Black Friday, Christmas, summer and winter all provide peak sales opportunities for businesses of all kinds and sizes. But what happens when those seasons and events are over?

Businesses face unique challenges due to fluctuations in demand during off-peak periods. However, by implementing effective off-season strategies and adapting to these fluctuations, businesses can maintain sales and drive growth year round. In this article, we'll explore five effective strategies to help businesses navigate the peaks and troughs of demand.

‍

5 Strategies to Tackle Business Seasonality

‍

Collaborate with Other Brands

Collaborating with complementary brands can be a fun and effective way to expand your customer base and offerings to generate revenue during the off-season. By partnering with other businesses that target a similar audience but operate in different seasons or industries, you can cross-promote each other's products. For example, a sunglasses brand could partner with a ski or snowboard apparel brand to offer a complete winter bundle. This not only increases exposure but also provides added value to customers.

‍

Stay in Touch With Customers

Maintaining communication with your customers is key to keeping your brand top-of-mind. By leveraging social media and email, brands can provide relevant and valuable content, along with exclusive offers to keep them engaged and interested in your brand, even when they're not actively purchasing. Combine this with the other 4 strategies in this article, and you’re well on your way to year-round success.

‍

Create a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are a powerful tool for retaining customers and encouraging repeat business. Brands can offer rewards, discounts, or exclusive perks to incentivize loyalty and keep customers coming back. For already loyal customers, implement tiered loyalty programs with special benefits and privileges to help them feel valued. Not to mention, it’s an effective way to increase customer lifetime value and average order value. 

‍

Offer Special Promotions and Discounts

During the off-season, brands can use special promotions such as free shipping, discounts, bundles or limited-time offers to incentivize sales. Create a sense of urgency by highlighting the savings and emphasizing the limited time on the offer. This not only helps to boost sales, but also helps to clear excess inventory ahead of the next season. However, it's important to offer limited time offers that do not affect the perceived value of the brand.

‍

VESYL serves up the best-in-class rates year round so you can pass those savings on to your customers, or offer free shipping without it eating into your revenue. 

‍

Diversify Product Offerings

Expanding your product offerings can help to reduce the impact of seasonal fluctuations on your business. For example, a womens footwear brand could focus on sandals in the summer, and boots and slippers in the winter. By diversifying your offerings, you can attract customers and generate revenue even when demand for your primary products is low.

‍

Conclusion

Seasonal fluctuations in business are inevitable, but with the right strategies in place, these off-peak periods can become excellent opportunities for growth. By collaborating with other brands, staying in touch with customers, creating loyalty programs, offering special promotions and discounts, and diversifying product offerings, businesses can thrive year-round. 

‍

Looking to lock in the most competitive shipping rates year round? Book a demo with VESYL today.

With an estimated 356 billion packages shipped worldwide in 2023, it’s no surprise that with this increase in online shopping, there has also been a rise in damaged, lost and stolen packages. However, it’s not the be all end all as there are a variety of steps brands can take to protect their packages and ensure they reach their customers in one piece. We’ve packaged these up with some real-life examples for you below.

‍

Common Challenges with Shipping Damages

Shipping damages are a challenge for e-commerce businesses, manifesting in various forms such as physical damage to products, broken seals, and moisture-related issues. These damages can arise from inadequate packaging, mishandling during transit, or environmental factors. It all sounds straightforward however, when it comes to deciphering who is liable for the damages, that is when the headache can start. For damages associated with insufficient packaging, it often falls on the business, leading to financial losses, increased return rates, and the necessity for refunds or replacements. For damages due to mishandling, the liability can fall into the carriers hands, but it’s important to note this can be timely and not always successful. Moreover, shipping damages can severely impact a brand’s reputation, reducing customer trust and satisfaction. Frequent occurrences of damaged goods not only escalate operational costs but also diminish customer loyalty, making it crucial for businesses to adopt the tips outlined below.

‍

Tips for Brands to Protect Packages and Minimize Damage

‍

Invest in High-Quality Packaging Materials

There’s many areas where businesses cut costs, however, effective and robust packaging should not be one of them. Brands should invest in high-quality materials that provide adequate protection. This includes:

• Sturdy Boxes: Use corrugated cardboard boxes that are correctly sized for the items being shipped. Oversized boxes can lead to shifting and damage, while undersized boxes may burst open.
• Protective Padding: Incorporate bubble wrap, packing peanuts, or air pillows to cushion products and absorb shocks.
• Durable Tape: Secure boxes with strong, adhesive tape designed for shipping. Reinforce edges and seams to prevent accidental openings.

