Retailers, it’s Time to Start Preparing for the Holiday Season

By now, retailers are used to disruption — from the pandemic to the Red Sea shipping crisis, instability has become the norm. This year, tariffs may cast a shadow over the holiday shopping season, creating more volatility. The reality is there will be factors out of their control; however, the more retailers can prepare for what’s to come, the better off they’ll be. These are some of the best ways to maximize opportunity this year.

Consider Liquidating or Renting Warehouse Space

Inventory management is one of the biggest pain points retailers face over the holiday season, but liquidating inventory can be a great solve. Liquidating underperforming products in advance frees up space and can help retailers avoid high costs of storage, which currently amount to $15,000 and $25,000 per year for smaller co-warehousing spaces and between $50,000 and $500,000 per year for larger warehouse rentals.

However, there are times when renting warehouse space makes sense. It can enable overflow capacity when their regular facilities are full – this is especially pertinent to those brands and online marketplaces selling oversized or bulky items like couches and cars. Renting out additional warehouse space can also help speed up deliveries so that consumers can get their holiday purchases before the colloquial Christmas Day deadline. Local rented warehouses can act as temporary fulfillment hubs, reducing shipping time and cost – a win-win for the retailer and the end-consumer.

Communicate Proactively About Sales

This season is all about creating predictable shopping peaks. Whether a brand is participating in Prime Day or running individual promotions, it’s prudent to use communication channels to put these opportunities on consumers’ radars. This helps boost sales, of course, but it can also create a more predictable timeline for shipping. When consumers know exactly when a sale starts and ends, orders spike in a more controlled window. This allows brands to better forecast inventory and assess staffing needs. Last year, for example, Deloitte found the number of seasonal jobs added in December was the highest in a decade due to the shortened Cyber Monday to Christmas shopping window. Adequate staffing was a key metric of success to get consumers their goods on-time, a lot of which was made possible by manufacturing shopping peaks.

Secure Your Network

Sales and promotions are great, but only if your network can support them. Ensuring networks can handle increased traffic during shopping peaks is critical. Why? A whopping 90 percent of shoppers will abandon their carts if the website loads slowly. This is a surefire way to lose customers or drive them towards competitors.

To do this, retailers should ensure tech teams are equipped to identify any weaknesses in their network infrastructure and web applications, prevent cyberattacks, and have a system in place to monitor their network speed and reliability in real time.

Prepare for Logistics’ Evil Underbelly: Returns

It may seem alarmist to think about returns before the peak holiday shopping season is even here, but it’s critical to prepare now. NRF reported total returns reached $890 billion in 2024. Retailers have yet to hack a process that makes returns feasible despite the fact that consumers are prioritizing easy returns. In fact, a uShip survey found not only are consumers prepared to return unwanted gifts, almost a third (31 percent) of consumers are making returns part of their shopping strategy, saying they plan to buy multiple items knowing they’ll have the option to return later. Retailers should expect a similar trend this year as online shopping is increasingly common.

Transparently, the industry is behind in solutions for returns, but there are a few ways to prepare. AI and other digital tools can automate certain facets of the shipping process to enhance end-to-end visibility, improve item quality checks, and optimize fleet scheduling. However, the best way to prepare for returns is level-setting with customers and making returns policies crystal clear. Consumers are more forgiving if brands are transparent about returns processes.

Jami Caruso is the vice president of customer operations and home delivery at uShip, the world's largest and most trusted online transportation marketplace.