Don’t look now, but the holiday shipping season is right around the corner!

That means it’s crunch time for eCommerce companies looking to fulfill and ship orders. Even though it's bound to be a chaotic and hectic time of the year for any online merchant, adopting the right fulfillment strategy can go a long way towards ensuring that your fulfillment process is smooth and efficient - even in the middle of the craziness of the busy holiday shipping season!

Without further adieu, here’s a quick look at 10 fulfillment tips so your business can have a happy holiday season!

1. Keep Your Inventory Well-Stocked

Your inventory should always be well-stocked - especially during the holidays!

However, all holiday season stock should be ordered and maintained well before peak shipping season. Stay in touch with your suppliers to know the exact delivery dates. Order in time to get the products before you start your seasonal promotions.

This is also very important for warehouse operation optimization, resulting in better staffing of workers to complete assignments. Fast order fulfillment is also possible because of good inventory management. Also, try to estimate your previous number of orders in the same season and order stock accordingly.

2. Streamline Order Processing and Automate When/Where Possible

Manual processes can break down under holiday pressure. That’s why automating parts of your order fulfillment workflow is essential to keeping operations smooth during peak season.

Automate where it counts

Use automation tools for order routing, label generation, tracking notifications, and inventory syncs across platforms. This reduces human error and saves time when every second counts.

Integrate your tech stack

Make sure your store, inventory system, and fulfillment center are all synced. Integrations eliminate duplicate tasks and let you view orders, fulfillment status, and tracking in real time.

You can use Easyship to auto-generate shipping labels and optimize courier selection. With 550+ courier options, you can automate label creation based on best rate, speed, or courier preference, ensuring fast dispatches with minimal manual handling.

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3. Stock Up on Enough Shipping Supplies

In addition to preparing your inventory well before the busy holiday shipping season, always order enough shipping supplies well in advance!

The last thing your business needs is to run out of shipping supplies in the middle of the peak shipping season, so always stock up. There’s no harm in ordering what you’ll believe will be a surplus too, just to be sure you have enough on hand.

4. Build Strong Carrier and 3PL Relationships

In the holiday chaos, your relationships with couriers and fulfillment providers are your safety net.

Work closely with your 3PL and carriers ahead of the peak season

Understand cutoff dates, capacity limitations, and service guarantees. Early planning can help you secure space and avoid delays.

Keep communication lines open

Real-time coordination helps resolve issues faster—like lost parcels, missed pickups, or shipment delays. Having a direct contact at your 3PL or courier is invaluable.

With 12+ global fulfillment centers, Easyship lets you ship from warehouses closest to your customers, cutting transit times and costs.

5. Use Data to Make Decisions / Demand Forecasting and Trend Analysis

Relying on instincts alone won’t cut it in Q4. Let your data do the talking to prepare smarter and predict what may come as a part of the season!

Look at last year’s sales trends

Historical data shows what sold well, when your sales spiked, and how long shipping took. Use this to project inventory and staff needs.

Use real-time analytics to monitor inventory velocity

Identify fast-moving SKUs and adjust restocks accordingly. Avoid overstocking or missing out on high-demand items.

Forecast based on marketing and promo schedules

If you’re launching new campaigns, expect spikes. Align fulfillment resources and stock to match anticipated surges.

6. Offer a Sensible and Seamless Returns Policy

All too often, online merchants are (understandably!) caught up in the business of the holiday shipping and fulfillment process and neglect to craft a sensible, seamless return policy for the inevitable rush of post-holiday returns.

This is a critical mistake. Instead, always implement a sensible returns policy well before the holiday season and communicate it effectively to your customers on your website as well as on your product pages. Offering prepaid return labels to your customers in all their orders is a great idea too!

7. Stay on Top of Your Customer Service

When it comes to handling the holiday shipping rush, customer service is key!

Having an FAQ section on your website and using chatbots are both great ideas. Your customer service representative should also have the proper training and information to handle every kind of query that comes their way.

This can be done through a centralized system for inventory management, tracking shipments, and website. When these are integrated together, customer service issues will be able to be handled quickly and accurately.

