How to Plan Your Logistics For The Holiday Season?
- October 27, 2018
- Blog
During the holiday time, the customers expect to get their gifts and purchase with little hassle. This implies that for several organizations, they want to meet that expectation and provide customer satisfaction. An increasing number of people shop online and the winter season is particularly volatile for orders. So, good planning is required with respect to logistics for the holiday season.
In order to manage this holiday peak, it is important to start the planning months before. It is important to plan strategically in order to make sure that your business is on track during the holiday season.
Things to look while planning with logistics for the holiday season:
> Clarify the Expectation to Staff
When you plan to meet the increasing demand for the holiday season, you need to involve the staffs, too. You need to make it a point to communicate the expectations of the customers. Turnover might increase once the peak time is over. Staff providers have to ensure that the newly hired people are of equal standards as the ones they are replacing.
> Take a Long Term View
Tap the knowledge, systems, and facilities of a 3Pl provider that does not have enough experience. This will help you to forecast the demand accurately and thereafter scale as per requirement. The plan of long term view might be necessary not just for logistics for the holiday season but also for other times such as sales burst and flash sales. If you have a comprehensive map year-round, you will integrate the peak season with organic growth. This will help you to keep up with the demands as the business evolves.
> Consider How Change in One Area will Affect the Others
You need to consider how a change in a particular area will have an impact on all the others. For instance, spike order doesn’t only require a large volume of goods it also requires a large number of workers to fulfill the order. As a matter of fact, proper storage and warehousing space will also be needed during the logistics for the holiday season. If you work with a 3PL solutions partner, particularly the one with an automated system, it will help you to meet the peak challenges. You can streamline the orders and turnaround the orders at a faster pace.
> Implement Marketing and Promotions Initiatives in the Strategy
Consumers have started expecting special treatment from the logistics providers during the holiday season time. They expect guaranteed delivery dates, free shipping, or gifts with the purchase. You have to keep pace with the competition and work closely with the logistics team to ensure that each and every order arrives on time.
> Get an Exceptional Order Presentation and Customer Service
Since the holiday is about friends and family, a warm reception from customer service will make the customer feel good. Even though, the frenzy of the festive season might make you churn out the order as fast as possible. It is essential to maintain the quality of customer service. It is always better to select a fulfillment partner that will commit to an exceptional order presentation. Select a team that will treat each and every order like a gift.
20Cube Logistics is an end to end logistics service provider and have a presence in 10 countries. We have experienced staffs who make advance planning with respect to logistics for the holiday season and provide superior services.
With strategic systems, forecasting, communicating with the staff, and enticing promotions will ease the holiday burden to a great extent.