www.bezos.ai/resources/sustainable-e-commerce-fulfillment
Peak used to follow a predictable arc: stock build-up through late summer, steady lift through October and November, and a final sprint to Christmas. Recent years have scrambled that rhythm. Retailers pulled shipments forward to hedge against disruptions; ocean rates spiked, routes shifted, and “early” peaks appeared around back-to-school and events such as Prime Day. In 2024 and 2025, importers even advanced ordering into spring to keep shelves full and control costs.
For e-commerce brands, retailers, and logistics managers, this means the plan can’t be a last-minute rush. It needs a tested, scalable system you can dial up without breakage. This guide shows how to build that system, with practical steps, worked examples, and a section on how Bezos.ai can help if you want a partner network rather than building everything in-house.
What is peak season in logistics?
Peak season is the period when freight volumes and order activity jump well above normal levels, typically driven by retail holidays and promotional events. Capacity tightens and rates climb; inventory and transport plans get squeezed. Most markets feel a year-end peak, but sectors and regions see several “mini-peaks” (e.g., back-to-school, Singles’ Day, Prime Day, Chinese New Year).
How long is the peak season for warehouses?
There’s no single calendar, but a useful rule of thumb:
- Ocean & import planning: often begins in late spring to mid-summer in the US and EU when retailers bring goods in early (recent cycles pulled peak activity into July).
- Fulfilment centres: feel the crunch from October through December, with many brands keeping an elevated pace into early January for returns and exchanges. Some sources describe shipping “peak” starting mid-August through late November for outbound freight. Expect overlap across these windows based on category and channel mix.
The seven steps of order fulfilment
The classic seven steps are widely recognised across operations:
The pillars of a peak season fulfilment strategy
Peak season can make or break a retailer’s year. A strong fulfilment strategy is built around foresight, control, and adaptability. Below are seven key pillars that provide the framework for a resilient and scalable peak season operation.
1. Forecasting and Demand Shaping
Accurate forecasting is the foundation of peak readiness. Instead of relying solely on last year’s curve, smart operators blend historical data with recent promotional activity, web traffic, and new customer sign-ups. Overlaying retail calendars and paid media schedules provides a more realistic picture of demand.
A best practice is to model three scenarios: a base case, a high-growth case, and a constrained case (for instance, if a top carrier caps volumes or if a supplier shipment is delayed). This enables businesses to prepare for upside without being caught off guard by disruption. Forecasts should also feed into early carrier capacity bookings, since securing space ahead of time helps avoid seasonal rate hikes and bottlenecks.
2. Inventory Placement and Safety Stock
Where stock is positioned matters as much as how much is held. Retailers serving broad geographies benefit from spreading inventory across multiple nodes, reducing long-haul transport costs and improving delivery speed. A-class products should have a tailored safety stock policy, ensuring availability of top sellers without overstocking slower lines.
For international expansion, it can be more cost-effective to leverage a partner’s fulfilment network before committing to opening a dedicated facility. This provides flexibility and speed while demand in new markets matures.
3. Capacity Planning for People and Space
Labour and space are the two most constrained resources during peak. Planning solely on headcount can be misleading; it is more effective to model against orders per hour (OPH) and line items per hour (LPH). This approach ensures that staff levels align with the actual workload.
To maintain productivity across long shifts, staggered schedules and micro-breaks can help stabilise output. Trialling a weekend wave before the peak window also tests operational resilience and provides a buffer for unexpected surges.
4. Process Control: Slotting, Cut-Offs, and Wave Design
Operational discipline is critical when order volumes climb. Re-slotting fast movers on a weekly basis ensures that top SKUs remain easy to access. For example, a product that suddenly climbs into the top 50 should be placed in prime picking locations.
Cut-off times must be defined by service level, with orders automatically rolling to the next available promise once the window closes. This reduces confusion and missed commitments. Shorter wave cycles in order processing are another effective safeguard, as they prevent exceptions from building up and slowing throughput.
5. Carrier Mix and Contingency Planning
Peak season often exposes the risks of carrier dependency. A resilient strategy diversifies both carriers and service levels, so that a single outage or lane disruption does not derail operations.
In recent years, many shippers adjusted promotional calendars to account for longer transit times and reduced capacity on certain routes. A broader carrier plan—complete with regional partners, hybrid options, and postal alternatives—helps mitigate risk and maintain service continuity.
6. Customer Communication and Expectations
Managing expectations is as important as meeting them. Customers value transparency, so live inventory visibility and accurate delivery dates should be displayed at product and checkout pages.
Holiday cut-off dates and returns policies should be published clearly across banners, marketing emails, and tracking pages. Proactive communication builds trust: if a parcel misses a handover, the customer should receive a revised delivery estimate before they have to chase.
7. Data and Continuous Improvement
No peak season is perfect, but every season offers valuable lessons. Daily tracking of key metrics such as on-time in-full (OTIF), picking accuracy, delivery-in-full-on-time (DIFOT) by carrier, cost per order, contact rates, and return reasons enables quick course corrections.
Running a short daily “control room” meeting to review exceptions from the previous day keeps teams aligned. Finally, keeping a detailed playbook of what worked, what failed, and what should be initiated earlier provides a practical knowledge base to improve each successive peak season.
Managing the Holiday Rush in the Warehouse: Practical Tactics
Preparing the warehouse for this surge requires practical tactics that combine smart design, disciplined execution, and a motivated workforce. The following focus areas offer a structured approach to managing peak-season stress.
