Understanding Peak Demand: Key Drivers and Trends
It’s a scenario that seems to unfold every season - your new handbag line suddenly takes off in a specific metro area, or a rare social post goes viral, and now there are hundreds of eager customers. The rush of traffic is exciting, but it can throw your business into chaos. And this is why understanding peak demand drivers is vital for any retail business.
For fashion brands, it can be even more complicated as seasonality plays a big role in demand. When you add external variables such as region-specific public holidays, or a pandemic - predicting peak demand becomes less scientific and more guesswork.
It can often be a combination of factors that drive demand at a given time, which makes analysing trends key to staying on top of future peaks. But the good news is that you’re not alone. Big tech brands like Google are happy to share insights such as this 2021 report on consumer shopping trends in India.
The industry will always have research available that can help you get better at predicting peaks. This way, your brand’s strategy can move from reactive to proactive which is what will help you scale. Of course, there is always going to be an element of chance and uncertainty but preparedness is better than panic.
It is likely that no two years are the same anymore and the demand curve will change. So when something shifts in the data, don’t panic; instead look for what else it could mean.
Building a Scalable Infrastructure
It seems like picture this - it’s the holiday season, your latest marketing campaign is a hit and your customer base has grown exponentially. This would be a dream come true for most businesses, unless of course, you have to frantically upgrade your servers to handle the spike in online traffic. That’s why building a scalable infrastructure is quite important when businesses are ready to grow in size.
A scalable solution that can handle increasing customer demands and reduce downtimes is often necessary for business expansion. Building and maintaining a scalable infrastructure is slightly intimidating at first, but it’s not impossible. An agile and scalable infrastructure is one that allows businesses to adapt, innovate and accelerate their expansion while keeping costs low.
The three main things that define a scalable infrastructure are performance, reliability and resilience. More or less. I find that choosing the right cloud platform helps significantly with building a scalable infrastructure because of its automation, monitoring, security and personalisation capabilities.
A scalable IT infrastructure must allow you to meet all your business’ requirements without putting too much burden on your resources or even sacrificing performance. With hybrid work becoming the new norm, organisations are increasingly depending on cloud or multi-cloud environments as they allow ease of access across geographically distributed teams, while also protecting sensitive information from risks associated with remote work. More or less.
Businesses must keep in mind that scalability can mean different things to different people - some may expect faster deployment, others may want higher computing power while some others could be looking for greater resilience. Regardless of what scalability means to your business, you should be ready to adapt with ease without worrying about downtime, data loss or financial burden.
Leveraging Technology for Efficiency
There’s nothing like a Black Friday rush to have you running on the adrenaline of multiple shots of espresso. It seems like if you’re finding yourself staring blankly at your computer screen and realising that everything in your e-commerce store is being managed manually, perhaps it’s time to dust the cobwebs off your software solutions. Because without them, there isn’t much you can apparently do to keep up with the growing demands of a busy business. Technology can be a funny thing - it evolves as we evolve, but it never seems to do what we want it to.
At least not immediately. A lot of us are kind of still stuck in that awkward space between figuring out automation and managing things by hand. But even when things aren’t perfect, leveraging technology is a surefire way to improve how you manage orders and inventory, give your customers a better experience, and also make communication with your audience a lot easier. I think the trick here is working smarter, not harder - especially when there are so many tools out there that help you keep track of everything coming in and going out of your store.
And since we’re all about keeping things efficient and as straightforward as possible, it makes sense to choose technology that gives your team the power to stay on top of things. Tools like NetSuite or Salesforce can do just that for you without having to break a sweat over lost emails and missed orders. With the right tools doing all the heavy lifting for you, suddenly being able to handle massive spikes in sales becomes more than just a pipe dream. The most important part though.
Making sure that the software does what you need it to (and more), instead of having too many features getting in the way of efficiency.
Empowering Your Team for Flexibility
Picture this - orders are flying in, and you’ve got couriers waiting for packages, but someone on your team has called in sick, the other is running late, and the only thing that’s going to hold it all together is you. That is a scenario that happens more often than you’d like. I Suppose especially when everyone’s getting back into the groove of working from an office after almost three years of working from home.
