Preparing for Peak: How to thrive this holiday season

Published: Aug 20, 2023

Ecommerce

Why is peak season so important for challenger brands and growing businesses like yours?

💰 Increased spending: The significant surge in consumer spending brought about by Black Friday and dare I say it… Christmas is a golden opportunity to increase revenue and hit your end-of-year targets.

📣 Brand awareness: The online window shoppers will be out in force! Effective advertising and marketing teamed up with an easy-to-use website and exceptional delivery experience can do wonders for brand awareness and loyal customer acquisition.

🪴 Future Growth: Successfully navigating peak season can be a stepping stone and proof of your brand’s ability to scale. The increased revenue and customer base gained during this period can serve as a foundation for sustained growth in the following year.

With opportunities ripe and a lot to gain, navigating peak properly this year is clearly something you want to get right.

What are some of the potential challenges for growing brands in peak season?

📈 Increased order volumes: Do you have the tech and shipping operation to reap the rewards of peak season? Does your current delivery management system have a ceiling? Can it handle a boost in sales?

🌧️ Shipping costs & delays: Delivery experience is one of the most important parts of the period. Not only are customers even more keen to know when their order will arrive, but the effect of getting this wrong will hit you in the pocket both in the short term and long term. Simply, the stakes are too high not to have options in the event of something going wrong.

🚀 Customer expectations: With things moving faster and the pressure on - it is vital you can keep up and continue to offer an exceptional delivery experience from beginning to end.

The Importance of Delivery Experience Technology

When gearing up for peak it’s vital you have the partners and tech on your side, simply weathering the storm isn’t enough to lock in growth this year.

You need a partner that:

Actively supports you in running & improving your day-to-day shipping operations.
Helps you curate a post-purchase experience that generates growth and represents your brand.
Future-proofs your processes and sets your business up to scale even beyond peak season.

From an operational standpoint, it’s so very clear how important a solid delivery platform is in streamlining how your business manages shipping leading up to peak season. A clear dashboard you can rely on to receive orders, generate labels, and automatically send tracking information even on the busiest of days.

The benefit of choosing a platform like Zenstores is our focus on scalability and our obsession with helping you grow, even long after peak season! The combination of time-saving automation, error-reducing features, and our focus on helping you offer a delivery experience that helps you sell more, separates us from the rest. Click here to learn more about our impressive Shipping Engine.

Managing Customer Expectations

Now, more than ever, buyers appreciate transparency. This is especially important during peak season! Whether you provide next-day delivery or three to five days is more realistic, setting and meeting expectations is what matters most.

This is the first step in curating delivery experiences that inspire trust, encourage loyalty and line up returning customers.

Interested in making delivery promises on your Shopify checkout, and supercharging conversion rates? Click here to find out more.

Diversify your Shipping Options with Zenstores Swift

What is Zenstores Swift?

Zenstores Swift allows you to access leading carrier services, discounted rates and everything you need to power your shipping.

How can buying shipping directly from Zenstores help you soar through peak?

📦 Streamlined billing: Fewer invoices, account managers and maintenance

More sales shouldn’t mean more admin. Bringing all things shipping to one place with Zenstores Swift calls for fewer tabs, account managers and invoices gives you the freedom to focus on what matters most this holiday season.

🤩 Checkout conversion: Offering more than one delivery option means you will sell more

As a general rule, introducing a few delivery options at checkout - each mapped to your target customer personas is a fantastic way of increasing conversion rates, and showing you recognise and respond to the individual requirements your customers may have.

If you are interested in learning more about tailoring shipping options to the different types of online shoppers, check out our short blog here.

😅 Back-up options: Multiple backroom options to protect your brand and customers if things go wrong

The importance of diversifying the options you can offer your customers cannot be overstated. Do you have a process in place to get orders out the door if something goes wrong? Get your shipping options set up and in line in time for peak with Zenstores Swift.

Whether your customer is tracking a gift for a loved one or gets pleasantly surprised by a speedy next-day delivery, curating a positive delivery experience is essential and holds so much influence over a customer's experience with your brand.

Zenstores Swift allows you to offer these added courier options. No more shipping hurdles on your busiest days and less check-out hesitation, it’s all about getting your great products into the hands of your customers.