The holidays tend to creep up on us all. Blink — and it’s holidays! And while the seasonal rush usually provides a delightful boost for business, it can also bring a mad rush that impacts wholesalers and similar companies.
Finding a reliable and fast courier service is one of the best things you can do to prepare your business for holiday deliveries. A quality courier helps you fulfill the influx of orders — and that alone eliminates half the stress of the season. This guide explores how to prepare for holiday deliveries, including the advantages of working with a courier to provide your customers with reliable shipping.
The Importance of Last-Minute Holiday Shipping for Businesses
More than 60% of Americans prefer doing holiday shopping online. Plus, because many people are the busiest at work during holidays, most shoppers only buy gifts a week before Christmas! The reality of both these statistics means your shipping department might feel an extra strain during the holiday season.
Busy seasons affect various industries, from retail, entertainment and leisure to travel and restaurants. Chances are, your warehouse or wholesale chain services some aspect of these industries — and these clients rely on you to satisfy the end user, even during the holiday rush.
Even though last-minute shipping can be tricky to manage, it’s a crucial part of business. Handling the logistics of holiday shipping also benefits your company in several ways:
- Offering last-minute holiday shipping is essential to customer satisfaction. Strong logistics around holidays help you get orders out to customers on time and give them time to make returns if necessary.
- Reliable last-minute shipping can lead to repeat business and a boost in sales.
- You can incorporate some strategies you implement for last-minute orders year-round to improve overall logistics.
- Your company can save money by having a good last-minute shipping plan in place. You can plan for the extra costs of a courier and consider cost-saving options like bulk ordering and deliveries, helping you avoid seasonal price hikes and other unforeseen costs.
Plan Now!
Planning is the foundation of getting your company ready for the holidays. Naturally, you must adjust your logistics to accommodate the busiest time of year. Consider these changes to logistics and deliveries when you plan:
- Extra supplies: The spike in orders affects every part of logistics — especially how much more inventory and packaging supplies you need.
- The need for additional staff in the warehouse: Putting out your hiring ad early will help you account for the time the interview and hiring processes take.
- Foreseeing delays: Reflecting on previous busy times can help you pinpoint the causes of potential delays and brainstorm ways to prevent or work around setbacks.
- Longer wait times: Planning helps determine what your wait times will be with the new demand so that you can create related policies early enough and communicate them with your customers.
Prepare Your Warehouse or Wholesale Chain
Reliable wholesalers and providers prepare for the holiday rush well in advance by implementing key strategies that keep the supply chain moving. These practical methods can help your company get ready for holiday shipping, too:
Prepare Inventory and Packaging
One of the most vital aspects to cover for the holidays is having sufficient inventory to match the increase in demand. Ensuring you have sufficient resources for packaging all your orders is just as vital! Stock up on everything you need, including enough boxes, waybill sheets, package liners, stickers, tape and other essentials.
Incorporate Technology for Inventory and Tracking
Making your supply chain as smooth as possible is one of your top priorities. An effective way of making operations more efficient is automating tasks. For example, you can automate transactional messages, including emails or texts, to be delivered when a customer places or changes an order, when their order is shipped, when it’s in transit, and when it arrives.
Brainstorm Last-Minute Strategies
A good last-minute strategy can mean the difference between a successful holiday season and a stressful one! Your last-minute strategies can include the following:
- Disaster preparedness: Consider what you will do during emergencies, like being short-staffed or dealing with delays due to extreme weather.
- Legal and compliance considerations: Have a plan to fulfill orders with legal requirements. Some products cannot be obtained or shipped during specific times for legal reasons.
- Returns management process: Brainstorm how you will manage your return policies during the holidays. Will you alter your returns and cancellations policies during the holidays? Consider how you will develop your returns process during the season and communicate your plan to your customers.
- Set cutoff dates: Implement clear cutoff dates for the holiday season to help you stay on top of orders. A cutoff date is a simple but effective way to manage holiday shipments.
How Couriers Can Help With Holiday Deliveries
Though holidays place additional demand on logistics all around, there is hope! Partnering with a reliable courier is one of the best ways to manage holiday shipments. Take a look at some of the benefits of partnering with a courier for your holiday deliveries:
- A courier gives you more time to focus on pre-shipment operations.
- When you work with a quality courier, you get the advantage of working with certified drivers who can deliver special goods.
- The easiest way to meet your holiday shipping deadlines is by working with a courier who can provide same-day and final-mile delivery services.
- By outsourcing deliveries, you enjoy more workforce without hiring new staff.
- A courier can offer you multiple shipping options to suit your needs.
- Working with a courier improves the speed and quality of your deliveries.
- Couriers help you manage order tracking.
- Working with a courier can boost customer satisfaction as they receive timely deliveries.
B2B Holiday Shipping Tips
Keeping track of all your last-minute essentials can quickly become a tricky task during the rush of the holiday season. Follow this list of last-minute holiday shipping tips to keep everything organized:
- Mark your calendar with key dates, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and Boxing Day.
- Meet shipping carrier deadlines and communicate with customers about potential delays.
- Extend deliveries for last-minute local deliveries.
- Hire temp workers to scale up your team.
- Outsource shipping and fulfillment.
- Schedule pickups timeously.
- Check out the courier and logistics trends to know how to customize your solutions.
- And always give yourself enough time!
Custom and Timely Shipping Solutions With ExpressIT Delivery
Are you ready to shift into gear for holiday shipments? Enjoy timeous shipping services from ExpressIT Delivery! We are a women-led company that has been serving our clients with B2B delivery service needs for over 38 years. We know your business is not one-size-fits-all, so our helpful team of professionals is here to customize your delivery options during the holiday craze.
We offer premium services, including same-day, on-demand and next-day delivery. We also provide warehousing options and will keep you in the loop throughout the process. Contact ExpressIT Delivery for a quote, or sign up for our client portal today.