While the rest of us can't even think about holiday shopping until the back to school shopping is done, retailers are planning much farther in advance. The busy holiday season for retailers is still a few months away, but the busy season for those working in retail logistics is right now.

It takes three to five months prior to the holiday season to work through potential issues, as well as document, analyze, and correct potential areas of risk. In fact, retailers are already well into the process of preparing their warehouses for the holiday sales spike. Holiday fixtures and displays are being shipped, with products soon to follow.

Once shipping containers start their journeys from all around the world to North America, it takes one to two months for them to arrive at their final destinations. Retailers then spend additional time working on their inventories and preparing for the holiday season. By November, all the staging and display is complete for the peak shopping season.

Many of the retailers who use Crux Systems to track the location and status of their cargo have found that having better visibility into what's going on with their shipments has enabled them to do better planning and make their supply chain more efficient.

Last holiday season, one major retailer was able to decrease the dwell times of their cargo in the terminals from an average of four days to less than two.

Regardless of how far you plan in advance, however, there are always some issues that come up. Check our other blog post for tips on reducing uncertainty when shipping containers, and get ready to rock the peak season in 2018.