Article Overview
- Peak seasons test every part of an ecommerce operation, especially fulfilment.
- Fulfilment providers with scalable infrastructure help brands meet demand without breaking processes.
- Accurate inventory forecasting and flexible courier routing are key to smooth peak performance.
- Pre-planning campaigns, packaging, and returns flows reduces last-minute pressure.
- 3PLs like 3PL offer seasonal fulfilment support, ensuring brands maintain speed and accuracy at scale.
The pressure of peak in ecommerce
Whether it’s Black Friday, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or a product launch, peak periods create massive demand surges. For growing ecommerce brands, it’s both an opportunity and a risk.
You can double revenue in Q4 – or damage your reputation with missed orders and delayed deliveries. The difference usually comes down to fulfilment.
Ecommerce fulfilment is the engine behind a successful peak campaign. From receiving bulk stock to despatching thousands of orders daily, your fulfilment partner needs to handle it all with precision.
Why fulfilment needs to flex with demand
Scaling volume without losing quality
At low volumes, it’s easy to keep things consistent. But when your orders double or triple, fulfilment becomes the breaking point. Errors rise, courier delays increase, and support tickets spike.
Working with an ecommerce fulfilment provider means having access to:
- Increased warehouse capacity
- Additional staff for picking, packing and despatch
- Flexible courier allocation based on volume and speed
At 3PL, we plan peak with our clients months in advance, building forecasts into labour planning and stock movement strategies.
Meeting customer expectations
During peak, customers are more impatient. They expect:
- Fast despatch
- Accurate orders
- Clear tracking
- Reliable delivery dates
Failing to meet those expectations can tank your customer reviews just when visibility is highest. Fulfilment accuracy and delivery speed are non-negotiable.
With late cut-offs, weekend despatch, and multi-carrier routing, we help brands stay competitive even when volumes surge.
Managing space and stock
Warehouses fill quickly during peak. You might receive a month’s worth of stock in a week. Without proper organisation, it becomes hard to find, pick and despatch efficiently.
Ecommerce fulfilment providers use warehouse management systems (WMS) to allocate stock to locations, track it in real time, and optimise pick paths.
Fusion gives our clients live visibility on stock positions, inbound deliveries, and despatch performance. This enables proactive decision-making instead of firefighting.
Building a peak-ready fulfilment strategy
Forecast collaboratively
Share sales and campaign forecasts with your fulfilment provider early. At 3PL, we use historical data, marketing plans, and product trends to model expected volumes and allocate resources accordingly.
Agree SLAs and cut-offs
Define your service level agreements (SLAs) before peak hits:
- What is the final order time for same-day despatch?
- Which couriers will be prioritised for express orders?
- How will returns be handled under pressure?
These rules keep operations consistent when things get busy.
Create packaging and insert plans
If you’re running promotions, gifting, or seasonal packaging, get it produced and delivered to your 3PL ahead of time. Include product inserts or gift notes in workflows to reduce packing errors.
Prep returns flows
Returns increase after peak. Make sure your fulfilment partner can:
- Accept and process returns efficiently
- Restock or quarantine returned stock
- Generate clear reports for customer service and product development
Real-world example: Black Friday success for a beauty brand
A skincare company using Shopify came to 3PL after struggling with Black Friday fulfilment the previous year. They had stockouts, late deliveries, and a 2-week backlog.
With 3PL:
- Forecasts were shared in September
- 2x warehouse space was allocated
- Courier allocation rules were adjusted based on region
- Packing lines were scaled to process up to 5,000 orders per day
The result?
- 98.8% of orders despatched same-day during the 10-day promotion
- Customer service tickets dropped by 43% YoY
- Their peak season revenue grew 61% from the previous year
Why ecommerce brands need fulfilment partners
In-house teams often lack the space, systems, and staff to manage seasonal surges. A specialist ecommerce fulfilment provider can:
- Scale with you without fixed overhead
- Offer technology and tracking
- Manage returns and customer satisfaction
- Free up your team to focus on marketing and merchandising
3PL works with ecommerce brands across beauty, apparel, lifestyle and gifting to plan and execute peak seasons without stress.
Prepare now for your next peak
Peak season should be your most profitable time – not your most chaotic.
Work with 3PL to build a fulfilment strategy that handles volume, maintains accuracy, and delights your customers when it matters most.
Speak to 3PL about your order fulfiment
It’s time to supercharge your business and overtake your competitors. Speak to 3PL today and find out how we can take your ecommerce and B2B fulfilment to the next level.
