What businesses get wrong in the run-up to eCommerce peak season

A lot of eCommerce peak season advice recycles the same old tips: hire temps, scale labour, stockpile products, and cross your fingers. But if peak season is about anything, it’s about how your business (and your fulfilment provider) reacts to the pressure. 

Many businesses think they’re ready, only to hit bottlenecks that stall growth, damage customer loyalty, and leave staff burnt out. 

With that in mind, let’s explore the most common mistakes eCommerce brands make when preparing for peak season, and – most importantly – how to avoid them. 

Mistake #1: Thinking people power beats process power 

Throwing more staff onto the shop floor seems like the obvious answer for surges in order volumes, but it’s not always the best course of action.  

Where fulfilment is concerned, an overload in manual handling can still lead to the same frustrating errors: mis-picks, missed SLAs, and annoyed customers. 

What to do instead: 

• Choose a fulfilment provider that uses technology to improve processes, such as automating pick, pack, and dispatch tasks 

• Introduce smart workflows that allocate tasks based on real-time demand, not static schedules 

• Keep seasonal staff for adding value in customer-facing roles, rather than repetitive tasks where errors can be costly 

Peak is less about people power than it is about process power. By using technology (and having the best partners by your side), you can optimise your operational workflows to handle order surges with ease. 

Mistake #2: Guessing demand (instead of forecasting it) 

Forecasting for peak season eCommerce is notoriously tricky. Over-order, and you’ve got cash tied up in surplus stock. Don’t order enough, and you risk losing customers to your competitors (in fact, 30% of shoppers immediately switch to a competitor after experiencing a stockout). 

By ignoring the latest forecasting and predictive tools, you run the risk of encountering these stock issues for your business. 

What to do instead: 

• Use integrated forecasting tools that draw on live sales data across all channels 

• Model ‘what if’ scenarios, such as TikTok blowing up best-seller sales overnight 

• Adjust replenishment strategies dynamically, rather than locking into a fixed forecast months in advance 

Data beats gut feeling every time, especially when demand curves and order surges are so unpredictable.  

Hear from Chris White, Chief Delivery Officer at fulfilmentcrowd, on his top tips for nailing your peak preparation.

Mistake #3: Treating all orders as equals 

eCommerce peak season isn’t just about order volume; it’s about order priority. VIP customers, subscription orders, time-sensitive deliveries – they all matter just as much in peak as any other time of year. 

Despite this, a lot of businesses fall into the trap of ‘first come, first served’ during the peak scramble, leading to frustrated customers and omnichannel stockouts. 

What to do instead: 

• Use configurable rules in your order management system to prioritise orders by customer type, service level, or channel 

• Reserve stock for subscriptions or B2B channels so DTC orders don’t use them all up 

• Build in capacity buffers for last-minute, high-priority shipments 

The winners in peak aren’t the ones shipping the most or the fastest, they're the ones shipping smartest. 

Mistake #4: Believing the customer journey ends at dispatch 

The order’s been packed, labelled, and waved goodbye. Job done, right? Not quite. For customers, waiting for their orders to arrive can be one of the most stressful things about peak season eCommerce (especially for the dad who’s left it until the last minute again). 

A lack of tracking, delays in delivery, or poor communication can undo all the hard work that resulted in a purchase. 

What to do instead: 

• Connect to multiple carriers and allocate the best option automatically for each order 

• Offer proactive tracking updates so customers never need to chase (your customer support teams will thank you) 

• Build contingency plans – if one carrier gets swamped, reroute via another 

Delivery is still part of your brand experience, and it’s not just a courier’s problem. To minimise the impact of delivery issues and protect your brand, it’s all about putting customers in control with the right tools (which is exactly what you can do with Delivery Assured, our answer to bad delivery). 

Offering real-time tracking, giving your customers full ownership of their orders, and providing quick problem resolution when things go wrong is your best bet at saving your reputation in the event of bad delivery. 

Mistake #5: Building for this peak, but not the next 

For a lot of businesses, peak season is just a case of ‘getting through it,’ when in reality it can be a huge growth lever. 

Many companies survive one peak but fail the next, simply because their systems don’t scale. Others scale up during peak by temporary means, but fail to continue momentum beyond Q4. 

Growth comes with more SKUs, more channels, and more destinations – and patchwork processes often can’t keep up. 

What to do instead: 

• Adopt cloud-based fulfilment systems that flex to your order volumes and allow you to easily expand into new territories 

• Standardise your processes (before peak) so they’re repeatable, scalable, and effective in driving growth beyond peak 

• Track KPIs across peaks to learn and improve year-on-year 

Peak isn’t a one-off event, but rather a stress-test for your future business model. It comes around every year, so it’s best to nail down a process for sailing through it with confidence. 

The truth behind peak success 

Preparing for the eCommerce peak season isn’t about how many extra shifts you book in. It’s about designing efficient, effective systems that flex, scale, and adapt when the pressure is on. 

Automation, data-led forecasting, smart order routing, multi-carrier delivery – they aren’t just ‘nice-to-haves,’ but the difference between surviving peak and thriving in it. 

The businesses that stop repeating the same playbook of years gone by, and instead lead into smarter, tech-led solutions, won’t just win peak season... they’ll win customer loyalty all year round.