‍

Properly Cushion and Pack Items

Effective cushioning and packing techniques are crucial to preventing damage. Follow these steps to ensure your products are well-protected:

• Wrap Each Item Individually: For fragile or breakable items, wrap each piece separately with bubble wrap, foam sheets or tissue paper.
• Fill Void Spaces: Use packing materials to fill any empty spaces in the box, preventing movement during transit.
• Double-Boxing: For highly fragile items, consider double-boxing. Place the item in a smaller box with padding, then place that box inside a larger, well-cushioned box.

‍

Label Packages Correctly

Clear and accurate labeling can significantly reduce the risk of damage. Ensure your packages are labeled with the following information:

• Fragile Stickers: Use “Fragile” or “Handle with Care” stickers for delicate items.
• Up Arrows: Indicate the correct orientation of the package with “This Side Up” arrows.
• Shipping Information: Clearly display the recipient’s address and contact information. Include a return address as well.

‍

Choose Reliable Shipping Partners

The choice of a shipping carrier can influence the safety of your packages. Choose carriers known for their reliability and careful handling of parcels in addition to:

• Insurance: Opt for shipping insurance to cover the cost of potential damages.
• Tracking: Use carriers that provide tracking information to monitor the shipment’s progress and address issues promptly.

‍

Leverage Package Protection

Leveraging extra package protection allows brands to protect their revenue and reduce the load for the CX team. Customers are able to add or remove the package protection from their cart at the checkout. If purchased and a package is stolen, lost or damaged in transit, the customer can contact the protection provider directly who will process the claim and issue a reorder or refund, without any extra cost to the brand or customer. This not only protects revenue, but also enhances customer trust and confidence, knowing if any issues arise, it will be resolved quickly and hassle-free.

For example, our friends over at Corso have a simple to use claims portal for customers and pride themselves on resolving shipping issues within 24 hours. 

‍

Collect and Analyze Data

It’s tough to improve if you’re not measuring. By gathering data on damages such as certain items are damaged more than others or certain package sizes are being frequently damaged, brands can effectively adjust packaging methods. Not to mention, for new products or packaging, you can conduct test runs or even drop tests in house, to ensure they will reach your customer in one piece. 

‍

In Summary

Securing shipments and minimizing damage requires attention to detail, investment in quality materials, and collaboration with reliable shipping carriers. By implementing these strategies above, brands can enhance customer satisfaction, reduce financial losses, and build a reputation for reliability and care. Not to mention, the key to successful shipping lies in the preparation and continuous improvement of your packaging and shipping practices.

‍

Ecommerce businesses know that an order being placed is just the beginning in the customer journey. In an ideal world, the customer would receive the "package shipped" notification the same day, and then "delivered" the next. But fulfillment isn't always so straightforward. Whether shipping times stretch too long, or tracking information is unclear, customer disappointment doesn’t just hurt your brand image. It can cost you sales, repeat business, and loyal customers.

That’s why efficient shipping operations are essential to ecommerce businesses. Manual shipping processes may work early on, but automation technologies can make a significant impact as your daily number of orders increase.

Using software solutions that offer shipping automation tools are the smart and efficient way to ship products—and keep customers coming. Below, learn how automations can transform warehouse efficiency by generating shipping labels, tracking shipments, selecting the best carriers, updating inventory records, managing package dimensions and more.

What Are Shipping Automations?

Shipping automations are rule-based processes that streamline and simplify order fulfillment by reducing the need for manual decision-making. Instead of having staff evaluate each order individually, automation tools apply predefined logic to handle repetitive shipping tasks behind the scenes—improving speed, accuracy, and scalability.

Examples of shipping automations include:

• Automatically selecting the most cost-effective carrier or service level based on destination, package size, and inventory location
• Bulk-printing shipping labels to accelerate fulfillment and reduce downtime in the packing station
• Applying custom shipping presets according to criteria like order weight, value, customer location, or SKU type
• Auto-generating tracking numbers and sending real-time updates to customers through email or SMS
• Setting international incoterms automatically to simplify global compliance and customs documentation

Rather than having staff manually handle each order, automated shipping processes handle the decision-making behind the scenes, based on logic you define. This not only reduces human error, but also boosts efficiency, shortens fulfillment times, and allows your team to repurpose resources toward more strategic, revenue-generating activities.

Why Automated Shipping Matters (Especially as You Scale)

Whether you're fulfilling from a single warehouse or coordinating with multiple 3PLs, shipping automation becomes essential as your ecommerce business grows. Here’s why:

1. Time Savings In Your Fulfillment Process That Add Up

Automating tasks like label printing, rate selection, and packing slip generation can cut fulfillment time by 70% or more, freeing your team for revenue-generating activities.

