Receiving
Non-Compliant Delivery Cut Off: 5pm, Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Compliant Delivery Cut Off: 5pm, Wednesday, November 20, 2024
For items to be eligible to ship prior to 12/23/2024 they must arrive in a Compliant state and at Amplifier’s Dock by End of Day, Wednesday, November 20, 2024. If your vendor cannot supply inventory in a Compliant state, the inventory must arrive no later than End of Day, Wednesday, November 6, 2024. October and November are peak receiving times, and receiving events may take longer than normal. All inventory that arrives by the above dates will be received into inventory no later than end of day, November 27, 2024.
All receipts will be processed in the order in which they arrive. Please contact the Amplifier Client Service team to discuss receipt timing and availability for any deliveries expected to occur after the receiving cut-off dates. Inventory arriving after receiving cut-off dates will be processed only after all on-time arrivals are complete.
In the event receipts remain non-actionable (no SKUs added, no ASN, etc.) beyond Nov 20, products may not be available to ship during the peak season. Additionally, the degree and/or volume of non-compliant receipts may impact our ability to receive and make products available to ship prior to cut-offs.
Make Ready & Kitting
Some Receipts will contain items that require Make Ready.
Receipts with those items should arrive at least 5 business days prior to the Receiving Cut-Off dates.
October and November typically experience peak activity for Amplifier’s Value Added Service (VAS) Area and jobs can take 10 days or longer, so please confirm with help@amplifier.com for current job throughput timing.
Some Receipts will contain Items for Kitting jobs.
Remember that all components must be Received by Amplifier prior to VAS beginning the job.
All components must arrive at least 10 days prior to the Receiving Cut-Off dates. October and November are typically peak activity for Amplifier’s VAS Area and jobs can take 10 days or longer, so please confirm with help@amplifier.com for current job throughput timing.
All Make Ready & Kitting inventory that arrives prior to cut-off dates will be completed by end of day, November 27, 2024.
Make Ready & Kitting Jobs which have items arriving after cut-off dates will be processed only after all on-time arrivals are complete. Items requiring Make Ready may be subject to processing delays. Make Ready & Kitting Jobs with inventory arriving after Cut-Off Dates may not begin to be processed until after December 26, 2024.
On Demand Manufacturing
Items being made On Demand by Amplifier must be ordered 5 business days prior to the related shipment cut-off in order to be delivered to customer on or before 12/24/24.
Order Projections
Based on historic activity and 2024 trends, Amplifier is preparing for clients to have the same units shipped in 2024 Peak Season as in 2023 Peak Season. 2023 Peak was 11/13/23 - 12/23/23. 2024 Peak is 11/17/23 - 12/23/24. If your plans call for more than 5% unit growth in that period, year over year, please let us know by 11/6/24.
Fulfillment times during Peak Season
During Peak Season (November 18, 2024 to December 23, 2024), Amplifier will make its best efforts to maintain off-peak shipping times, i.e. orders with in-stock, ready-to-ship inventory shipping the day following order arrival. However, Peak Season processing times can sometimes require 3 to 5 days following shipment creation.
Amplifier expects Clients to share their Peak Season sales plans by November 6th - this input is crucial to our planning!
Please forecast both orders and items for this period, by day. Amplifier will use these forecasts to plan labor and other resource needs.
If a Client does not provide their plans by November 6th, Amplifier will set its own expectations for that activity.
Processing planned shipments will be prioritized over unplanned activity, which may result in unplanned shipments being processed after key cut-off dates.
While managing Peak Season loads for our clients and their customers:
Amplifier will generally fulfill orders in the order in which they are received but reserves the right to ship in any order which will maximize pre-Christmas deliveries across all clients. If orders need a time-definite delivery, orders must use UPS Next Day or 2-Day.
Because International Shipping cut-offs are earlier than Domestic, Amplifier reserves the right to fulfill Domestic Orders placed after the International Shipping cut-off before fulfilling International Orders that would not arrive prior to December 25th.
Fulfillment times for Non-Ship-Ready and Oversize Items
Amplifier makes a best effort to ship all in-stock orders the day following their arrival. However, items in our warehouse that are not ship-ready or are oversized can take longer, especially during times of increased activity like the Q4 holiday season.
Pallet-Based and/or Shipments requiring Outbound Value Added Services during Peak Season
During Peak Season, Shipments requiring Outbound Value Added Services will take longer than Amplifier's typical B2B turn-time. Bulk or B2B orders are encouraged to be placed before Nov 18. Please contact Amplifier Client Service on an Order by Order basis to establish processing time for your prospective order.
Backorders during Peak Season
Clients occasionally over-sell items during Peak Season order spikes. Amplifier does NOT partially ship unless explicitly instructed to do so in writing by our Clients.
If you wish to set a global rule that “during X days partial ship all orders,” so that no holiday orders are held because of backordered inventory, please contact help@amplifier.com.
Note that partially shipping orders will result in at least two shipping events for the order. Any additional fulfillment and freight costs will be charged to the Client.
Inventory Safety Stock
The best way to prevent backorders is to use Amplifier’s Safety Stock Feature along with our Real-Time Inventory API or Amplifier integration where inventory levels are sync'd.
The industry average is 4% in lost sales due to overselling, but that doesn’t count the time it takes to answer Customer Service inquiries for Orders that can’t ship.
Amplifier highly recommends minimizing this with smart Safety Stock.
Amplifier Peak Season Schedule
Pre-Christmas Saturdays: Fulfillment Open and Client Service pending client activity.
Pre-Christmas Sundays: Fulfillment Open pending client activity. Client Service Closed.
Future Peak Seasons
Please also remember these dates and gates for your planning next year, and consider this document a preliminary version of next year’s slate.
While each year has its own specific schedule, the general rhythm repeats.
For instance, have your Suppliers deliver all receipts in early November, and deliver earlier if these goods will require any Value Added Service like Kitting or Make Ready.
Client Service will furnish each year’s detailed plan to you early in Q4 and will update you as needed with specifics from carriers based on conditions at the time.
Year-End Inventory Levels
To help you plan for year-end accountant and auditor requests around the physical inventory levels stored at Amplifier, please read this article.