multiple eCommerce warehouses and smart inventory placement, and real-time monitoring.
• Ensure speedy same-day and next-day delivery. Ryan Davidson, Founder of Raw Juicery, also agrees with this point. “Use a fast and reliable shipping manager that helps you save money on shipping and offers a broader range of shipping speeds, including 1 day and same-day.”

Davidson stresses that e-commerce sellers need a fast, reliable shipping manager to save money and provide various delivery times, including same-day and 1-day options. This ensures you can give your customers quicker shipping choices while managing your shipping costs effectively.

Jon Tilley, a 7-figure seller on Amazon and CEO of ZonGuru, shares a great strategy for picking delivery partners with “Amazon live unload” capabilities.

“As we head into Q4 when you are transporting stock from your 3PL or warehouse to Amazon, look for delivery partners that have “Amazon live unload” capabilities. It may be slightly more expensive, but it guarantees that your stock will immediately get checked into an Amazon warehouse when it arrives, vs. it potentially sitting outside the warehouse for many days, waiting to get checked in! During high season, this is one of the key tactics that you can leverage to re-stock quickly and avoid stock-outs.”

Imagine you’re dealing with a hot holiday product and need to send stock to Amazon for the busy season. Now, choosing a delivery partner without “Amazon live unload” might mean your stock waits outside for days before being checked in. This wastes valuable time during the peak season.

On the other hand, paying a bit more for a delivery partner with “Amazon live unload” ensures your stock is checked in immediately upon arrival at the Amazon warehouse.

This way, you can restock fast and avoid running out of inventory when customers are eager for your products. Next, rank shipments by importance and transportation mode.

Prioritize Crucial Shipments

Identify the shipments that are time-sensitive or have strict deadlines. These could be your hottest products or ones that have already been pre-sold. Here are some tips to prioritize crucial shipments:

• Maintain open communication with warehouse and shipping partners, informing them of high-priority peak-time shipments.
• Establish clear shipping guidelines for your team and vendors to ensure timely and complete deliveries.
• In busy shipping seasons, distribute shipments to maintain a steady supply, especially useful for Less than Container Load (LCL) shipping.
• Arrange proper warehousing at the destination before the peak season rush if needed.
• For quicker and smoother deliveries, think about using transloading services.

Utilize Transloading Services

After your international shipment arrives, it’s often better to send it to one warehouse instead of multiple ones. It simplifies delivery management and reduces hassle. To enhance shipping efficiency and cost-effectiveness, utilize transloading services through your 3PL provider.

They involve transferring goods between transportation modes, optimizing routes, and saving costs. For example, goods arriving by ship can seamlessly switch to trucks for the final leg of the journey.

This approach offers flexibility during congested periods and enables shipment consolidation, improving cost efficiency. To further streamline your logistics operations and minimize expenses, consider using geotargeting techniques to optimize operational costs.

Use Geotargeting to Optimize Operational Costs

John Webber, Founder/CEO of Carved, offers an expert tip for using geotargeting on the fastest delivery areas to optimize operational costs.

“Research your fastest delivery areas. You could use simple geotargeting to offer visitors in that area free “expedited shipping.” You can still use a cheaper method because you’ll know it arrives quickly.”

Let’s say you have a US-based online store that designates certain suburban zones around major cities as the fastest delivery areas during the holiday season.

In one of these zones, Customer A selects the free “expedited shipping” option at checkout. Leveraging the proximity of your distribution center, you utilize cost-effective standard ground shipping, ensuring a 2-day delivery that aligns with their expectations.

This approach offers a premium-sounding “expedited shipping” choice, enhancing the shopping experience, all while maintaining cost-efficiency through well-informed logistics.

However, you’ll want to ensure that your geotargeting strategy for optimizing operational costs works seamlessly. So, choosing an optimal shipping method is crucial.

Choose the Optimal Shipping Method

Different shipping methods like ground, air, sea, and express couriers have unique advantages and drawbacks in terms of cost, speed, reliability, and product suitability.

To choose the right one, consider your shipment’s type, size, destination, and delivery urgency. Ground shipping is cost-effective but slower, air freight is fast but costly, and sea freight is economical but slower.

If you’re sea freight, you must know that ocean shipping peak season is subject to higher demand and prices in the third quarter. Add to it container shipping seasonality during the same quarter, and this culminates in higher ocean container rates.

