Some ways to prepare your supply chain for the holiday season are pointed out in Dun & Bradstreet’s blog post on “Prepping Your Supply Chain for the Holiday (or Any Busy) Season.” Here are some of the highlights:

• Gather data, monitor trends and track outcomes. Use supply chain analytics tools as the more you know about your customers’ demographics, preferences and shopping — as well as what worked and didn’t work for the next season so you’re not starting from scratch — the better prepared you can be to manage seasonal demand.
• Negotiate delivery terms. Try to maintain non-seasonal rates with minimal transit times to reduce carrying costs.
• Be flexible. Be ready to make adjustments by considering risks ahead of time.
• Make connections. Stay close to suppliers and build longer term, collaborative relationships.
• Make contingency plans. Not only understand risks, but have mitigation strategies established for high risk, high probability events.

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