The holidays are around the corner, and Spaceful is committed to bringing you and your shoppers joy with streamlined fulfillment this holiday season.
While the labor shortage is real and we have to adapt by increasing incentives and wages for our staff, there are no seasonal cost increases for our services including warehousing fees, but carriers have implemented peak surcharges for domestic shipments that will result in a passthrough.
There are a few things we ask you to keep in mind to have the best holiday fulfillment experience for you and your customers. Below, we cover:
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Spaceful holiday cutoffs and turnaround times
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Spaceful SLA extensions
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Sending inventory this holiday season
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And much more
Spaceful holiday cutoffs and turnaround times
Below is our holiday cutoff schedule for shipments as well as our operations. Our team has been making many strides over the past few months to prepare for peak season, including hiring more on our fulfillment, tech support, and Merchant Success teams.
Our holiday schedule can be viewed here: LINK
Domestic shipments
While there is no guarantee for delivery by or on a particular day, the below guidance has been provided by our carriers for domestic delivery by Christmas.
Rivo - December 15th
Inventory receiving cutoff
December 7 is the last day your inventory can arrive at our fulfillment centers to ensure delivery to customers by Christmas via Standard Ground processing. Based on our standard turnaround times, it can take up to 5 business days for your inventory to be completely received and stored once it arrives.
Without a Warehouse Receiving Order (WRO) filled out accurately and included in each package, we are unable to process your inventory and it will be moved to a status of on hold and incur daily fees.
Sharing your holiday forecast with Spaceful
Spaceful uses forecasting data to scale up our workforce so we can ensure your orders are fulfilled on time. To do so, we rely on you telling us when we can expect to fulfill an order volume that is greater than your typical volume.
If you project a large increase in orders, please advise our Merchant Support team (merchantsupport@spaceful.ca) or your Merchant Success Manager, especially if you plan on starting promotions earlier than Black Friday this year.
Spaceful SLA extensions
Our facilities will hire additional associates to meet the increased demand of the peak season, however, we expect to receive more orders than can physically be processed within our standard SLAs. As such, we will add extensions to our SLAs (in business days), which will go into effect starting on November 24 and remain in effect until November 30 (Black Friday).
The SLA extension applies to standard fulfillment for outbound B2C shipments, B2B orders, and kitting. The outbound fulfillment extension does not apply to expedited orders. All Expedited, Same-day Delivery by Spaceful, Next-day Delivery by Spaceful, Amazon, and Walmart orders will continue to be prioritized and fulfilled the same day as long as the order is imported before 2 pm local time.
Tracking packages
As a reminder, our carriers do NOT scan packages at our facilities upon pickup. However, Spaceful has internal processes to monitor package status to ensure carrier pickup.
During the holidays, our carriers experience an increase in volume that can cause a delay in tracking scans and updates. We highly encourage our clients to monitor tracking speeds and delays, in the event that delays are publicly communicated we will update this article.
Getting in touch with Spaceful
We remain committed to providing fast response times this season. While we do offer phone support, the best way to get in touch with us is by logging into your dashboard and selecting the Chat option or submitting an email ticket to merchantsupport@spaceful.ca.
For any questions, please contact your Merchant Success Manager or the Merchant Success Team at merchantsupport@spaceful.ca.