Commentary

Ensuring peak holiday season performance in 2019

Don White, vice president of enterprise solutions at Snapfulfil, believes now is the time for retailers to assess and review the past holiday season performance to ensure that this year's holiday sales season proves successful.

Photo by iStock.com

February 1, 2019

By Don White, VP, enterprise solutions, Snapfulfil

The 2018 peak season continued the trend of increasing holiday sales — both in-store and online. According to a report from Adobe Analytics, Black Friday saw a record $6.22 billion in online sales, up 23.5 percent from 2017.

Although the 2018 holiday shopping season is already behind us, it's the perfect time to review your 2018 fulfillment operations to adequately prepare your warehouse to meet rising demand over the coming year.

Consider these questions o ensure your operations will be running smoothly in 2019:

Are your operations (accurately) up to speed?
Delivery speed and order accuracy are at the heart of today's ideal customer experience. And while retailers are beginning to make quicker delivery and more accurate shipments the norm, the influx of orders during peak season can often throw speed and accuracy off course.

Be sure to look at your inventory processes to determine how you can streamline operations to ensure the right products get to the right customer. With such high demand for products during peak season, it's easy to mix up shipments. Conducting package checks before shipping out products is a good way to keep an eye on your inventory processes to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Heightened expectations for delivery speed can often add fuel to the fire of the holiday rush, so observing how long it takes to pick and pack orders can give you insight into your fulfillment operations to determine what areas of the warehouse need to be optimized. By identifying your pain points, you can figure out how technology can help you streamline your warehouse processes in the new year — without sacrificing accuracy.

How seamless are your reverse logistics operations?
Warehouse operations don't end once the product is out the door. The customer experience can be dramatically impacted by the ease, or lack thereof, of your returns processes.

Start by measuring how warehouse employees unload and tag returned items. Is there a specific way to determine the necessity of a refund? Is it simple to know the proper location to store a returned product? A warehouse management system can often give you deeper insight into the success of your returns operations so you know exactly what is returned, why it is returned and where to store it.

New Year's resolution: Prepare for a successful 2019 peak season
As the chaos of 2018 peak season, and the subsequent returns from holiday shopping, slowly die down, it's important to take a look at the data you collected within your warehouse. Identify any patterns and pain points so you can plan your 2019 fulfillment strategy accordingly.

Utilizing this information, you can determine if newer technology is the right fit to maximize your fulfillment operations and achieve the speed, accuracy and seamless experience consumers demand. And though 2019 peak season may seem far away, it's never too early to devise a strategy to manage the madness of peak season and achieve the ultimate customer experience.