The holiday season is a time of warmth and celebration, but also a busy period for online retailers. Shoppers are on the hunt for the perfect gifts, and the number of daily orders can reach a peak.

This surge in holiday orders brings logistical challenges, both for webshops and shipping carriers. Fortunately, you can prepare in advance to manage the rush. That’s why we’ve created a checklist to help you get ready.

Organize your warehouse

Processing a large number of orders in a short time is only possible with a well-organized warehouse. As the holiday rush can ramp up quickly, it’s wise to prepare your warehouse now.

Place bestsellers in accessible locations

Most webshops have popular products, also known as “bestsellers.” Since you’ll pick these items more frequently, it’s best to place them near the packing tables. During the holidays, other products might also become popular as gift items. Move those closer to the packing area as well to reduce walking time.

Schedule more pickers and set up extra packing tables

Chances are you’ll need more staff in the warehouse during the holidays. It might even make sense to set up additional packing stations. Now is the time to plan for this and make the necessary arrangements so you’re not caught off guard later.

Ensure there’s enough walking space

More people working in the warehouse means more foot traffic. Crowded aisles or blocked pathways create delays and stress. Keep pathways clear and provide ample walking space for smooth operations.

Adjust your processes

Things tend to operate differently during the holidays. By analyzing and adapting your processes, you can maintain a calm and productive environment.

Eliminate exceptions

To streamline order processing during peak times, consider temporarily skipping non-critical tasks. For example, pause return processing or certain purchase orders. Fewer concurrent processes help maintain clarity and focus. You can catch up after the rush subsides.

Diversify your shipping options

Shipping carriers are often overwhelmed during the holidays. Be sure you have the ability to ship with multiple carriers. If one reaches capacity, you’ll have a backup option. This can be managed through direct contracts or by using a shipping platform that offers multiple carrier options.

Encourage early purchases

Spreading out orders reduces the risk of delays. Promote early shopping by highlighting the benefits on your webshop, like avoiding stock shortages or ensuring timely delivery. You can also send out newsletters to existing customers with holiday reminders.

WHITE Digital Agency, one of the largest Dutch partners of Craft CMS, has developed a Picqer integration for Craft Commerce. After a successful test phase, the Picqer plugin is now available. With this integration, webshops using Craft Commerce can import orders into Picqer in real time and process them more easily and efficiently. This gives webshop owners more control over their warehouse.

What is Craft Commerce?

Craft Commerce is the e-commerce extension for Craft CMS. It offers a powerful e-commerce platform built on a highly user-friendly and flexible CMS. It uses a custom storefront approach, allowing you to fully tailor the experience to your product range. The robust and clean interface enables you to configure advanced functionality on the frontend with ease.

About WHITE Digital Agency

WHITE Digital Agency has been operating as a digital agency since 1999 and is based in the Brainport region of Eindhoven. As a certified Craft Enterprise Partner and Craft Commerce specialist, they have extensive experience with complex projects using this content management system. With Craft Commerce, they offer a user-friendly e-commerce platform where rich content and product management seamlessly come together.

Get started

Connect your Craft Commerce webshop to Picqer today. Curious how the integration works? Visit the Craft Commerce integration page to get started.

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.