GLOBAL BRANDS LOOKING FOR UNIFIED FULFILMENT
Q4 isn’t just another date on the calendar. For ecommerce brands, it’s the main event. Sales go through the roof. Traffic floods in. Expectations shoot up. And you’ve got just weeks to get it right.
On the surface, it feels like a sprint. Though anyone who’s been through it knows, it’s a marathon in disguise. And the cracks you’ve been managing all year? Peak season has a way of bringing them into full view.
Yes, there’s massive opportunity. But there’s also nowhere to hide. If your operations aren’t built for speed, coordination and resilience, things can go south. Delays, complaints, stockouts… suddenly, your biggest growth moment becomes a reputational risk.
More stock and extra hands help, but only if the foundation is strong. Peak isn’t just about volume. It’s about whether your people, process and platform can flex under pressure without falling apart. Let’s dive into what real peak readiness looks like, and how to build it before the clock starts.
In this article
- Peak season snapshot
- Is your forecasting fit for purpose?
- The importance of inventory management and visibility
- Why delivery promises matter more in peak
- Value-added services that won’t break under pressure
- Communication as a growth lever, not just a support function
- Returns management as part of the plan not just a post-peak clean-up
- International fulfilment complexity during peak
- What needs to work to win peak
- How IFGlobal helps brands get ahead
Peak season snapshot
In Q4 2024, global retail ecommerce sales reached around US $6.09 trillion, marking an 8.4 % increase vs 2023, and are projected to grow to US $6.56 trillion in 2025 (Shopify).
- In the US, Q4 ecommerce hit US $352.9 billion, a 22.1 % leap from Q3, and made up 16.4 % of total retail sales - 17.9 % unadjusted (Digital Commerce 360).
- In the UK, online sales made up 27 % of total retail spend in December 2024 (Office for National Statistics).
- Mid‑2025 data shows global ecommerce order volumes rising +19 % YoY (The Economist Times), a clear signal that this year’s peak will come fast and hit hard.
With growth slowing in mature markets, brands need operational precision, delivery resilience, and borderless agility in order to succeed this peak season and beyond.
Is your forecasting fit for purpose?
No matter how good your product or marketing is, a successful peak season starts with planning. True peak forecasting brings in real-time data from your ad spend, influencer activity, retail partners and campaign calendar as well as historical sales. Because it’s not just about predicting demand, but about understanding why that demand will show up, where and when.
Peak should be front of mind in the decisions you’re making now.
- Which SKUs you’re scaling
- Which channels you’re backing
- How you’re timing launches and offers
And crucially, this needs to be shared planning, not siloed thinking. Your fulfilment partner, your tech stack, your customer support team. Everyone needs to be in on the plan if it’s going to hold when volumes surge.
These conversations should be happening now, while there’s still time to act. If you’re waiting until September or October to align, you’ll be reacting, not executing.
The importance of inventory management and visibility
You can’t move fast if you can’t see clearly. During peak, lack of visibility can break your fulfilment operations. Products in the wrong place. Stockouts on bestsellers. Oversupply on deadweight SKUs. Customer complaints you didn’t see coming.
In Q4, inventory needs to be positioned, prioritised and visible in real time. That means:
- Strategically splitting stock by region to reduce delivery time
- Prioritising bestsellers and syncing inventory to campaigns
- Positioning buffer stock where it’s needed, not where it’s easy
If your data is lagging or siloed, you’ll only find out there’s a problem once it hits your reviews page. By then, it’s already costing you.
“Peak has a way of showing you where the gaps are. If you can’t see your stock clearly, or it’s in the wrong location, you’ll feel it fast. The key is making sure the right products are in the right place before things ramp up.” - Luke Arnell, Inventory Manager at IFGlobal.
Why delivery promises matter more in peak
In Q4, everyone’s promising next-day delivery. Everyone’s hitting the same carriers and stretching service levels to the limit. Your customers don’t care how busy you are or what went wrong behind the scenes. They just want their package on time.
That’s why peak delivery planning starts well before orders start rolling in. You need to lock in carrier capacity early, build relationships that give you leverage when things get tight, and contingency plans ready to activate if something breaks. Whether it’s a strike, a snowstorm, or a Black Friday backlog, the brands that win are the ones who already have Plan B (and C) ready to go, so customers never notice the chaos behind the curtain.
