PL
ENDuring seasonal peaks, problems rarely occur in isolation. A late delivery puts pressure on receiving. Inaccurate stock records cause unavailable products to be sold. Packing backlogs lead to late shipments and more work for customer service.
Before Black Friday, review seven areas and establish what is ready, what needs improvement and who owns the actions.
1. Does logistics know the sales plan?
The warehouse needs more than “there will be lots of orders”. Daily forecasts, units per order, channel mix and promotional products all matter.
The same number of orders can create a very different workload if basket composition changes.
Check: whether sales, marketing and logistics share one plan and know when to expect the largest increases.
2. Do you have the right inventory?
A full warehouse does not mean you are ready for peak season. You can hold too much slow-moving stock while running short of promoted products.
Check bestseller availability, confirmed delivery dates and whether physical stock matches system records. Slow-moving goods need a separate plan; otherwise they occupy space and tie up capital needed for the season.
Check: whether promotional products will be available and ready for picking before the campaign begins.
3. How many orders can the warehouse really handle?
Average productivity from a quiet week can be misleading. During a peak, the throughput of the full process matters: receiving, picking, packing and handing parcels to the carrier.
More pickers will achieve little if packing stations, printers or staging space are the bottleneck.
Check: where the bottleneck is and how many orders can be dispatched each day while maintaining quality and agreed deadlines.
4. Is the team prepared and motivated?
Seasonal workers need training and clear instructions. But it is the permanent team — leaders, operators and experienced employees — that maintains the pace, solves problems and supports new colleagues.
Before peak season, check whether the team knows its goals, understands responsibilities and knows how extra effort will be recognised. Bonus rules, shift arrangements and leadership support should be agreed in advance.
You also need three operating plans:
- Plan A: handle forecast volumes with planned staffing and collections.
- Plan B: respond to higher order volumes, absences or growing backlogs using agreed reserve staffing and additional collections.
- Plan C: handle a major disruption, such as a system failure or missed parcel collection, with fulfilment priorities, a fallback solution and customer communication.
Each plan needs an owner, activation conditions and specific actions. A plan known only to the director offers little help to the team on shift.
Check: whether your permanent team has the motivation and resources to deliver, and whether leaders know when to switch from plan A to B or C.
5. Have carriers confirmed collection capacity?
A packed order is not yet a dispatched order. Agree collection times, expected volumes, extra transport and what happens when volumes exceed the plan.
Understand seasonal surcharges and the cost of your fallback option too.
Check: whether carrier arrangements are confirmed and you have an alternative if collection capacity is insufficient.
6. Can systems handle the extra load?
The shop, ERP, WMS and carrier system must exchange data reliably. Before peak season, test order flows, stock updates, label printing and cancellations.
You also need a procedure for integration downtime: who responds, how the impact is assessed and how operations resume safely.
Check: whether testing covers the full process through dispatch, rather than merely checking that an order appears in the system.
7. Do returns have their own plan?
Higher sales bring another wave of work: returns. Without adequate staffing and space, products wait for inspection rather than becoming available for sale again.
Set times for receiving, inspection and making products available again, and agree information flows to customer service and finance.
Check: whether returns have assigned ownership, resources and a measurable processing deadline.
Sales should improve business results
Operational readiness is not measured by shift headcount or warehouse size. It depends on whether the business can handle planned volumes on time, with good quality and controlled costs.
Before peak season, track five simple measures: order backlog, on-time dispatch, handling cost per order, picking errors and returns processing time. Assign an action threshold and an owner to each.
If any of these seven areas raises concerns, start there. It is better to remove one real constraint in October than fight several fires at once in November.