8. Know the 2025 Holiday Shipping Deadlines

Knowing all the holiday shipping deadlines is also crucial for staying on top of your fulfillment process. Understanding them can help you better prepare your fulfillment strategy and plan in advance to make the best use of your time and resources.

9. Outsource Your Fulfillment Process

As any other online merchant will tell you, the order fulfillment process is time-consuming, expensive, and requires a lot of energy and attention to detail from your staff. However, outsourcing the process to third-party professionals can help to ease this burden and let you focus on sales, marketing, onboarding temp workers for the holidays, and the like.

For merchants looking into this, Amazon FBA is just one popular option to explore. Find out more about how to sell on Amazon FBA with our guide here!

10. Prepare in Advance

Preparation - even beyond maintaining a well-stocked inventory - is the key to success when it comes to having a happy holiday shipping season.

Always do a stress test of your website in advance to make sure it can handle the surge of holiday orders. In general, also make sure your site runs smoothly and quickly, has an intuitive navigation structure and the checkout process works flawlessly.

It’s also a good idea to brief your staff of what’s expected of them ahead of the holidays and double-check that your website has up-to-date and clear information regarding all of your shipping, delivery, and returns policies.

11. Bring in Extra Helping Hands

Take a look at your historical data and current sales projections. When does your peak season really hit?

That’s the best time to consider bringing in temp workers to handle the holiday shipping rush. Yes, it’s an additional expense, but often worth the investment to have an extra set of helping hands to push orders out quickly!

12. Communicate Clearly with Customers, Suppliers, and Couriers

Finally, communication with your customers, suppliers, and couriers is crucial.

If a batch of customer orders is delayed due to inclement weather or backlogged shipping supplies, be sure to let the impacted customers know right away via email blasts, social media updates, and blog posts. Likewise, always stay in close touch with your suppliers and couriers and coordinate issues like shipping deadlines, delivery times, and inventory levels clearly so that there’s no miscommunication that could hamper your holiday shipping and fulfillment process.

The Holiday Shopping Season Can Be Cheery with the Right Fulfillment Strategy!

Often, it seems like the holidays are merry for everyone except online merchants! Fortunately, having the right holiday shipping process and fulfillment strategy in place can help ensure that the peak fulfillment and shipping season goes smoothly and efficiently.

Easyship is the partner you need for the busy holiday fulfillment and shipping season. We partner with 12+ warehouses worldwide and offer dedicated fulfillment support to help your business ship orders globally.

Global Fulfillment: Easyship has warehouse partners on four continents to reach customers worldwide. Plus, Easyship helps scale up fulfillment capabilities without increasing overhead costs

Shipping Policy Generator: Our shipping policy generator helps merchants and crowdfunding campaigns generate their shipping policy by providing tracking and insurance options

FAQs

How do retailers prepare for the holiday season?

Retailers plan early: they stock up inventory, hire temp staff, automate fulfillment, and launch marketing campaigns ahead of time. Many also partner with 3PLs like Easyship to handle high-volume shipping with ease.

What are the key challenges eCommerce owners face during the holiday season?

Top challenges include stockouts, courier delays, warehouse overload, and miscommunication. Easyship helps solve this with multi-warehouse fulfillment, real-time tracking, and access to 250+ couriers.

How to survive retail during the holidays?

Automate what you can, forecast using last year’s data, outsource to a 3PL, and communicate clearly with customers. Tools like Easyship make it easier to stay fast, flexible, and reliable under pressure.

What is the last shipping day for Christmas USPS?

USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Express services each have different deadlines. For 2025, the last day is typically December 20–23, depending on the service.

What is the cheapest holiday shipping?

USPS Ground Advantage and UPS Ground Saver are usually the most affordable for domestic orders. Flat-rate options also help control costs during the holiday rush.

Is holiday shipping more expensive?

Yes. Most couriers apply peak season surcharges from October to January due to high demand, labor, and fuel costs. Which is why you can compare the best courier options on Easyship and make the cost efficient choice for your business!

What is the cut-off date for Christmas delivery?

Cut-off dates vary by courier and service level, but December 15–20 is generally safe for standard shipping. For express, it's often December 22–23.

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Fulfillment Tips for a Happy Holiday Season