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• Peak-season pressures from surging demand to severe weather require careful planning and fast, coordinated responses.
• Unified shipment visibility rooted in timely, shipment-level data helps teams detect and resolve issues before they escalate.
• Accurate delivery predictions and near-real-time communications are vital for a positive customer experience.
• A smooth reverse logistics process protects margins and preserves customer loyalty.

How you prepare now makes all the difference when the holiday season hits. By focusing on the following actions, you can navigate peak season with greater confidence and agility.

1. Identify where visibility breaks down.
   Evaluate how shipment data moves between your systems by mapping the journey from order placement to delivery and return. Identify all systems involved, including your order management system and shipping platform, and review how information is handed off at each step.
   
   Check for delays, data inconsistencies, or manual steps like updating spreadsheets or waiting for email confirmations. Also, consider asking team members where information tends to get lost or takes too long to update.
   
   Once you identify the gaps, work to update process documentation, increase sync frequency and collaborate with IT to set up data connections between core business systems. Even small improvements can help you resolve issues faster and keep customers better informed.

   
   
2. Have a plan A and a plan B.
   Disruptions are inevitable during busy holiday months. Analyze data from previous peak seasons (e.g., shipment logs or incident reports) to spot common issues like weather-related delays.
   
   Use these insights to create contingency plans with clear roles assigned. For example, if past shipment data reveals frequent last-mile delays in certain areas in December, you might set up automated customer notifications for those regions to keep recipients informed when slowdowns occur.
   You can also take advantage of predictive analytics to anticipate where and when delays are most likely to occur across your logistics network. With advance notice of potential risks, you can reroute shipments, adjust resources, or notify customers before delays escalate.


   
   
3. Make customer experience a logistics priority.
   Delivering on customer expectations begins long before a customer places an order. Earn trust early by displaying accurate delivery predictions on product pages, in the cart, and at checkout. Predictive Delivery Estimates (PDE) use shipment-level data to provide accurate arrival windows that update in near-real time, even during peak-season chaos.
   
   To maintain transparency after purchase, automate customer communications for key shipment events, such as order confirmation, carrier pickup, in-transit updates, exceptions and delivery.
   
   Leveraging near-real-time logistics data ensures that every customer communication reflects the latest shipment status, which helps reduce “where is my order” (WISMO) inquiries and build confidence throughout the shipping journey.
   
   
4. Solidify reverse logistics processes. 
   While a high volume of returns is a reality for most businesses after peak season, a well-structured process can help keep your operations running smoothly.
   Consider these best practices:
   
   
   • Offer a branded returns experience to make the process easy and familiar for your customers.
   • Provide straightforward, timely communications so customers always know the status of their returns.
   • Decide in advance how your team will handle various return scenarios, such as restocking, refurbishing or sending items back to suppliers.
   • Connect your returns workflow to core business systems so return statuses update automatically, making it easier for your teams to track progress and restock inventory efficiently.
     

Effective reverse logistics protect your margins and build customer loyalty long after the holidays are over.