The Dematic Guide to Peak Season
Peak season presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses. It’s the time of year when customer demand surges, often during holidays or special sales periods, pushing supply chain operations to their limits. For warehouses and distribution centers, success during peak season requires the ability to meet customer demand while maintaining high standards of accuracy and speed. With innovative solutions from Dematic, businesses can turn peak season challenges into opportunities for success.
What is a peak season?
Peak season refers to periods of heightened activity and demand in the supply chain, often coinciding with key shopping events such as Black Friday, the year-end holiday season, and back-to-school — as well as other peak sales periods like Easter, Halloween, and the spring rush for home and garden. During these times, warehouses face a dramatic increase in order volumes, tighter delivery windows, and heightened customer expectations. Navigating these challenges effectively requires strategic preparation, skilled labor, and advanced technology.
Challenges during peak season
- Increased order volumes: Managing a surge in orders can strain fulfillment centers, from storage to distribution processes. Without efficient systems, this can lead to delays, errors, and missed opportunities to meet customer expectations or capitalize on increased demand.
- Labor shortages: Seasonal demand often requires hiring temporary workers, increasing costs and creating training challenges. This fluctuating workforce can also pose a risk to order accuracy and quality — leading to further expense if not managed carefully.
- Inventory management: Balancing inventory to avoid overstocking or stockouts becomes a challenge, especially when demand forecasting is unpredictable. This challenge intensifies in grocery with fresh food and last-minute holiday surges — if a grocer can’t supply key items, they risk losing not just sales but loyal customers. Ensuring inventory is in the right place at the right time (whether in-store, online, or via click-and-collect) is therefore critical to profitability.
- Tight delivery deadlines: Meeting customer expectations for fast and reliable delivery is vital but increasingly difficult during peak periods. Offering flexibility—especially for last-minute gift orders—can be a strong differentiator, helping businesses stand out in high-demand seasons.
What to do next
Clearly, it’s no longer enough to simply work harder. To properly plan ahead, you need to work smarter. Fortunately, Dematic Lifecycle Services has the strategies and the services that can help you prepare.