What Your Fulfilment Partner Needs to Know Before a Sales Campaign Goes Live
An online retailer expects 10,000 orders in November. The forecast has been shared with the fulfilment partner, stock has been ordered, and the marketing team is preparing its Black Friday promotions.
But what if 3,000 of those orders arrive during just three days? Some contain a single product, while others require several items to be picked and packed together.
The monthly forecast may be accurate, but it tells the warehouse little about when the busiest days will occur or how much work each order will involve.
Peak season is spreading across more campaign days
In an analysis published by IMRG on 1 October 2026, delivery technology provider Scurri reported a 0.4% year-on-year increase in parcel volumes during Q4 2025, compared with 1.8% during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These figures reflect Scurri’s own network, rather than the entire European e-commerce market.
In a follow-up article published on 14 October, IMRG also highlighted how retailers are starting promotions earlier and extending them across several weeks.
For fulfilment teams, this means handling multiple waves of promotional orders alongside regular shipments, incoming deliveries and replenishment activities. Even a modest monthly increase can hide individual days with exceptionally high workloads.
10,000 orders do not always mean the same amount of warehouse work
Let’s return to our illustrative November forecast. Two online retailers each expect 10,000 orders during the month.
- The first sells primarily individual products, with orders arriving at a relatively consistent rate.
- The second plans an early-access sale, a new product launch and a Black Friday promotion. Some orders contain one item, while others contain combinations of several products.
Although both retailers expect the same monthly order volume, their fulfilment requirements are quite different. Consider a more specific example.
- If 500 orders each contain one product, the warehouse has 500 order lines to process, assuming one unit per line.
- If another 500 orders each contain three different products, the warehouse has 1,500 order lines.
Processing three times as many order lines won’t automatically take three times as long. Picking locations, order consolidation and warehouse systems all influence productivity. But order counts alone don’t tell the warehouse how much work to expect. The concentration of demand also matters.
A campaign focused on one bestseller creates a different picking pattern from a promotion involving dozens of product variants. A newly launched cosmetics collection may introduce a different mix of SKUs from an established product range.
These details affect how orders move through the warehouse and how the workload needs to be organised.
When will incoming stock be ready to pick?
Imagine a retailer launching a promotion on Thursday, with replenishment stock scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.
That leaves little time for receiving. Goods must be unloaded, counted, checked, registered in the warehouse management system and prepared for picking. Any discrepancies can delay the process further. Certain products, such as dietary supplements, may also require batch and expiry-date information to be recorded.
The important question is therefore when the stock will be ready to fulfil orders, rather than simply when the supplier expects to deliver it.
At INTERNEL, goods receiving, stock registration and inventory management are part of our daily fulfilment operations in Warsaw. Our experience shows why these steps need to be factored into campaign schedules, particularly when replenishment arrives shortly before a major promotion.
Special promotions can change the packing process
Order quantities are only one part of the equation. The way orders need to be packed can also change during a campaign. Consider an e-commerce brand selling beauty products. Its normal orders contain individual products packed according to standard instructions. For a November promotion, the brand introduces a gift bundle containing several different items.
- From a marketing perspective, this is one new offer.
- From a warehouse perspective, several questions arise.
Will the bundle already exist as a pre-assembled product, or will its components need to be picked individually? How is the bundle represented in the order system? Will it require a different box? Are printed inserts or promotional materials involved?
Depending on how the promotion is organised, the warehouse may need different picking instructions, additional materials or an agreed preparation process. Such requirements should be discussed and agreed with the fulfilment provider before the campaign is activated. They should not be assumed to be part of standard order processing. The same principle applies to promotional samples, customised packing instructions and other campaign-specific additions.
The warehouse needs a daily forecast, not just a monthly target
A useful operational forecast connects expected sales with the activities required to fulfil them. For peak-season campaigns, that means looking more closely at when orders will be placed, which products will be involved and what shipping commitments have been made.
One detail that is easily overlooked is the relationship between the campaign date and the actual dispatch workload.
A weekend promotion may generate orders throughout Saturday and Sunday, but depending on the warehouse operating schedule and carrier collections, a significant part of that workload may become concentrated on Monday.
Similarly, a promotion targeting customers in several EU countries may involve different delivery expectations, carrier services and relevant shipping deadlines.
When these details are known in advance, fulfilment capacity and dispatch arrangements can be evaluated against realistic requirements. When they are missing, the warehouse has to respond to demand without the full operational context.
What should an e-commerce brand share with its fulfilment partner?
A practical campaign plan does not need to be complicated. It should, however, contain the information that affects warehouse operations.
Campaign information | Why the warehouse needs it |
Campaign dates and promotional schedule | To understand when additional demand may occur |
Expected daily order volumes | To evaluate workload during individual campaign periods |
Promoted SKUs and expected quantities | To assess product availability and replenishment requirements |
Average items or order lines per order | To understand the likely picking workload |
Incoming shipment dates | To coordinate receiving and stock availability |
Special packing requirements | To agree on materials, instructions and any additional handling |
Main destination markets and delivery commitments | To consider dispatch schedules and carrier arrangements |
Contact person and procedure for campaign changes | To clarify decisions if forecasts, stock levels or requirements change |
The forecast should also account for uncertainty. An expected volume of 1,000 orders on a promotional day is useful, but it is worth discussing what happens if demand reaches 1,500.
Can the campaign be adjusted? Is there enough stock? Will the order mix remain the same? What operational constraints need to be considered?
These are questions that should be addressed before the campaign starts, not during the busiest hours.
Before launching the next campaign
Before Black Friday, Cyber Monday or any major promotion, marketing and fulfilment teams should review the same operational plan.
Campaign dates, expected daily demand, promoted SKUs, incoming stock and special packing requirements all influence how orders will be processed. Delivery commitments across different markets should also be considered.
Why forecasting experience matters in 3PL fulfilment
At INTERNEL, we bring more than 20 years of experience in forecasting and Sales and Operations Planning for a major pharmaceutical corporation to our e-commerce fulfilment operations in Warsaw.
We understand how promotional campaigns affect stock availability, warehouse capacity, picking and packing requirements. This experience helps us anticipate operational challenges and work with our customers to prepare for periods of increased demand.
Talk to us, the earlier these details are discussed, the more time there is to prepare for the campaign.