Most retailers see a high fluctuation in activity during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons each year. This high activity period typically begins the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, and continues on through the week of Christmas. Many retailers have seen changes in where and how consumers are making purchases during this time period. In the past, most online purchases were seen on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, but that has now expanded to be not only one day, but the entire holiday shopping season as well. In 2013 retailers saw an increase in online sales of sixty three percent over the previous year. Not only are consumers making those important holiday purchases online, but twenty five percent of all holiday sales were made using mobile devices. Online and mobile purchases have taken over during the holiday season. One way that retailers can adapt to the extreme fluctuation during the holiday season is to implement a warehouse management system (WMS) that is highly flexible to adapt to changes in activity. This will allow retailers to fulfill and ship orders more efficiently and at lower costs. These savings can then be passed on to consumers, encouraging more purchases due to drops in prices.
