Many products are seasonal or festive in nature. In international trade, local buyers for these products will require exporters to ship large quantities prior to the hot season, which means that they will not miss out on sales by avoiding a build-up of inventory in the early stages. Even for products that are not seasonal, many shipments will be made before the holidays to avoid delays in shipments due to major holidays in the exporting countries. But large shipments inevitably cause shipping pressure and a shortage of space. In order to avoid the delay in delivery caused by this situation, importers need to think about how to respond.

Important holidays that affect shipping

Holidays that affect shipping include large holidays in exporting countries and importing counties. For example, around New Year's Day, before Christmas, before Black Friday and other major sales.

1. Chinese New Year

For the exporting countries' major holidays, take China, a major exporting country, as an example. The holiday that affects shipping the most is undoubtedly the Chinese New Year holiday. With a 7–25-day long holiday and a nationwide movement of people, it can be said that almost all processes come to a halt in front of the holiday break. Factories shut down, staff shortages, space shortages, shipping delays, etc. If goods cannot be shipped out before the holidays, then the potential delivery delays of up to a month or more are faced. This is why it also leads to a peak shipping period before the Chinese New Year.

2. Christmas, and Thanksgiving

Christmas and Thanksgiving are the more influential local holidays in most Western importing countries and are also the period when products are rushed into annual sales. So, in order to capture this peak sales period and avoid product shortages, many importers will stock up in large quantities before the holidays, and mid-September to mid-November is a sustained period of peak shipments.

Suggestions for ensuring available space

The most obvious pressure on shipping from large shipments is undoubtedly the lack of ship schedules and the shortage of space. The number of ship dates is generally specified by the shipping company, and we may not be able to change, but how to get as much space as possible is the importers can pay efforts.

1. Co-operation with appointed freight forwarders

In international trade, most importers work with a local freight forwarder to import goods on FOB trade terms. The appointed freight forwarder arranges the sailing schedule in accordance with your cargo ready date and the required arrival time. Very often, the actual release of the booked sailing time depends on the strength of your appointed forwarder and the agreement between you and your appointed forwarder. The number of shipments you make per year and the price agreed will all affect the outcome. Therefore, we recommend cooperating with 2-4 appointed forwarders, so that you can compare the capacity and price of each forwarder, and not spread your shipping needs too much. Because for freight forwarders, if your shipping needs are small, even if they have space, they may give priority to customers with high demand.

For long-term forwarders, you can give annual space requirements and approximate shipping times in advance. A clear demand will give the forwarder time to prepare in advance to reserve space, and you will have more say in the price and service agreement.

2. Update cargo ready date from your supplier

Schedules are usually booked on the basis of cargo ready date, so it is important to have accurate completion times. Once the supplier has contacted your appointed freight forwarder, you can request the supplier to provide the freight forwarder with the scheduled completion time and submit a formal booking in a timely manner. Failure to keep up to date with the time of availability may result in a loss of space when the goods are ready but not available for the nearest sailing, or when the original sailing has been released but the goods are not ready for loading. At the same time, during known peak shipping periods, you should urge the exporter to submit the booking form as early as possible, again as a reminder to the freight forwarder to reserve space.

3. Stock preparation

Although a large number of shipments, before the sales season or holidays can reduce the usual inventory pressure, and ease the financial pressure if the importer itself does not have a strong import strength, it is possibly hard to obtain shipping space in the mass shipping peak shipping period. And in the case of a shortage of space, freight prices will reach more than twice the usual. So, for many small importers, the cost will be even higher than shipping in advance. Therefore, we recommend for importers to ship in advance to avoid the peak period or take the way of periodic shipping, such as every fortnight or a month to ship a batch of goods, so that there will not be too much pressure on the inventory. And even if the peak period of shipping cannot be shipped in time or dumped containers, shipping delays, etc., the local will not be due to large-scale shortage of goods and affect sales.

Peak shipment periods are not 100% avoidable and even in normal times, we can experience unexpected epidemics causing shipping shortages. However, importers should work closely with exporters and freight forwarders to anticipate peak shipping periods and avoid them as much as possible, reserving space in advance to ensure that every space is not wasted.