As an online business owner, you must know when to expect a major increase in the number of orders you’ll receive. After all, it’s no mystery why some major retailers increase their workforces by tens of thousands of people during the holiday season.
There are plenty of other times outside the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas when your business could see a spike in orders, and if you are not prepared to manage them, you could end up with dozens of unhappy customers, and less-than-stellar online reputation that will undoubtedly turn those high volume order periods into non-existent order periods.
Ready, Set . . . Pack!
The first step to managing an increase in order volume is to predict when it will occur. Sometimes, that’s all but impossible. After all, you might not know when a popular website will mention your product in a post and provide a link for their followers to purchase an item.
However, since those surprises are generally few and far between, you can usually predict an uptick in orders by analyzing past sales trends and creating a plan for the coming year. For example, have you historically seen sales increase in the weeks surrounding spring break or back to school? One area that many retailers fail to plan for is the post-holiday period. While you’ll see the bulk of your orders come in during the weeks leading up to a major holiday, the week or two after the holiday can also see plenty of shipping activity, as customers make returns or exchanges and redeem gift certificates.
Once you identify the periods when your orders will increase, it’s a good idea to run practice drills to determine how long it takes to package a typical order and identify areas where you can make changes to increase efficiency. Using some of your existing orders, time how long it takes to pick, pack and ship. You might discover that you need to rearrange your shipping area or warehouse to make the most popular items easier to find or that you have too many shipping container options and it’s slowing things down as packers try multiple boxes to find the right option. Take time to identify the areas that can be improved before the rush.
Use Shipment Management Services
When a large number of orders come through, keeping track of them is of the utmost importance. That’s where online shipping solutions come into play. By using a shipment management program, you can automatically create labels and packing slips, send shipping confirmations and updates and track packages as they travel to their destinations. Most shipping management programs are inexpensive and a worthwhile investment for staying on top of your shipments during the busiest periods of the year.
Communication to Customers
Even the best-prepared shipping operations can be blindsided by unforeseen events such as weather shutdowns. Even if the weather is warm and sunny in your city, a massive storm in another part of the country could back up shipments for days.
During times of high volume, communication with your customers is important. Not only should you provide reasonable shipping time estimates (you may wish to pad delivery times — at worst you will delight your customers with faster-than-promised delivery), you need to communicate delays as soon as you know about them. Keep track of weather situations; most major carriers will post updates or send customers notifications when major delays are anticipated. By letting your customers know upfront that their shipments could take longer than usual, you’re providing excellent service and increasing the likelihood they will be satisfied.
One of the best ways to stay on top of your busy periods is to learn from your past experience. Once the rush ends, take some time to reflect, and get feedback from your shipping department. You might even consider conducting a customer survey related to shipping to learn more about what worked and didn’t work for them. For example, if customers complain about excess packaging, you might re-think how you package items to save time and money in the future. By conducting postmortem analysis of your busiest shipping periods, you can continuously improve and streamline processes going forward.
Many online retailers rely on their busy periods to keep their books balanced throughout the year. By effectively managing your shipments, you help ensure that customers will return year after year, and your busy periods will remain just that.
