Preparing For Peak:
Successful Strategies For Your Busy Season

To understand how businesses plan for the peak season, UPS conducted two surveys of small-and medium-size businesses in May 2025.*

Here’s what they learned:

• 87% - experience a peak shipping season
• 64% - feel prepared for peak season in under two months
• 37% - expect challenges during their peak season¹

Learn from past peak seasons

Businesses experience growing pains, particularly during their peak season.

Common challenges include: 

• Mother Nature: Shipping delays from severe weather
• Improper demand forecasting: Items not selling as planned, leading to excess inventory, stockouts, and warehouse space issues
• Challenging partnerships: Issues with suppliers and partners causing delays, additional costs and stress

Learning from the past can help you anticipate the potential challenges ahead. But even with a solid plan, there will likely be surprises.

The bigger picture

Lessons learned from past seasons can create a blueprint for optimization.

Here are some steps businesses can take to prepare for peak season: 

• Stock up: 
  Order popular products, packaging, and shipping materials early to ensure you're fully supplied. 
• Forecast demand: 
  Analyze sales data and SKU trends to plan inventory, set goals, and cut slow-moving items. 
• Scale staff: 
  Recruit and train seasonal workers at least three months ahead to prep for peak demand.
  
• Plan your promotional schedule:
  Schedule ads, offers, and discounts to help drive early sales while balancing long-term revenue.
• Prepare and organize logistics:
  Ensure your shipping materials and carrier arrangements are in place to avoid fulfillment delays. 
• Communicate with suppliers:
  Share your promotion plans so partners can adjust production and delivery schedules. 
• Talk to customers
  Set expectations with clear delivery timelines to ensure a smooth shopping experience.

While inventory management may look different for physical and digital storefronts, both require an optimized network to get products to customers on time. 

Consider these survey results: 

• Item availability influences where 94% of shoppers shop. 
• Out of stock products make 91% of shoppers feel frustrated. 
• Carts are abandoned by 70% of shoppers because of out-of-stock items.²

To meet peak season demand, consider selecting regional stores with a larger square footage that can ship from the location closest to the customer. This strategy can minimize the need for a larger distribution center (or a regionalized one) and reduces shipping costs by shortening the zones.

Staffing and training

As shopper expectations rise, so do employee expectations. Brands that support employees—so they can better support customers—will be positioned to succeed.

Nearly 24% of the businesses UPS surveyed say this is one of their priorities.¹ As you plan for peak, think about who you’ll need to hire and train, including part-time, on-demand, or temporary employees. The market for seasonal workers is competitive, so focus on what today’s workforce values, such as competitive pay, flexible schedules, a positive work environment and respect, and comprehensive training. 

Technology

Now is a great time to upgrade, implement, and test new software, hardware, and systems to ensure they can handle a maximum load. If there are issues, you have time to address them so that your technology can integrate seamlessly with the platforms you need to operate efficiently. 

Avoid clunky checkouts or abandoned carts

A bad checkout experience is one of the reasons why consumers leave behind a full cart, and why businesses lose out on sales.

UPS recommends the following tips for direct-to-consumer brands: 

• Load-test your site: Keep checkouts fast. Short attention spans and slow sites cost sales. Optimize for mobile. 
• Simplify the process: Minimize the number of fields and steps required to purchase. Offer a guest checkout option. 
• Be transparent about pricing: Show all costs—including taxes and delivery fees—upfront. 
• Set clear delivery expectations: Communicate shipping times and estimated delivery dates. 
• Clarify your returns policy: Customers want to know returns options before buying. 

Selecting shipping, delivery, and logistics solutions

More than half of businesses surveyed say they rely on different carriers during peak season than they do during the rest of the year for reasons that include extra reliability (44%), increased flexibility (42%), faster time in transit (42%), and cost (40%).¹ But with the right carrier from the get-go, those pain points can be solved. 

Benefits of using a single carrier can include: 

• Economies of scale: 
  Consolidating volume can mean discounts, better rates, and bundles. Using one carrier also helps optimize warehouses and boost supply chain efficiency and operational savings. 
• Streamline workflow: 
  Managing one system for scheduling, tracking, and billing streamlines workflow. Using a single carrier also boosts warehouse operations by reducing floor and dock congestion and mitigating errors. 
• Ease of use: 
  A single system simplifies training for staff, business owners, and accounting.
  
• Stronger supplier management:
  Utilizing a single carrier can help manage orders, transportation, compliance, and cost management, reducing delays and costs..
• Relationships and service
  Businesses get to know their drivers and enjoy a consistent level of service. 

The reality of returns

Returns are an important consideration for many consumers, and the policy—what it costs to return an item and how far they have to drive to do it—often influences where they shop. For example, 76% of customers say free returns are an important consideration, and 46% say they’ve abandoned a purchase because the returns method wasn’t convenient.³

78% of customers say free returns are an important consideration for purchases 

Tips for returns management include:

• Plan early.
• Establish a returns policy and clearly communicate it to customers.
• Automate label generation.
• Use data-driven incentives, such as store credit, to minimize losses due to refunds.
• Lean into post-purchase upselling and loyalty messaging to help retain new buyers.
• Ask for feedback about returns experiences and make necessary adjustments. 

Looking ahead

When you’re in the thick of planning for peak season, remember what the work is for: creating great shopper experiences. That’s what will make them come back again and again. 

Disclosure: This article was adapted from content originally written by UPS. Learn more about UPS or speak to a UPS representative. This article contains general information and is not intended to provide information that is specific to American Express, or its products and services.