A recent article over on SupplyChainBrain on five key lessons e-Commerce merchants can learn from the 2010 holiday season identifies some key supply chain requirements for a successful holiday season that all retailers should keep in mind.
- Holiday Shopping Starts Early
It is now stating well before Black Friday, so your outbound supply chain should be ready to ship as soon as Halloween is over. This means that you should already be starting to build up inventory for products expected to be in high demand. - Cyber Monday Matters, but don’t ignore the rest of the week.
Shoppers are looking for deals all week. Be ready for a consistent demand. - CyberWeek is big, but the following weeks are bigger.
Orders increase as shipping deadlines approach. Be ready for a lot of orders, and a lot of outbound shipments, as close to your shipper’s cut off dates as possible. - Average ticket declines are not necessarily a bad thing.
Especially when volume increases, which is the current trend. - Vertical Markets Matter
Apparel, Shoe, and Toy sellers increased market share, and may be on a trajectory to do the same this year.
In other words, you need to
- Prepare for early demand
- that will increase steadily until the shipping deadlines
- when you will have to be prepared to ship a large amount of product very quickly and deliver on time.