Omnichannel strategies for peak season: When online and retail boom

When the festive season hits, omnichannel fulfilment becomes the quiet hero of your operation.  

Despite the convenience of eCommerce, £52 billion of UK online sales still have some form of physical touchpoint interaction – meaning more than half of non-food eCommerce journeys aren’t purely digital. 

If this tells us one thing, it’s that customers don’t see ‘online versus in-store,’ they just see ‘brand.’  

During peak, your fulfilment strategy needs to serve both without friction. 

DTC vs. retail fulfilment: Similar goals, different rules 

On paper, omnichannel sounds simple: connect your online and retail operations. But the differences between the two are pretty vast. 

Retail fulfilment is all about precision at bulk – pallets, compliance, strict delivery windows. Miss a slot, and you risk chargebacks and penalties. 

DTC fulfilment, on the other hand, is all about speed, agility, and individual experience – customers expect next-day or express delivery and a personalised service. 

Treating both as equal gets you stuck. The clever way is to build one backbone that understands both channels, respecting their differences while giving you unified data to base business decisions from. 

Running both channels without stepping on your own toes 

Omnichannel isn’t about merging two channels into one. It’s about finding what works for you. Start with: 

• Separate stock, one view. Retail and DTC should have separate stock allocations, but with live insight so you can rebalance if one side overperforms. 

• SKU strategy by channel. Some products thrive in-store, others online. Make the most of your data and trend signals to allocate products accordingly. 

• A regional fulfilment strategy. Keep DTC and retail stock separate, but synchronise regional stock levels and carrier routes. Do so, and you’ll benefit from the agility of omnichannel fulfilment while keeping each channel’s logistics effective and compliant. 

It’s worth noting that 71% of shoppers want a consistent experience across all sales channels – both physical and digital – but only 29% say they get it. This gap is your opportunity. 

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Why tech is your route to success 

Behind every positive omnichannel experience is a smart tech stack. When the peak rush hits, technology is the difference between calm confidence and total gridlock. 

Here’s where tech earns its stripes for omnichannel.

Compliance without chaos 

Retail orders are unforgiving. From pallet configuration to meeting delivery slots, one mistake can result in costly chargebacks. 

Smart fulfilment systems automate retailer-specific compliance requirements, ensuring every pallet and label meets spec before it’s ready for collection.

One view across every channel 

A good fulfilment platform won’t just connect DTC and B2B – it’ll visualise them. With a single view of data across warehouses, carriers, and marketplaces, you’ll make faster decisions on stock movements, promotions, and product allocation. 

Whether spotting slow-moving SKUs or rerouting inventory, visibility is your path to operational agility. 

Simplified product and order management

Time to ditch the spreadsheets. Integrated product and order management systems centralise your product information, pricing, and sales channel visibility.  

The result? Fewer stock discrepancies, a decrease in manual errors, and a much smoother experience for your teams and customers across all channels. 

Automation that scales

Peak season won’t wait for you to catch up. Automated workflows, API integrations, and machine-driven routing ensure orders are processed, packed, and shipped much faster than any manual system could. 

And, as the volumes ramp up, automation flexes with it, setting you up for long-term growth. 

The best part is, when everything works together, you get a single version of the truth; one set of data behind every decision, every customer promise, and every order. That’s how you turn discrepancy into performance. 

Returns and the customer experience in the world of omnichannel 

Especially during peak, customers don’t care about your warehouse logic (sorry to break it to you). What they do care about is their orders arriving on time – and that if something does go wrong, your response has clear action. 

What’s important for your brand is nailing your voice across all channels. Every status message, pickup confirmation, or return instruction should feel like one brand, regardless of where the customer started or purchased from. 

Making returns an advantage, not a headache

When peak is all said and done, the returns wave hits hard, and your omnichannel systems must be ready. 

Customers are likely to mix channels if you have a strong omnichannel presence (order via your app, return in store). When they do, inconsistency is a fast way to kill trust. 

Smart omnichannel brands master returns by: 

• Allowing returns via any channel, no matter where the purchase was made 

• Using local returns hubs to keep costs, time, and emissions low 

• Having refund flows that update stock in real-time and issue refunds quickly 

Maintain top performance through peak – no matter the channel

When online and retail both hit full stride, it opens diverse revenue streams for your business that set you up for long-term success. 

Effective omnichannel fulfilment is how you deliver consistency under peak pressure; because when every channel is booming, harmony beats chaos every time.