2. Reduced Human Error, Happier Customers

Automation minimizes human error in selecting shipping services, filling customs forms, and entering tracking information, leading to fewer reships, fewer complaints, and higher customer satisfaction.

3. Consistency Across Ecommerce Platforms and Warehouses

Automations apply uniformly across ecommerce platforms and warehouses, whether orders come from Shopify, Amazon, or Walmart, keeping your shipping process consistent and efficient.

4. Fully Automated Carrier Selection

Shipping automation can select the best carrier and service level based on the package size, weight, shipping speed, and destination, helping you save money without compromising delivery expectations.

5. Scalability Without Complexity

As your order volume grows, automation handles the complexity—streamlining your fulfillment process, maintaining inventory accuracy, and improving output without adding overhead.

Common Use Cases for Ecommerce Brands

Shipping automation software can adapt to your unique fulfillment process, no matter your ecommerce business type. Here are a few real-world applications:

• Subscription Box Services: Automate recurring label generation and order fulfillment every billing cycle—saving time and improving efficiency.
• Apparel Brands: Apply custom packing rules for bundles vs. single items to ensure accurate shipping and better customer satisfaction.
• Health & Wellness DTC: Auto-select cold chain shipping solutions, add shipping insurance, or trigger signature confirmation for high-value or sensitive orders—boosting order accuracy and reducing risk.
• 3PLs and Wholesale Operations: Use advanced automation rules to route orders to the optimal warehouse based on inventory levels, region, or stock availability, ensuring fast, cost-effective fulfillment.

How to Get Started with Shipping Automation Technology

You don’t need to rebuild your entire tech stack to start seeing the benefits of shipping automation. Here’s a simple roadmap to improve your shipping step by step:

• Audit Your Shipping Workflow: Identify repetitive tasks, like choosing carriers, printing shipping labels, or updating inventory, that can be automated to save time and reduce errors.
• Choose the Right Shipping Software: Look for shipping automation software that integrates with your current ecommerce platform, marketplaces, warehouse systems, and fulfillment services for seamless operations.
• Build Basic Automation Rules: Start with simple triggers like order weight, destination, or shipping method to automate label selection, packaging, or tracking information updates.
• Test, Monitor, and Optimize: Track and measure your shipping process performance, refine your automation rules, and scale your setup as your order volume and business grow.

What Shipping Automation Looks Like with VESYL

At VESYL, our powerful shipping automations are purpose-built to help ecommerce stores streamline fulfillment, reduce manual labor, and boost shipping efficiency across the board. By combining smart shipping logic with warehouse automation and real-time inventory management, VESYL enables a more scalable, error-free fulfillment process.

With VESYL, you can:

• Automatically rate shop the most cost-effective shipping service across multiple carriers based on shipment dimensions, weight, delivery time, and destination
• Trigger custom workflows based on SKU, order type, warehouse location, or inventory levels—ideal for managing multi-channel, 3PL, or distributed warehouse operations
• Set international Incoterms automatically when generating labels, ensuring compliance and minimizing cross-border delays
• Sync seamlessly with platforms like Shopify, Etsy, and WarehouseOS, connecting your shipping and inventory management systems for end-to-end fulfillment visibility

A Customer Satisfaction Story: Saranoni Luxury Blankets

After implementing VESYL’s shipping automations, Saranoni Luxury Blankets cut warehouse fulfillment time by over 50% and significantly reduced shipping costs by automatically assigning shipments to the optimal carrier with zero manual input.

With automatic carrier selection and zero manual input, their team was able to ship faster, more affordably, and with fewer errors.

This success story highlights the power of VESYL’s shipping software as a full-stack automation platform. By integrating intelligent workflows, real-time inventory data, and warehouse logic, VESYL enables ecommerce brands like Saranoni to transform fulfillment from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

Whether you're shipping from one location or juggling a complex supply chain, VESYL gives you the tools to save time, cut costs, and scale your ecommerce operations with confidence.

Final Thoughts: Automations in Ecommerce Shipping

For any growing ecommerce business, shipping automations are no longer a nice-to-have—they’re a must-have. Automating tasks like carrier selection, label creation, and package routing doesn’t just reduce errors—it improves accuracy, speeds up fulfillment, and frees your team to focus on what really drives growth.

In a market where speed, precision, and scalability define success, automated shipping isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about delivering the kind of experience your customers expect and your brand deserves.

‍

Ready to streamline your fulfillment? Learn what VESYL can do for your ecommerce store today!