3 Stress-Reducing E-commerce Tips to Prepare You for the Holiday RushFollow these tips and rest assured that you're on your way to preparing for this busy time of year.

For online businesses, the holidays can be the most exciting time of the year. However, this peak season can also be one of the most stressful. It takes a lot of preparation, planning, and strategizing to make sure you're ready for thetidal wave of holiday orders.

Many small e-commerce businesses start planning for the holidays around September, aiming to have a general game plan formulated by October. "Any updates in technology, vendors, product offerings and marketing campaigns should be developed and ready to go by the beginning of November at the latest to ensure you have enough awareness and processes in place to handle customer orders," says Clarisa Bossler, Product Marketing Manager at Pitney Bowes.

And when it comes to shipping, supply and capacity will continue to be hardship for carriers during the end-of-year holidays. That means business owners should expect to encounter surcharges and price increases again this season. Thankfully, utilizing a mailing solution likeSendPro® Onlinefrom Pitney Bowes can help owners save precious time by managing all your online orders, carriers, and prices in a single online platform.

Here, Bossler shares three tips for reducing stress as e-commerce businesses prep for the big holiday rush this year.

1. Understand your supply chain implications.

If you are selling products that are manufactured internationally, you already know your lead times in getting those products stateside are most likely slower than they have been in the past. This is due to global logistic backlogs.

This isn't reason to panic, though. Bossler suggests using sales data from last year to appropriately forecast for this year's demand. "You want to make sure you have enough inventory to fulfill the increase in demand around the holidays," she says.

2. Communicate with customers and set delivery expectations.

Understanding shipping deadlines and communicating them to customers in multiple places on your website and other channels of communication like email, social, and more is important, Bossler says. "Shoppers are more familiar with holiday delivery expectations, but transparency through clear messaging and communication will allow them to confidently understand when they can expect an order," she says.

WithSendPro Online, you can keep your customers updated with tracking and order information via simple email notifications. This can help reduce the number of customer inquiries and provide a better overall experience. A customer who knows when their package is expected to be delivered is typically a happy customer.

3. Enhance your brand experience.

A successful peak holiday season helps convert first-time customers into returning customers if they had an outstanding experience with your brand. "For small, online retailers, it is important to stand out in the crowd," Bossler says. "Small physical details like personalized notes, branded packaging or shipping labels can set your company apart."

Other intangible details can be just as critical. Namely, the use of reliable technology and logistics partners often goes unnoticed to customers when things run smoothly, but when something goes wrong, customer pain points are highlighted.

That can be stressful, butSendPro Onlinesimplifies the entire process. With it you can access carrier discounts, rate shop across carriers, and track all your orders and carriers in one location.

"Customers want a nice unboxing experience and to buy from a brand they believe and resonate in," Bossler says. "Help ensure that with the mix of small physical details and right back-end partners. Stay true to your company's values and highlight those through every step of the customer buying process, even if it may be subtly, it won't go unnoticed."

Click hereto learn more about how SendPro Online can help make this holiday season a stress free as possible.