Value-added services that don’t crumble under pressure
Personalisation, bundling, custom packaging, influencer drops. All the high-touch, high-value extras that drive brand love and repeat purchase. Peak is when they are most crucial, but also when they can slip.
These services need to be built into your fulfilment model from the start, not thrown together as an order’s due out the door.
- Scalable workflows for high-touch fulfilment
- Consistency across all fulfilment locations (your 3PL should be sending the same branded box as your HQ)
- The tech and team setup to handle complexity at volume
If these crack under pressure, you can cause irreparable damage to your brand loyalty, LTV, and long-term growth.
Communication as a growth lever, not just a support function
Peak customers are on edge. They’re gifting. They’re counting on delivery timelines. You can do everything right operationally and still lose customers if your communication isn’t proactive.
Brands that lead during peak are the ones who communicate clearly, consistently, and early. Cut-off dates. Delay warnings. Delivery confirmations. Returns instructions.
And this isn’t just for customers, but for internal clarity and alignment. Your marketing team knows the cut-off dates. Your ops team knows what’s realistic. Your client support team gives answers, not apologies. Everyone’s on the same page so your customer experience team isn’t stuck cleaning up chaos.
“Getting aligned early on things like cut-off times, how to handle delays, and other simple FAQs makes a huge difference. When expectations are clear from the start, it helps avoid last-minute surprises, reduces stress and keeps the pressure off when things get busy.” - Jarad Messham, Senior Client Support Manager.
Returns management as part of the plan not just a post-peak clean-up
Brands pour their energy into outbound logistics during Q4, but returns can sneak up and quietly drain margin and time. If you haven’t prepared, January becomes a bottleneck of its own.
Returns should be fast to process, easy to track and smartly triaged. Some products should be restocked. Others can be refurbished. The rest can go to resale channels or recycling. But none of that works if your fulfilment setup isn’t ready to manage the reverse flow as efficiently as the outbound.
This isn’t an afterthought. It’s the other half of your customer promise, and a make or break for customer retention.
International fulfilment complexity during peak
Q4 is tempting for global expansion. New markets, new revenue, new growth. But international fulfilment during peak is a different beast altogether.
Think customs delays, regional carrier issues, unpredictable timelines. To make it work, you need to localise. That means:
- Positioning inventory closer to the customer
- Reducing shipping zones and duties
- Partnering with fulfilment providers who already operate locally and understand the nuance
If you’re shipping internationally from one warehouse, you’re adding risk, cost and delay. And during peak, that’s a recipe for churn.
What needs to work to win peak
Peak exposes everything from tech gaps and staffing weaknesses to outdated processes and fragile carrier relationships. Success isn't just about surviving it, but using it to grow. To do this, everything needs to work together, under pressure, and without breaking.
- Real-time visibility across all inventory, channels and fulfilment locations. If you can't see what’s happening, you can't react in time.
- Tightly integrated systems, from your ecommerce platform to your 3PLs and customer service tools. Manual workarounds won’t hold up when order volumes double overnight.
- Predictable, scalable workflows for everything from order processing to returns.
- Carrier flexibility and capacity, with backup options ready to go if things don’t work out.
- Team alignment. From marketing and ops to customer experience and third-party partners, everyone must be working from the same plan. If you’re misaligned, you’re inefficient.
To succeed in Q4, you need to be cohesive, connected and able to flex. That’s what separates brands who survive from the ones who use it to accelerate growth.
How IFGlobal helps brands get ahead
Peak isn’t predictable, but it can be planned for. At IFGlobal, our entire fulfilment model – from tech to operations to planning – is built to help ambitious brands scale through Q4 with confidence, not compromise.
- Unified visibility: Our BladePRO fulfilment software gives you a single view of inventory, orders, and tracking across every fulfilment location, so you’re never flying blind.
- Connected tech: We integrate seamlessly with your ecommerce platforms, marketing stack, and customer service tools so data flows freely and manual work disappears.
- Scalable fulfilment: Our global network of fulfilment centres is built for high-volume, high-complexity fulfilment, including value-added services like kitting, bundling, and personalisation.
- Carrier strategy: We help you secure capacity early, diversify carriers by region, and set up fallback options so you’re not stuck when the pressure hits.
- Returns built-in: We design reverse logistics to match your outbound experience: fast, smart, and customer-friendly, so January doesn’t become a bottleneck.
- People-first partnership: We align with your internal teams to co-plan peak. and surface risks and opportunities early so we can help you turn fulfilment into a competitive edge.
