How to stay smart with your shipping during peak shipping season
Peak shipping season is that time of the year that causes the most headaches for retail businesses. After all, prices fluctuate, the tendencies for delays are higher, and so are the risks of leaving your customers frustrated.
As a courier company, we perfectly understand the situation that most businesses find themselves in since we experience these increases in shipments first hand. Luckily, there is something that you can do about it.
If most of the products that you ship out are non-perishable goods and not that dependent on delivery time, we think there are a few smart ways that you can “survive” the peak shipping season by being a bit smarter about your shipping strategy.
In this article, we will talk about just that - a few smart ways you can stay in control of your costs and guarantee minimum chances of delays for every parcel that you ship out.
How to stay in control of your shipping costs and delivery time
Your business shouldn’t suffer just because the demand for shipments has increased for the time being. Below we share some advice for your shipments to stay optimal during more intense retail periods of the year.
Ship out goods earlier
A good piece of advice would be to start shipping out earlier before there’s an increase in demand. If your main basis of goods are non-perishable, there shouldn’t be a problem organizing your shipments to head out earlier before deliveries reach their peak.
Christmas and other holiday seasons always see a massive increase in shipping demands, which may cause you delays getting those goods to your clients.
Moreover, the costs will be a bit more expensive as well. So, if you want to save your business a decent amount of money and get your parcels delivered before the demand reaches its zenith, your best bet would be to get as many deliveries done as possible sooner.
Delay parcels for later
On the contrary, if most of your parcels don’t necessarily have to make it during the holidays, you might want to consider shipping out your goods a bit later than most. Not all retailers have the luxury of time when it comes to deliveries, of course, but it’s definitely a possibility worth exploring.
Scheduling everything or at least the majority of your deliveries after the whole holiday craze is over, works especially well from a business perspective, since most shipping companies will offer you better deals when there’s lower demand.
Evaluate different deals
If shipping during peak season is a must for your business and you neither can delay or ship out earlier, you might as well consider as many different deals as possible.
It’s not a secret that there are thousands of companies that deliver goods all across Europe and even during increased demand, courier prices differ. Perhaps going with a lesser known courier partner can fetch you a deal that’s good in price and offers decent delivery time.
You should especially consider those companies that work with a number of partners internationally, since they will have a well-established delivery network and will be much more willing to negotiate a deal that works for both.
All in all
In this article, we briefly touched upon the topic of deliveries during peak shipping seasons. In order to get every parcel shipped out on time and not to spend too much money while doing so, it's very important to plan your moves beforehand and explore the shipping options that will allow you to do so.
