With many major big box retailers like Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Walmart and more closing their doors on Thanksgiving, shoppers are driving spend online prior to Black Friday.
The 2021 holiday season posted the strongest retail growth in more than 20 years, and 2022 is set to reach even greater heights. Holiday sales are projected to reach $1.26 trillion, with ecommerce-specific spend climbing to $235.86 billion. That’s more than the market capitalization of some of the world’s biggest brands, including L’Oreal ($182B), Disney ($168B), Nike ($164B), and more. The time to prepare for the largest, longest peak holiday season is now, ahead of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush.
Many brands found themselves stuck and unable to meet peak demand in past years because of backend logistical challenges. That doesn’t need to happen this holiday season. Flowspace is able to help any enterprise brand or small business prepare for peak holiday ecommerce sales, overcome challenges with seasonal fulfillment, and deliver exceptional holiday customer service.
The Omnichannel Imperative
Customers today expect to discover and shop for brands across multiple channels, especially during the holidays, when comparison shopping is rampant. With the proliferation of shopping channels – from DTC sites to marketplaces to social media and messaging apps – brands need a way to connect all their ecommerce channels and provide the reliable, efficient delivery experience customers expect across them, without setting up multiple logistics networks.
Omnichannel fulfillment allows brands to connect all their storefronts and shopping channels to unlock real-time visibility into inventory, orders, and fulfillment activity, across channels. Fulfillment with Flowspace enables omnichannel visibility and control not only during seasonal spikes, but for standard operations as well.
Shipping Costs and Surcharges
Ecommerce retailers are often subject to peak shipping season surcharges implemented by carriers. Structurally, carriers see seasonal surcharges that accompany the holiday shopping season as the new normal, and brands should plan for these charges when forecasting costs – sometimes even into Q1, as surcharges can trail seasonal billing.
With shipping costs up across the board, Flowspace enables brands to drive down the last-mile delivery cost by decreasing the distance to a customer’s door. Our Network Optimization model identifies the optimal fulfillment centers closest to a brand’s customers, decreasing shipping distance and time. Plus, Flowspace is able to rate shop carriers to find the lowest possible shipping cost.
Shipping Capacity and Peak Delays
Last holiday shipping season, delivery demand exceeded capacity by millions of pieces per day driven by online shopping. As peak season hits for carriers, brands need to get strategic with ecommerce store and shipment strategies.
Flowspace helps brands optimize which online store orders and shipments go through which carriers, automatically routing orders to the optimal carrier to reduce transit times and accompanying delays for shoppers.
Scale and Success in Q4 and Beyond
Proactive supply chain management beyond Q4 can help brands prepare for a future dominated by ecommerce-driven online sales, when the customer experience is made or broken by an on-time delivery and hassle-free fulfillment experience.
Flowspace software centralizes ecommerce fulfillment operations in one place, offering real-time visibility into orders and inventory, and a flexible network that offers stability through ever-changing peaks and disruptions.
Let Flowspace help you Prepare for Peak now, before it’s too late. Download our Ultimate Guide to Omnichannel for Peak Season to discover everything you need to know to achieve peak season success.
Sources
- Insider. Best Buy joins Walmart and Target in closing stores on Thanksgiving, a blow to Black Friday. https://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-stores-closed-thanksgiving-day-discounts-move-online-2021-6
- Supply Chain Dive. Shippers struggle to land carrier space despite preparing for peak early. https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/peak-capacity-ecommerce-delivery-fedex-ups-carriers-surcharges/604073/
- Retail Dive. UPS: Peak demand projected to exceed capacity by 5M packages daily. https://www.retaildive.com/news/ups-earnings-peak-capacity-volume-carol-tome/604045/
Written By:
Allison Champion
Allison Champion leads marketing communication at Flowspace, where she works to develop content that addresses the unique challenges facing modern brands in omnichannel eCommerce. She has more than a decade of experience in content development and marketing.