This is because retailers build up inventory before the bustling fourth-quarter holiday season, causing high demand and low container supply. Despite this, ocean freight remains economical if you plan correctly and factor in longer delivery times. Container shipping offers two choices: LCL and FCL.

• LCL (Less than Container Load) shipping is cost-effective for small shipments, even during peak seasons, as ocean/air freight costs are minimal. However, it carries higher risks of damage and delays due to consolidation with other shippers, as goods wait for container filling before departure.

• FCL (Full Container Load) shipping is another option for peak season, which means filling a standard cargo container. It comes with a flat fee for the entire container, regardless of its contents. Though it’s more expensive than LCL, it offers the advantage of securing goods in a sealed container, lowering the damage risk.

FCL and LCL shipping costs include pickup (container collection) and origin terminal handling (port loading). They also consist of ocean/air freight (transport to the destination port at a flat fee) and destination terminal handling (port unloading).

Additionally, when shipping several containers, make sure to consult with an experienced freight forwarder / logistics provider that knows the ins and outs of the challenges and has the expertise needed to assure efficient and cost-effective shipping methods and trade lanes.  Hint, it’s NOT just about getting the cheapest quotation up front.  There is a lot of “reading the small print” that needs to be done prior to making a decision.

Select Your Freight Forwarder

Start with research when selecting your freight forwarder. Look online, ask industry peers, and assess their peak season experience with client referrals. Choosing a forwarder with a global network and partnerships with major carriers is essential because they can offer competitive pricing. Also, check whether they are accredited and have an international freight forwarding license.

Once you shortlist a few, get detailed price quotes and compare them. Establish clear service agreements, including deadlines and backup plans for surprises, and ensure they’re customs-savvy. Trust is paramount, as some freight forwarders may switch carriers at the last minute for better deals.

On the other hand, digital freight forwarders like Unicargo stand out due to their trustworthiness, especially for e-commerce businesses. They excel in speeding up and simplifying shipping processes, even during busy periods. Unicargo’s massive network of partners also means competitive prices and a lot of choices for saving time and money, not to mention the expertise they provide, being one of the First logistics companies to service e-commerce business owners when this niche just started to boom.

And the cherry on top? Everything is handled in one place. You’ll only have to interact with one person from the initial quote to the shipping, making the whole process smooth and convenient for you.

But remember to share your shipment plans with your freight forwarder  especially during peak times or sales. And don’t forget to get damage and RTO insurance for international shipments to protect against theft, losses, and Return to Origin cases. Finally, optimize last-mile logistics.

Optimize Last Mile Logistics

Last-mile logistics is the tricky and costly final leg of delivering goods from a warehouse to a customer’s door. Especially during peak times, finding carriers for high-volume last-mile deliveries can be challenging when the logistics system is already strained.

To streamline and save, offer flexible delivery options and partner with multiple carriers for cost-effective rates. Keep customers informed with real-time tracking to reduce missed deliveries.

Also, improve accuracy and efficiency by minimizing picking errors, using nearby stores as hubs for shorter distances, and shipping goods out early to expedite the process.

Ship Goods Early

During peak seasons, securing space on carriers is tough because capacity is in high demand. To make sure you get the space, book well in advance. The “Cargo Ready Date” can help you determine when to book.

It is the date when your cargo is packed, labeled, documented, and ready to hand over to the freight forwarder by this date. Don’t miss this deadline; for instance, book ocean shipments at least four weeks before Golden Week.

But since the peak season in 2023 is here, you might want to consider booking air freight instead of ocean shipping because it’s the quickest option.

Conclusion

Navigating a peak shipping season successfully boils down to preparation, a well-thought-out freight strategy, and expert insights. However, Unicargo can help you achieve this level of preparedness and efficiency in less time, no matter the size of your business and shipments.

We can handle your entire e-commerce supply chain, from warehousing and inventory to pick and pack and automated shipping. Our vast experience and deep expertise, our “boots on the ground”- global teams at ports, our strategic global warehouses (in China, Europe, and the U.S.) accompanied by our digital tracking capabilities not only make us a “one stop shop” but more importantly offer you peace-of-mind and simplicity. Your job is to grow your business, OURS is to handle your logistics efficeintly and assure you’re ready to deliver your goods smoothly and on  a timely schedule.