eCommerce Brands Rejoice! It's time to celebrate Turkey 5!
We've all heard of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. But have you heard of Turkey 5? No? Well keep reading to learn more and see if your brand is ready to celebrate this eCommerce "holiday."
Turkey 5 is the nickname given to the five days following Thanksgiving, beginning on Black Friday, and continuing through Tuesday of the following week. They represent some of the biggest eCommerce order fulfillment days of the year, with brands routinely achieving 10x order volume.
This year's Turkey 5 occurs from Friday November 24th through Tuesday November 28th, 2023.
When asked about her mindset going into peak season, Brittany Myers, Operations Manager for Abacus indicated the following:
"Allocating labor strategically, with a lot of careful planning goes into executing a successful peak season for our customers. The Abacus team is cross trained to ensure everyone can work in whatever department has the greatest need. We tend to see a big shift from production and kitting into order fulfillment beginning on Black Friday and continuing all the way until Christmas - but we're ready for both either way."
Turkey 5, and the holiday season in general, can be a very exciting, albeit stressful time of year for many eCommerce brands. Companies can make or break their year, based upon their sales performance during the final 45 days. Abacus' role is to provide clients with confidence, so they can tackle the season with a focus on capturing more sales, rather than the dread that comes with not being able to fulfill customers' orders on time.
Finding a partner that has the flexibility and scalability to meet your peak season needs is critical to your success during this time of year. One of Abacus' clients said the following about his brand's partnership with Abacus:
“We’ve been working with the team at Abacus for close to 15 years. They handle all of our U.S. fulfillment needs via B2B and B2C channels, including Amazon FBA/FBM, with a core competency in managing high-volume key shopping events such as Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Last-Minute Ship Cutoff Savings and Store Display/Endcap execution. Their team has excelled at same day shipping, even during peak periods meeting the high bar set by retailers, especially Amazon. Our partnership with Abacus has allowed us to focus on marketing and growth. They are outstanding!”
- COO and Founder of eCommerce Brand & Amazon Seller
When partnering with Abacus, you don't need to make tough decisions on which sales channel's orders get fulfilled, only to neglect others and miss out on future growth opportunities.
Whether you currently use a 3PL or provide your own order fulfillment, Turkey 5 is a critical time of year to maximize your brand's sales potential by delighting your customers with on-time and accurate order fulfillment.
Here are 6 things to consider when evaluating your 3PL to help your team be ready for this year's Turkey 5:
Flexibility & Scalability: Does your 3PL have the flexibility to support you with short-term order volume spikes? Do they scale their resources and solution to match seasonal fluctuations in order and kitting volume? A flexible 3PL doesn't box you into a narrow set of rules that restrict your brand. A scalable 3PL plans their labor and resources to ensure maximum output.
Communication & Collaboration: Peak season is highly dynamic, with promotions resulting in higher-than-expected D2C sales, and brands sometimes closing distribution and retailer partnerships at the last minute. Your 3PL needs to be responsive to this ever-changing landscape, with routine communication and supportive collaboration.
Wisdom & Expertise: Peak season is not the time to be learning how to handle high order volumes. Your 3PL should have experience fulfilling millions of orders via multiple sales channels. They should have experience building millions of kits, so if your sales are higher than expected and you run into an out-of-stock situation, you can quickly recover. Only a 3PL with years of experience will have the intuition to help your brand navigate the challenges that arise during peak season.
Focus on Quality: The right products, fulfilled at the right time, and packaged the right way to ensure safe transport. That's what your customers expect. We all remember what it's like to pay for expedited shipping on an order, wait for it to arrive, only to find that items are damaged or missing. During the holiday season where orders are often gifts, this frustration is amplified. Does your 3PL provide industry-leading order accuracy?
Commitment to Your Success: Your 3PL is an extension of your brand. When they fail in their execution, your brand fails its customers. Abacus takes this responsibility seriously, and we strive to provide your customers with a 5-star experience on every order, whether they're a direct-to-consumer buyer, or one of your retail or distributor customers. How committed is your 3PL to your success?
Contact Abacus Logistics: Abacus has the right experience with peak season to help your brand achieve its sales goals, with millions of eCommerce orders under our belt and fulfillment via multiple sales channels, Abacus Logistics is the right partner to bring to the table this holiday season.
Process Improvement Assessment
Connect with the Abacus Logistics team for a complimentary assessment to learn how you can eliminate stressing over fulfillment and focus on growing your brand!
Contact our team today at info@abacus3PL.com to see how we can help your brand gobble this year's Turkey 5 challenges!
