It's October and online retailers are getting ready for the year-end rush. Black Friday and the holiday season are just around the corner. After record-breaking online sales last year during the pandemic, high volumes are expected again. But can warehouses handle it? How do you prepare your warehouse for Black Friday and the holidays? What can entrepreneurs do to get ready? These are common questions we hear around this time of year. That's why we asked our customers how they prepare for peak periods and what warehouse strategies they have in place for 2021. Anne from Case2go.nl and Jessien from AllYourGames.nl share their insights and tips.

Black Friday campaigns: yes or no this year?

After another unusual year with pandemic-related restrictions and a rise in online shopping, not every business is planning to participate in Black Friday. For companies struggling with tight margins, it’s a tough decision. Our customers Case2go and AllYourGames are participating, but with caution.

Anne: “We're promoting Black Friday through social media, newsletters and campaigns. But we’re not sure how big our participation should be, especially with uncertain stock levels. If you sell everything during Black Friday, what’s left for December?” Jessien adds: “We’re a discount-driven business. Every year it’s a challenge to determine the right discounts. We try to make a big impact through marketing to optimize sales.”

Stock purchasing has become more complicated, especially for Black Friday events. Delays and material shortages are common. Anne explains: “Shipping delays and costs have skyrocketed—transport is now 2.5 to 3 times more expensive than pre-pandemic. But we accept these costs to avoid running out of stock or losing listings on marketplaces like bol.com.”

Jessien adds: “Demand for computer chips is sky-high, which affects the availability of products like Xboxes and PlayStations.”

Anne says: “We try not to overstock. Tablet and phone cases have short life cycles and are usually only sellable for about 1.5 years. We rely on historical data to forecast what will sell well.” For Jessien, the strategy is different: “We reserve a bit more stock for each SKU as a buffer. Fortunately, game and console releases are announced well in advance so we can plan accordingly.”

Anne also gives a timely tip: “Don’t forget to account for Chinese New Year in February. Many manufacturers close during this period. If you've sold everything during the holidays, restocking in early January becomes difficult.”

Preparing your team

Anne: “We recently started using a scheduling app for staff. It shows everyone’s shifts and makes it easy to sign up for extra shifts. We also hired additional staff to handle packing, and we’ve already scheduled pickups with PostNL.”

Jessien prepares differently at AllYourGames: “During peak months, we split roles. Normally, staff pick and pack, but during busy times one group picks and another packs. This creates a continuous flow in the picking process.” He also optimizes Picqer presets: “Instead of picking 100 orders across the warehouse, we group them by aisle. That saves time.”

Customer experience and packaging

Case2go adjusts their shipping promise during the holidays to reduce customer service pressure. “Normally it’s next-day delivery for orders before 18:00. In December, we say 1–2 business days for the Netherlands and 2–5 for Belgium. That reduces complaints and negative reviews.”

Anne adds: “We include a stylus pen with each order. It costs us a bit more, but customers appreciate it.” Jessien takes a more efficient approach: “Adding extras takes about 5 seconds per order. With 4,000 daily orders, that adds up. During the holidays, our priority is getting orders out on time. We eliminate extras to keep the process clean and fast.”

Jessien has a smart packaging tip: “Use letterbox-sized packaging whenever possible. Last year, standard post wasn’t overloaded and deliveries were on time. Plus, customers don’t need to be home for delivery, which reduces returns.”

Packaging is also a priority for Case2go: “Even for low-cost items, thoughtful packaging makes a difference. We use custom envelopes and ask for customer feedback on packaging. Our delivery rating has gone up, even though delivery times haven’t changed. That extra attention pays off.”

Want to know more?

These were the experiences of Case2go.nl and AllYourGames.nl. We hope their insights help you prepare your warehouse for Black Friday. Curious how our warehouse software can support you? Get in touch with us.

As your webshop handles more and more orders, it can be tempting to focus on speeding up processes first. However, we recommend focusing on getting things right the first time, and only then looking at how to speed things up. In e-commerce, mistakes are extremely costly. They must be fixed, which takes both time and money. Think of additional shipping costs, return processing, customer service workload and the impact of negative reviews.

How much does a mistake cost?

To give you an idea of how much a single incorrect shipment might cost, here’s an example:

1. A white USB-C cable is shipped from the warehouse, but the customer actually ordered a white micro USB cable.
2. The customer calls customer service. It takes around 15 minutes to handle the complaint over the phone, plus 5 minutes to process it and arrange a replacement in the system. That’s 20 minutes x €35/hour = €11.67 excluding VAT.
3. The incorrect product must be returned. This costs around €5.
4. The returned product must be processed by a warehouse employee. This takes about 6 minutes = €3.50.
5. The correct product is shipped. This adds another €5 in shipping, €2 in handling, and €1.50 in packaging.

