The upcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) peak Sales period will be the real test for how well your fulfillment process performs with surging order volumes. If you’re using a third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse, ensuring it’s reliable and prepared for your volume increases is essential. The following are some essential steps to take prior to your peak sales period.
1. Secure the Right 3PL Warehouse Partner
If your warehouse struggles with pick accuracy or you have general frustrations with your 3PL warehouse now, it will only be exacerbated by a peak Sales’ period. Using the right 3PL can add tremendous value to your business – especially at peak times like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The biggest advantage they can provide is saving you time, which frees you up to focus on other key areas of your business.
3PL Warehouses can save you the time by:
- Automating order capture — your eCommerce warehouse should be able to ingest orders direct from your shopping cart. Manual order uploads, or email-based order transfers, will overwhelm you during peak sales’ periods and is fraught with the potential for error. If your current 3PL can’t support this, then it may pay to look at one that can.
- Real-time stock-level syncing to your systems to avoid overselling. The last thing you want to be doing is selling stock you don’t have. Overselling product at peak periods is a recipe for disaster for eCommerce brands. In fact, one Australian brand was recently fined $25.05m (US$17m) by the Australian competition regulator, partly due to selling stock they didn’t have in their warehouse. Not only are you risking fines, but the impact from a PR and brand perspective can be extremely damaging as customers start highlighting issues on social media.
- Proactive Communication – the worst thing for a retailer is finding out about warehouse issues from customers. While it’s accepted there may be a small number of warehouse errors at peak times, any fundamental issues should be proactively communicated to you by your 3PL warehouse.
If you find you are regularly having to chase your 3PL on the back of customers’ concerns, then the issues will only be magnified at peak sales times.
2. Communicate Promotion Timings & Volume Forecasts
Just as if you were running your own warehouse, it’s vital you maintain communications with your 3PL warehouse. Without input from you around your Sales’ plans, they’re unable to plan their resources effectively. The bigger your business is, and the larger the sale, the more impact you will have on their resource planning.
As a guide, we suggest 6–8 weeks before your promotional start date, share your promotion calendar, forecasted daily volumes (including hourly peaks), and special handling needs (e.g., gift wrapping, kitting). This gives the 3PL time to plan staffing, allocate weekend shifts, and schedule outbound pickup windows.
It’s also important to advise them on likely inbound shipments as they will need to resource to ingest those into the warehouse.
A reliable 3PL warehouse will then collate this data across all their customers to undertake detailed resource planning.
If you’re 3PL hasn’t reached out to you and you have significant volumes, I would encourage you to initiate a conversation around their 3PL resourcing over the peak Sales’ period.
3. Account for Inbound Receipt & Shelf-Staging Time
If using a 3PL Warehouse, stock doesn’t instantly appear on the shelf after arriving at the warehouse. It’s important you build in buffer days for stock to be receipted and putaway, especially at peak Sales’ periods:
We recommend 2–3 business days at a minimum for receiving, quality checks, and internal put-away during peak periods however it is worth discussing with your 3PL directly.
Dumping containers or pallets into the 3PL days before a flash sale without pre-warning them is asking for chaos.
4. Synchronise Inventory in Real Time
Nothing damages BFCM trust like overselling. Make sure your system—including website stock levels and customer-facing notifications—is fed continuously by the 3PL’s inventory data or whichever system hold your source of truth for inventory:
- Regular polling or, ideally, event-based stock updates.
- If stock hits zero—or a safety threshold—automated alerts are ideal so you can reorder in time and prevent bad customer experiences.
Ensure your 3PL can provide you with accurate inventory updates. If you don’t have the necessary internal tech stack to support this, it could be worth consulting an expert who can assist with designing and implementing a system for you.
5. Prepare Kits/Bundles in Advance
Bundles and kits are great margin savers—but assembling them on the fly kills efficiency. Instead, if you pre-kit promotional bundles at your own facility or at the 3PL in advance, they can be clearly labelled and placed on a pick face ready for immediate pick and pack.
Not only will this approach increase speed of fulfillment, it will also usually be more cost-effective than picking and packing the individual units resulting in a lower cost per unit.
6. Streamline Packaging—Reduce Non-Revenue Add-Ons
In peak volume scenarios, trimming non-essential packaging (e.g., tissue paper, cards, elaborate wrapping) can significantly increase sorting and packing throughput making it quicker to despatch your orders and saving you money:
- Make packaging simple, protective, but minimal.
- Bundles and gifts can still delight if the unboxing is functional, fast, and branded.
The ideal balance is to remove fulfillment friction without reducing brand quality.
7. Pre-Purchase Communication
If your 3PL warehouse had advised about order fulfilment delays, ensure this is clearly communicated back to the consumer to avoid surprises and excess customer service tickets.
If your 3PL or carrier is experiencing delays, a simple message such as the following is likely to reduce customer service issues:
“Due to the volume of orders at this time, there may be a slight delay with delivery however we are ensuring all resources are deployed to avoid this.”
This is important as 69% of consumers say they are less likely to shop with a retailer again, if an order is delayed without proactive communication (Convey by Project44, 2023 Consumer Expectations Report).
8. Align Customer Service with Your 3PL
Customer service is the face of fulfillment. Equip your team with:
• Clear escalation paths and real-time contacts at the 3PL (phone numbers or dedicated support).
• Defined process for order lookups, damage/loss reporting, and delivery updates.
• Ensuring Customer Service reps can access warehouse and tracking statuses in a timely manner.
9. Post-Purchase Communication & Tracking
Integrated fulfillment = better customer experience. Ensure:
- Branded tracking pages or emails powered by live carrier data.
- Realistic delivery promises based on carrier data, not optimistic guesses.
An online consumer research study found 6 in 10 ecommerce customers check their order status once a day. Branded Tracking Pages and Alerts enrich the customer experience give customers the information they require, reduce customer service tickets and can differentiate your brand from competitors.
Summary Take Outs
Black Friday and Cyber Monday represent the most intense period of the retail calendar, and success hinges not only on great deals and marketing but also on operational readiness.
For brands working with a 3PL warehouse, ensuring stock is received and shelved early, sharing promotion timings and forecast volumes, streamlining order flows, and reducing bottlenecks like manual processing or unnecessary packaging can make the difference between delighted customers and missed opportunities.
Close coordination between your 3PL, customer service team, and internal operations is critical to scaling smoothly during peak demand. By aligning your systems and processes well in advance, you can deliver on customer expectations, protect your brand reputation, and maximize revenue during the most competitive shopping days of the year.
