The holiday season, from Thanksgiving and Black Friday right up to Christmas and the Boxing Day sales, is a busy time for everyone, but for fashion retailers the pressure of peak consumer demand is felt right along the supply chain. Compounding that pressure this year is the added demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven greater numbers of shoppers to order online than ever before.
The 2020 holiday season is set to be busier than ever, and fashion ecommerce businesses face unique challenges at peak periods, including storing a huge range of products, optimising returns handling, efficient processing and, of course, rapid delivery. So how can a logistics service help fashion retailers deal with seasonal peaks?
Forecasting and planning
Effective planning and forecasting is essential to handling seasonal peaks, using data from previous years to assess and prepare for demand. The insights from past seasons thus enables fashion retailers to identify which items will be in demand and prioritise shipments accordingly.
A logistics service can offer automated services and IT systems offer visibility across the supply chain, enabling retailers to identify potential pitfalls and better communicate with other supply chain links to prevent delays.
Warehousing and packing
Logistics operators can also offer flexible site solutions to cope with demand, such as larger warehouse capabilities and forward stocking locations to help large and small volumes of items reach their destinations quickly.
Additional support with packaging and labelling can also assist retailers in creating a seamless logistics process; from hiring additional staff to providing large quantities of packing materials, the right logistics service will ensure everything a fashion retailer needs to deal with seasonal peaks is in place well in advance.
Shipping and last mile
To ease pressure on shipping and last mile delivery, fashion retailers can use incentives such as offering a lower price for slower delivery, encouraging shoppers to buy ahead of the rush with pre-Black Friday deals or extending their delivery returns window.
With a logistics service, fashion retails can better manage seasonal peaks with comprehensive, expert support. From outsourcing the management of transportation networks, utilising trusted, cost-effective delivery partners, to assistance monitoring inventory (and tracking, diverting or reallocating as necessary) and creating a flexible delivery network around demand that prevents bottlenecks.
Sprint Logistics: Fashion logistics
A reliable fashion logistics provider will ensure you have total control and visibility over your retail business, whilst also taking the pressure off and handling the finer details of fashion logistics to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Sprint Logistics has extensive experience delivering fashion retail logistics solutions for both high street and online retailers. Our tailored fashion and retail supply chain management solutions support your business to grow and meet demand, even in peak periods; our logistics experts offer bespoke solutions from warehousing and packing to stock management and delivery that ensure your operations are cost-effective, time-efficient and get items where they need to be.
To find out more about how our fashion and retail logistics solutions can help support your business over the festive season (and beyond), contact us today.
