Many small to moderate sized e-commerce businesses do not employ sufficient long range planning as part of their business culture. The old joke about the definition of long range planning is operative in some companies: “Where are we going to eat lunch?” Large businesses have comprehensive processes necessitated by the owners and investors and the need to communicate objectives and results to various stakeholders.

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

If you haven’t formally evaluated your e-commerce peak season fulfillment, make this the year you do so. Many businesses achieve 60% to 70% of the profits in the last quarter of the year. Their order levels are 10 to 15 times average weeks. From your peak analysis of successes and failures, develop a plan to improve your fulfillment performance from a multi-faceted approach.

Here are 10 ways to analyze your peak performance and develop a plan for improvement:

In our experience, more than 50% of the time, major fulfillment center projects such as WMS and automation are not implemented on time and within budget. Major changes to processing merchandise and order fulfillment often do not reach planned production goals (e.g. orders processed per day) for months after initial implementation.

Many companies implement ERP, order management and warehouse management systems without programming major modifications. In order to implement systems in a broad range of industries and minimize the modifications, software vendors have designed applications that can be configurable to your situation most of the time.

As you look at packing materials and costs, several recent experiences point out the importance of examining the packing and shipping process functions together.

Your e-commerce company has been managing the implementation of your new Warehouse Management System (WMS). Modifications and interfaces have been programmed and tested. Training the fulfillment center workforce is complete. As you plan out the actual first day of Go Live, what are remaining things to consider that will assure a successful first day (Go Live)? From our experience in implementing WMS in many businesses, here are 11 recommendations that will make Go Live a success.

True story. A client’s system selection team had arrived at the three best Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) for their e-commerce company. There were still open questions from the demos. The company did not have a total budget yet as costs for modifications and interfaces were not yet identified. No project planning had been discussed. The contractual agreements had not been reviewed by an attorney.

Unbeknownst to the team, the salesperson went around the team to the CFO and proposed a significant discount to sign with his company within the next few days. It also meant paying a non-refundable discount in excess of 25%. After briefly reviewing the potential discount with several senior managers, he signed the agreement and announced the decision.

A year later the implementation proved to be a disaster because the fit was not as good as the CFO had hoped it would turn out to be. After initial Go Live and the new WMS’ failure, the legacy system had to be reinstalled.

As the year end approaches, software and technology vendors will offer significant discounts in order to secure your business and book it in the current year. This is also true with many vendors at the end of each quarter. But don’t let the last-minute vendor discounts distract your company from prudent due diligence in selecting the right WMS for your business.

Read "13 Steps to Successfully Select Your Next Warehouse Management System (WMS)"

The following article is written by Craig Lennon, Director of Business Development at FCBCO Validated partner Ship-Right Solutions, which has been providing Fulfillment, Final Mile Delivery and Customer Engagement solutions to Direct Response and eCommerce Marketers for nearly 20 years.

We all know that customers are the lifeblood of every business. Many companies spend the majority of their time, effort and money on customer acquisition while leaving customer retention and loyalty towards the bottom of their priority list.

Never forget that without customers, you don’t have a business.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that incremental improvements in customer retention lead to substantial increases in lifetime customer value and thus exponential differences to the bottom line. It does however take a real commitment and often a change in mindset to implement a solid strategy.

Today’s consumer behavior is more discriminating and potentially impactful to your business or brand than ever. Before deciding to buy a product or service they are researching online, comparing prices, checking reviews and asking others about their experiences. So don’t just sell products or services, sell experiences.

Data breaches like Target or Sony Pictures were clearly high value targets for hackers. However, these incidents may lull small to moderate sized business owners into thinking their data has no value to hackers. But what if ransomware stops your company from even accessing your IT systems, shutting down e-commerce websites, contact centers and the warehouse from taking and shipping orders?