DP World Launches Peak Season White Paper To Help U.S. Brands Navigate Holiday Volatility

CHARLOTTE, N.C., November 13, 2025 /3BL/ – DP World, a global leader in logistics and supply chain solutions, has released a new white paper titled “Peak Season Ready: DP World’s Q4 Fulfillment Checklist for Brands.” The publication comes as the National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts U.S. holiday spending will surpass $1 trillion for the first time, underscoring both the scale of opportunity and the heightened pressure on retailers to perform during the 2025 peak season.

Designed as a practical playbook for consumer brands, the report helps U.S. retailers navigate fluctuating sales growth, rising returns, and persistent supply chain volatility. Drawing on 2024 retail performance data and insights from the NRF, McKinsey & Company, and the U.S. Trade Representative, it outlines actionable strategies to help brands build agility into their fulfillment operations and protect profitability during the industry’s most critical quarter.

Brittany Caskey, Chief Commercial Officer, DP World in the Americas, said: “Retailers are entering a unique peak season – one defined by both record spending and record pressure. Consumers are prioritizing value and speed, so brands need the flexibility to adapt quickly without eroding margins. This white paper provides practical tools to help them build that agility into their fulfillment networks.”

U.S. Brands Face a “Do More With Less” Peak Season

The paper reveals that holiday sales returns are expected to approach $900 billion, continuing to pressure margins across the sector.

It identifies the top four fulfillment risks for the season:

• Spiky demand patterns driven by mobile commerce and promotional peaks;
• Carrier congestion and surcharges, with on-time performance fluctuating from 90–97%;
• Escalating returns, which can erode up to 66% of product value without modern triage and resale processes; and
• Tariff-related cost uncertainty from recent Section 301 adjustments reshaping landed costs.

Checklist for Fulfillment Agility

To mitigate these pressures, DP World’s Q4 checklist highlights five focus areas:

1. Demand & Inventory: Regionalize stock to reduce time-in-transit and hedge against carrier constraints.
2. Space & Labor: Leverage flexible, multi-customer warehousing to scale efficiently without fixed leases.
3. Fulfillment Design: Build regional fulfillment waves and exception playbooks for disruptions.
4. Transportation: Deploy multi-carrier routing to avoid surcharges and caps.
5. Customer Experience & Returns: Tighten reverse logistics workflows for faster recovery and resale value.

DP World’s U.S. Network: Flexibility at Scale

DP World operates multi-customer warehouses in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and California, providing coast-to-coast coverage that reduces lead times and enables same- or next-day delivery to dense consumer zones. Each location offers scalable pallet positions, seasonal labor programs, and integrated returns processing to help brands recover value from returned inventory.

The company’s integrated ports-to-warehouse-to-last-mile network connects these facilities directly to import gateways, allowing retailers to rebalance inventory and respond dynamically to shifts in demand or carrier performance.

A Long-Term View: Building Competitive Advantage Through Agility

The white paper concludes that as AI-driven forecasting, sustainability mandates, and Gen Z consumer habits reshape the retail landscape, supply chain agility will become a long-term differentiator – not just a seasonal necessity.

DP World’s network of 36 logistics facilities across the U.S. and 14 ports and terminals across the Americas enables brands to access flexible, end-to-end solutions that connect the factory floor to the customer’s door.

The full white paper is available for download at www.dpworld.com/usa/industries/retail-and-consumer.

-END-

DP World Americas Media Contact: 
Melina Vissat 
Head of Communications 
M: (+1) 704-605-6159 
E: melina.vissat@dpworld.com

About DP World

DP World is reshaping the future of global trade to improve lives everywhere. Operating across six continents with a team of over 100,000 employees, we combine global infrastructure and local expertise to deliver seamless supply chain solutions. From Ports and Terminals to Marine Services, Logistics, and Technology, we leverage innovation to create better ways to trade, minimizing disruptions from the factory floor to the customer’s door.

In the Americas, DP World operates with a team of over 16,000 people across 12 countries, driving excellence through a robust network of 14 ports and terminals and more than 40 warehouses. By harnessing our global reach and local expertise, we simplify logistics, enhance operational performance, and redefine the boundaries of what’s possible in global trade.

WE MAKE TRADE FLOW.

For more insights into how DP World is reshaping global trade, visit www.dpworld.com.