With Black Friday and Christmas fast approaching, Diamond Logistics is urging e-commerce brands to look beyond sales forecasts and make sure their operations are ready for an unpredictable peak season this year.
Diamond, an e-commerce fulfilment and delivery specialist, says online brands have had to get their peak season planning in place earlier than in previous years, with those leaving it until the last minute potentially facing higher costs and tighter capacity.
This is largely due to a perfect storm of changing consumer spending habits – with many spreading the cost of their purchases over several months, geopolitical turbulence causing delays and a hike in freight rates as well as warehousing capacity shortages on home soil.
Kate Lester, CEO and founder of Diamond Logistics, commented: ‘Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas is the biggest opportunity in the e-commerce calendar.
‘For online brands, specifically SMEs, Black Friday through to Christmas represents around 20 to 25% of their total revenue for the year.
‘To take advantage of this all important golden quarter, brands need to understand what their peak season is going to look like operationally for their businesses, rather than simply focusing on how much they want to sell – especially with the current geopolitical and economic environment still appearing uncertain and hard to predict.’
According to Diamond Logistics, in preparation of peak this year, e-commerce brands should have already made sure that their warehouses, systems and people are ready to handle increased volumes, while also avoiding a reliance on a single carrier.
Clear cut off dates, accurate tracking and proactive customer communication should have also been factored in, as these can make the difference between a smooth peak and a season of avoidable complaints and missed sales.
Kate continued, ‘For an online brand, getting ready for peak is about understanding where the pressure points are before they become a problem. That means, looking at your stock, your systems, your carrier arrangements, your fulfilment capacity, and asking whether they are genuinely fit for the season ahead.
‘If those conversations are left too late, options become much more limited. You may find that additional space is harder to secure, that carrier costs have already increased, or that there simply isn’t enough time to make the operational changes needed.
‘The brands that prepare early will be in a much stronger position to respond to demand, protect their margins and, most importantly, deliver the experience their customers expect.’
Diamond also warns that the 2026 holiday shipping season is bringing steeper costs for British businesses as major UK parcel networks introduce distinct peak demand surcharges for the Black Friday and Christmas rush.
Royal Mail has confirmed that its peak season surcharge will run from 2 November 2026 until 10 January 2027 for domestic and international business account products, on top of a baseline fuel and energy surcharge previously raised to 16%, while Evri is applying temporary peak premiums between 2 November and 3 January.
Alongside penalties for oversized parcels, and DHL Express UK is introducing a flat £0.10 per kg demand surcharge for domestic time definite services from 1 November through to 31 December 2026.
For Diamond, these additional charges highlight the importance of reviewing carrier arrangements and delivery costs well ahead of peak, rather than assuming that their sole carrier will be the most cost effective or reliable option throughout the busiest period of the year.
She said, ‘Relying on a single carrier can leave businesses exposed when volumes increase. Different carriers will have different strengths when it comes to destinations, parcel sizes, delivery speeds, costs and capacity, so it is important to understand which options are right for the products being sent and the customers receiving them.
‘For us, a multi-carrier approach gives brands much greater flexibility during peak. It means they can allocate orders based on capacity, service and cost, rather than simply choosing the cheapest advertised rate.
‘Ultimately, in the run up to peak it is about looking at the whole fulfilment operation and making sure every part is working together. I think the biggest challenge here is, along with once again fighting for a share of sales, will be brands seeking to keep their margins as low as possible and combating rising costs. Planning ahead – and making sure they have the right delivery options in place for the products they are sending – will form a core component to them achieving that.’