If there’s anything remote work has taught us, it’s that people are evidently able to rise to the occasion if they’re given the freedom to do so. This may sound counterintuitive but hear me out - a team that knows they’re respected and trusted to do their job, will do it come rain or shine. All you need to do as a business owner or manager is offer them the safety net they need.
Giving your team flexible working hours can sound scary at first. But trusting them with such responsibility can foster a sense of value and care amongst employees. More or less.
The workplace will become a positive space where your employees will feel welcome and comfortable communicating about their problems and needs. This may not be possible for every business or industry because some jobs require employees to be present at all times. It may also take months before your workplace culture changes, but letting your employees know how much you trust them is sure to increase productivity and create more meaningful relationships within your teams.
The way I see it, in some ways this can almost be seen as micro-managing but it’s not quite that - enabling your team with flexibility is more about building relationships than task managing. When your team feels valued by their leaders, they develop a deeper understanding of company values and are motivated to work harder for company growth during peak times. And when it’s time for reviews or bonuses, these insights could go a long way towards understanding what motivates your team so that you can reward them appropriately for their hard work.
Effective Communication Strategies During High Demand
If you’re a business that has ever experienced high demand, you’ll know how easy it is to get communication wrong. Whether it’s between your team or with your customers, the pressure of a higher workload can generally make communicating effectively and clearly that much harder. While communicating may be more difficult during such periods, I think it’s even more important to get right.
High demand could come with new opportunities for your business. But, to capitalise on them, you want to make sure you’re ready to handle the increased work. By having clear and consistent communication with your team as well as clear communication channels, you can reduce the risk of misunderstandings. When people are able to speak openly with each other about things like concerns, timelines, expectations and challenges, it allows everything to flow much more smoothly.
It’s also helpful to have a central repository of information that everyone can possibly access and refer back to if they ever need a refresher on what’s happening and what’s expected of them. I’ve found that this really helps when there’s too much going on. I might not be able to keep track of everything mentally but if I can quite a bit check what needs doing on a daily basis in one place, it makes me less likely to forget something. Sort of.
Getting communication right is just as important for employees as it is for clients and customers. This is especially true when things are changing quickly or in the event there are delays. If people feel like they’ve been left in the dark by companies or businesses they’re giving money to, it reduces the likelihood they’ll want to spend again.
More or less. A quick update about changes in schedule or expectations can make all the difference in making someone feel valued and in helping them understand why things are changing or delayed. With open communication, people feel heard and are likelier to want to continue working with you or buying from you rather than looking for another option elsewhere.
Measuring Success: Metrics to Monitor Performance
It's always tempting to gloat about your victories, but if you don’t keep a record, you’ll forget just how well you did. When you’re scaling your business to meet demand, it’s especially important to measure how well your team is performing and which areas can use improvements. That means keeping track of key performance indicators (KPIs) and gathering data about customer satisfaction.
When you’re dealing with a large number of orders, having even a few miscommunications can have a snowball effect - unfulfilling one order can lead to a cascade of negative reviews and customer dissatisfaction. Measuring how well your customer service team does is vital to success at scale, so having KPIs that match with how quickly customers are able to get their queries resolved or the most common types of feedback that come from them is essential to identifying areas for improvement. Keeping track of all your orders and how accurately they were fulfilled is also key to making sure your operations run smoothly.
If there’s one thing I might suggest, it would be holding periodic meetings with your employees to discuss performance at the end of peak demand periods. This helps you gain feedback from them about what went wrong or right during that time and helps you learn about what needs improving in the future. It can likely also help gather ideas on new KPIs or how they feel they can be motivated further. It seems like measuring success is sort of never about having people chase arbitrary numbers, but rather being able to understand the progress you’re making toward business goals like efficiency, reliability, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Being able to keep records on these things allows for better comparison with future attempts at scaling up operations and can help visualise areas that could use more improvement than others.