This blog series is adapted from nShift’s Fail-proof peak season report, designed to help retail and eCommerce leaders move from reactive problem-solving to disciplined planning and performance. Each article tackles one dimension of peak readiness, with practical insights you can put to work right away.
Read the previous article in this series: Black Friday across Europe: Regional ecommerce insights
Peak season always feels like a sprint. Black Friday and Cyber Weekend hit, orders spike 50%+, and the scramble begins. But here’s the truth: there is no single lever that wins Q4. Retailers that come out ahead balance short-term moves that protect revenue today with structural improvements that compound into long-term advantage.
At nShift, we call this the dual path to excellence. It’s about running a 30-day sprint to stabilize performance right now, while also laying foundations over 90–180 days that turn delivery from a liability into a moat.
For the sprint horizon, it’s all about removing friction fast and making promises you can actually keep:
Lock in your delivery promise at checkout
Show 2–4 clear options with precise cut-offs and reliable estimated delivery dates. Shoppers don’t want “2–5 days,” they want Friday 29 Nov. Predictability builds trust and reduces abandonment.
Expose true landed costs
Collect VAT at checkout for low-value cross-border orders (IOSS ≤€150) and show duties and fees upfront. Nobody likes doorstep surprises, and clearing customs faster keeps parcels moving.
Default to out-of-home (OOH)
In markets like the Nordics, lockers are already #1. Pre-select lockers or PUDO where adoption is high. It reduces failed first attempts and helps you scale capacity.
Turn on multi-carrier rate shopping and fallbacks
Don’t get trapped by a single carrier’s performance. Dynamic allocation lowers cost per parcel and preserves on-time rates during spikes.
Stand up a live “peak board”
One dashboard for API health, label errors, parcel-flow bottlenecks, and customs holds. Add alerting and on-call rotations so exceptions are spotted and resolved before customers feel the pain.
Run a 2-hour chaos drill
Simulate a carrier outage or API slowdown. Practicing under pressure hardens your team and ensures failovers really work.
The result? You contain chaos, protect margins, and keep promises through the most volatile weeks of the year.
Sprints help you survive. Moats help you lead. Over the next two quarters, the winners are making deeper structural changes:
Bake compliance into checkout
Capture HS codes and plain-language descriptions early. Automate ICS2 filings and charge VAT upfront. Customs clearance becomes predictable instead of a lottery.
Engineer packaging for PPWR
With EU empty-space caps looming, right-size now. Explore “ship in own container” where viable. Cutting DIM weight saves costs and reduces waste.
Expand OOH network coverage & UX
Integrate more lockers and PUDOs, but also improve how customers find them (better maps, success messaging). Aim for 98%+ first-attempt success.
Measure what matters, visibly
Track EDD accuracy, first-attempt success, IOSS share, customs-hold rate, and unit shipping cost — and publish it internally every week. What gets measured gets improved.
Adopt an always-on resilience cadence
Don’t wait for peak. Run quarterly fault-injection game days, weekly fallback tests, and continuous observability so resilience becomes a habit, not a last-minute fix.
These moves build structural advantages that competitors can’t easily copy. Over time, they compound into faster launches in new markets, lower operating costs, and higher customer trust.
Focusing only on short-term firefighting leaves you running the same race every year. Focusing only on long-term strategy risks missing this quarter’s revenue. The leaders do both. They win today and engineer tomorrow.
Get the full report now to access every strategy in one place:
Fail-proof peak season: Practical delivery management insights to navigate complexity & risk
***
Peak season doesn’t reward those who just “hold it together.” It rewards those who build precise promises, resilient operations, and customer trust. At nShift, we help over 22,000 retailers and brands scale fast, stay resilient, and deliver exceptional experiences all year round. Book a demo to see how we can help you turn delivery into your biggest advantage this peak season.
Browse expert insights, stats, and resources curated to help you win peak season.
Get the insights