Altogether, it costs around €28.67 to correct one incorrect shipment. And this doesn’t even include potential reputational damage from poor reviews or word-of-mouth.

Measuring mistakes with the First Time Right percentage

To track the quality of your warehouse operations, you can monitor your First Time Right (FTR) percentage. This can be done daily or weekly. The FTR is the percentage of all orders that are delivered correctly the first time. An FTR of 100% means no mistakes were made.

You can track errors in a simple spreadsheet. The key is for all departments to report mistakes when they spot them. For instance, if customer service receives a call about the wrong product, or if someone notices inventory discrepancies, those errors should be logged.

The formula

The FTR percentage is calculated as follows:
100 - (100 * number of faulty orders / total number of orders)

So if you process 150 orders per day and make 2 mistakes:
100 - (100 * 2 / 150) = 98.67%

This gives you a clear view of your FTR over time.

Address the root cause

If your FTR is too low and you're spending too much time and money on fixing mistakes, it’s time to identify the root cause.

Whether your FTR is too low depends on how complex your tasks are, how many orders you process, and how many people work in your warehouse. But in general, we consider 99% already too low.

When too many mistakes occur, some businesses respond by adding more checks and steps to their process. This only adds unnecessary work. It's better to identify and fix the actual issue.

By analyzing subprocesses, you can pinpoint the problem. For example, track how often the wrong item ends up on the packing table. You can calculate an FTR for each subprocess and identify where errors most often occur.

First right, then fast

In short, start by eliminating mistakes. Measure your FTR, investigate errors and prevent unnecessary costs and time. Doing it right doesn’t mean being perfect. A 100% FTR is not always realistic—mistakes happen. But focus on accuracy first, then improve speed.

We have added new features to Picqer to help you secure your account even better. As an admin, you now also have more insight into activities related to information security. Here is an overview of the most important updates.

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your Picqer account, making it harder for unauthorized users to gain access.

With two-factor authentication, you will need a verification code in addition to your username and password when logging in. This temporary code is displayed on your phone or another linked device. This way, unauthorized users cannot log in, even if your login credentials are compromised.

Learn more about setting up two-factor authentication on our support page.

Access from trusted IP addresses

In Picqer, you can create a list of IP addresses that you trust—such as the IP address of your warehouse, office, other locations, or home workspaces. You can then specify per user whether they are only allowed to access Picqer from these trusted IPs. This is useful if you want users to log in only from work.

Audit log

The audit log gives admins insight into all events relevant to information security within Picqer. If you suspect misuse of an account or see unusual activity, the audit log helps you investigate what has happened.

Read more about the audit log on our support page.

Updates to the user page

The updated user page provides additional details and actions to improve security.

You can now log a user out from all devices. This is helpful if someone forgot to log out or if you suspect unauthorized access. In the latter case, be sure to change the password as well.

The user page also shows recent stock changes made by the user, and when and from which locations they have logged in. This gives you a quick overview of any potentially suspicious activity.

With these new tools, you can better secure your Picqer account. Need help with setup? Get in touch with us.

As of now, we support the official PostNL plugin for WooCommerce. The plugin includes support for the following options:

• Pickup locations in the Netherlands
• Pickup locations in Belgium
• Evening delivery
• Letterbox parcel
• Delayed delivery date

Please note: options such as signature, insured shipping, no delivery to neighbors, age check and return if not home are not passed from the shop.

You can find the PostNL installation guide here.

For more information about our WooCommerce integration, visit our support page.

In collaboration with Thuiswinkel.org, we've created the Warehousing e-learning course. You can follow the course for free on e-academy.com.

What you’ll learn

The e-learning walks you step by step through running your own webshop warehouse successfully.

You’ll learn, among other things:

• Why you need a warehouse and how it plays a key role in delivering your webshop promises
• How to identify the characteristics of a good warehouse and create an effective setup
• Why it’s important for everyone in the warehouse to work independently and how to support that
• Why preventing errors is more important than speed and how to calculate the First Time Right percentage
• The key methods to improve warehouse speed
• How to use these foundational principles to run your warehouse more efficiently and effectively

Test your knowledge

After completing the e-learning, you can take a final test. The test takes about 15 minutes, and if you pass, you’ll receive a certificate.

Ready to start the e-learning? Visit e-academy.com