Peak season brings ecommerce logistics challenges of food shipping and transportation for an endless array of holiday gifts. Yet, one of the most challenging aspects is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which now extend beyond these two days.
Both shippers and carriers need to plan ahead for Black Friday processes, including what to do now and what kind of work to expect after fulfillment for all the Black Friday sales.
What to Expect for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday shipping may not be as constrained as the ecommerce logistics peak season of previous years. Factors like inflation, supply chain concerns, the end of the pandemic, and economic uncertainty contribute to ecommerce expectations.
Deals start far before Black Friday and continue throughout the fourth quarter, spreading out orders and fulfillment over a longer period. Confirming this idea: 83% of consumers say they begin holiday shopping before Black Friday.
The previous years showed abnormal ecommerce activity, primarily due to the pandemic and rebound. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still usually the busiest time of year for sales. This is why it’s so important to have an ecommerce logistics plan in place.
What Is the Ecommerce Logistics Role in Black Friday & Cyber Monday?
How a TMS Enables Black Friday and Cyber Monday Ecommerce Logistics
- Integrated Systems: Integrate various logistics systems within a TMS to improve collaboration between different parts of the supply chain and to compile data for improved visibility, analytics, and insights.
- Improved Workflows: Gain dynamic process improvement through flexible modeling and shipment processing to access data that can be used to model optimized systems, dashboards, and workflows.
- Freight Matched with Capacity: Assimilating information from numerous parties through an integrated TMS provides better digital freight matching ability, simplifying the process of matching freight with available capacity.
- Freight Pricing Awareness: A Freight Market Index provides better visibility into the pricing for improved decision-making on carriers, shipment types, and so on.
- Route Optimization: A TMS can update routes to fit current conditions, adapting and optimizing as needed for the best routes. Through dynamic routing, the TMS combines routing with rates and process optimization to improve overall logistics.
- Last Mile Delivery Optimization: Last mile carriers have unique challenges for routing. Routing optimization helps find the most efficient way to cover the last stretch of a delivery.
- Multimodal Optimization: Multimodal freight optimization uses multiple shipping modes together for the best way of moving a shipment. A TMS optimizes the planning of each shipment for the best approach.
- Automation of Exception Management: During Black Friday and Cyber Monday shipping, processes may get chaotic. Exception automation helps by providing a way to manage unexpected occurrences or changes through an automated process. Also, you can use automated exception management to ensure timely delivery for time-sensitive items, such as holiday fresh food shipping.
- Carrier Management & Performance: A TMS provides more visibility to simplify tracking carrier performance. Machine learning can automate anomaly detection, allowing you to easily discover problems with carriers and compare their rates and services.
- Freight Claims Management: Expect peak season freight claims coinciding with peak season order fulfillment. A TMS helps you manage freight claims through an efficient system with integrated systems and centralized data.
- Mechanism to Plan for Holiday Returns: Some of your fulfilled orders will result in returns, some of which you’ll need to manage while still dealing with peak season fulfillment. A TMS optimizes the management of these returns.
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Execute this Black Friday & Cyber Monday with an Enterprise TMS
Read more about peak season logistics management in our TMS infographic.