Slotting and Layout
The physical design of the warehouse has a direct impact on throughput. Positioning the top five per cent of SKUs within ten metres of packing stations cuts travel time and reduces bottlenecks. For very high-volume items, mirroring fast movers on both sides of an aisle prevents congestion by allowing multiple pickers to work in parallel.
Regular reviews of layout during peak weeks ensure the fastest lines remain accessible, while less urgent items are moved further back. This keeps the floor efficient and minimises wasted motion.
La cueillette
Consistency is vital when order volumes climb. Standardising totes, scanners, and route plans ensures pickers can work at speed without confusion. Strict aisle rules, such as one-way systems during peak, help avoid blockages and accidents.
Within the warehouse management system (WMS), applying pick density targets allows batches to be built more efficiently, reducing wasted travel and improving output per hour. The key is to maintain stability—changing methods during peak can introduce errors that outweigh any gains.
Emballage
Packing is often a bottleneck, so speed and protection must be balanced. Introducing cartonisation logic helps match orders to the right-sized packaging automatically, while reducing the packaging range to four to six carton sizes simplifies processes and training.
For fragile gift orders, pre-lining boxes with recyclable paper speeds up packing while reducing reliance on slower materials like bubble wrap. Standardised processes at this stage not only save time but also reduce the risk of damages.
Quality and Accuracy
Accuracy matters more than ever when volumes peak, as errors multiply under pressure. Scanning items both at pick and at pack is a simple but powerful safeguard. Displaying item images on packing benches gives staff an additional visual check before sealing a box.
Tracking quality control failures by error type enables root cause fixes on a daily basis. Whether errors come from incorrect slotting, rushed packing, or labelling mistakes, addressing them quickly keeps accuracy high and customer complaints low.
People
The human element is often the most decisive. Hiring bench strength early allows time for proper onboarding, reducing the need to rely on untrained staff at the busiest time of year. Running a two-day bootcamp with real orders ensures seasonal staff are production-ready before the rush begins.
Recognition and rewards should balance output with accuracy. Celebrating teams for getting orders right, not just for processing high volumes, encourages sustainable productivity and maintains service quality throughout the season.
Shipping strategy
Service levels: Offer three simple choices: Economy (budget, slower), Standard (balanced), Express (fastest). Keep naming consistent across channels.
Cut-off times: Tie cut-offs to carrier pick-up schedules by postcode. For rural postcodes, bring forward the cut-off. For city centres, you might extend it.
Carrier diversification: Blend national parcel, regional specialists, and postal networks. If you saw rate pressure or diverted routes last year, book earlier and add lane backups. Industry reporting shows retailers have pulled forward the shipping calendar to manage risk and costs—your contracts and contingency plans should reflect that shift.
International delivery: Use local injection where possible; avoid cross-border surprises by pre-calculating duties and taxes at checkout.
The important role of Technology
About Bezos
Bezos is a Fulfilment-as-a-Service platform built for e-commerce brands selling on Shopify, Amazon, eBay and their own sites. It automates storage, picking, packing, shipping and returns, offering end‑to‑end visibility and control.
The platform delivers real‑time visibility across inventory, order fulfilment and delivery status via bespoke software. Case studies highlight setup speed (live within a week), swift stock booking (within 48 hours), and reduced support tickets—some clients report up to 46 percent fewer customer inquiries.
Other than this, Bezos has established a global fulfilment network covering 16–17 countries, including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US. This allows sellers to scale internationally with minimal setup and capital outlay.
If you’re an e-commerce brand preparing for peak season or expanding internationally, Bezos.ai offers the infrastructure and expertise to simplify fulfilment while keeping customers happy. Contact Bezos today!
Conclusion & next steps
Peak success comes from repeatable routines, not last-minute heroics. Forecast in ranges, place stock where demand lives, lock cut-offs by lane, keep a clean carrier back-up, and treat returns as a core flow—not an afterthought. If those pieces are in place, you can ride the surge without slipping on accuracy, promise dates, or margin.
If you want extra capacity or faster entry into new markets, bring in a partner rather than building new sites. Bezos gives you multi-node coverage, ready-made carrier links, and quick onboarding—useful when you need a reliable overflow plan for Q4 or a bridge into the EU. Contact Bezos today!
FAQ
What is peak season in logistics?
Peak season is the period when shipping and order volumes spike well above normal levels, most noticeably around Q4 retail events. Capacity tightens, carriers introduce limits and surcharges, and transit times can stretch. Many brands now see several “mini-peaks” tied to promotions such as Prime events or Singles’ Day. Good peak planning aligns forecasts, inventory placement, carrier bookings, and customer communications.
What are the 7 steps of order fulfilment?
The seven steps are: receiving, storage (putaway), picking, packing, shipping, delivery, and returns. Receiving makes inbound stock sale-ready; storage puts it in the right locations for fast access. Picking and packing build accurate, damage-free parcels at speed. Shipping hands orders to carriers, delivery completes the promise, and returns close the loop by recovering value.
Does Amazon Flex pay more during peak season?
Flex pay is offered per delivery block and varies by time, location, and demand, so there isn’t a universal “peak pay” that applies everywhere. During busy periods, higher-paying blocks and incentives can appear more often as Amazon tries to cover routes. Availability changes quickly, and not all areas see uplifts at the same times. Drivers decide whether to accept a block based on the rate shown for that block.
How long is peak season for warehouses?
Most fulfilment operations feel peak from October through December, with a heavy returns period in early January. Inbound and import activity often starts months earlier as retailers bring stock forward. Some sectors experience extra peaks around back-to-school, Singles’ Day, or Prime events. Treat the calendar as a series of peaks rather than a single December spike.
