Outsourced fulfilment & logistics specialist 3PL, has confirmed that it has enjoyed its busiest peak season on record. Throughout the month of December alone the operations shipped more than 100,00 orders, representing a 42% uplift on the previous year.
The record-breaking December followed an equally demanding Black Friday event, with 3PL processing over 30,000 orders in just one week alone during THE online event of the year famed for huge discounts from aspirational brands and independent retailers. Throughout the final month of the calendar year, 3PL processed more than 5,000 orders per day on multiple occasions. The busiest day of the year fell on 11th December when the fulfilment specialist processed over 11,000 orders in just one day.
The combination of COVID related high street closures and huge Black Friday discounts meant that online sales began to peak much earlier than previous years. The firm saw significant growth in the health and wellness, home textiles and fashion sectors and more than doubled their regular workforce to meet the seasonal spike in demand.
“As this was our first ever peak season in a pandemic we were faced with a largely unknown entity with regards to demand and resource planning. The sheer scale of throughput we handled by far exceeded even our most ambitious of forecasts. A truly dynamic approach from the team was necessary in adapting daily in constantly rising to the challenge.” said Ian Walker, Managing Director at 3PL.
“We liaised frequently with our clients on both capability and capacity, and we also placed increased emphasis on scalability, innovation and technology to ensure we had the right tools in play to enable us to deliver a record peak. We have kicked off 2021 with some real momentum with little sign of demand slowing. Our ongoing investment into further developing our infrastructure and service proposition continues at pace as we seek to further enhance the service experience. Our latest investments include a number of new senior management ‘impact hires’ alongside advanced technologies to streamline cross border trading for that added convenience to our customer base.”
