Don't be a Grinch. Here's your 4-step plan to a smooth December.

Isn’t December a joyous time of year? Family, friends and a little bit of time off is just around the corner. For retailers the holiday season isn’t about relaxing though, it’s the busiest time of year and can be ruthless for those who aren’t prepared. Here’s 4 simple things you can do now to make sure that December is a success.

Order your satchels

As we get closer and closer to the silly season carriers are going to get inundated with requests for satchels as merchants run low. Get prepared for your pre-Christmas volumes early and have enough satchels to see you through until the new year. Temando customers can do this by filling out our satchel order form. We really recommend getting on top of this in November as during December carriers will have longer wait times and less satchels to give.

Know your cut-off dates

Millions and millions of parcels travel through carrier networks every December and each one operates at slightly different speeds and frequencies. We’ve rung around and received cut-off dates from every carrier, however we recommend using caution with these and being proactive with your customers about getting in early. Check out our cut-off calendar and keep these dates in mind when you’re sending out communications to your customers.

Stay on top of your orders

If you’re expecting more orders than usual in December then it’s important that you don’t let things get out of hand. As always you should be planning to send orders on a daily basis and not allow a backlog to develop. If you use one or two carriers regularly, we highly recommend setting up a permanent pickup to ensure the driver will collect from you every day. Drop our support team a line if you have any questions about permanent pick up or read more here.

Know what to do when things go wrong

Mike Tyson once said “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth”.

At some stage in December things might go wrong, and it just might feel like a punch in the mouth. The secret is knowing who to turn to. Our support team will be working through December up until 8pm (AEST) on December 24^th and will continue to be available on all non-public holidays thereafter. For a better guide of what details they’ll need when you call, please see our Holidays Essentials post.

To contact our support team you can fill out our supportform, email our team, call them on 1300 66 88 58 or use our live chat function available in the ‘chat now’ tab on the right of this page.

Here’s to a busy and successful December! Remember to start preparing now if you haven’t already and if you need anything fulfilment-related our team is more than happy to help.