Advance Ship Notice ( ASN ), Uniform Code Council-128 ( UCC-128 ) carton labels, and distribution center ( DC ) mix decisions decide whether your loads glide through—or get hit with negative acknowledgments ( NAKs ) and compliance chargebacks. Why it spikes in Q4.  More promotions. More split purchase orders ( POs ). More DC reassignments. More ways your plan breaks. Fictional example (for illustration):  A home goods supplier shipped on time, but their ASN posted after gate-

On-Time In-Full ( OTIF ) is simple on paper and brutal in peak. A missed window here, a short-shipped pallet there—and suddenly you’re funding the retailer’s margin via chargebacks. Here’s the part most teams miss: OTIF isn’t won in the warehouse. It’s won in the calendar. A quick reality check.  Across the industry, suppliers routinely see November–December carrier on-time performance ( OTP ) sag as capacity tightens and dwell times creep up. Even modest slippage can stack i

Black Friday doesn’t just test your demand plan—it stress-tests your price files, order flow, and shipping logic at the same time. Miss one sync or let a small error ride, and you can trigger a mass event: hundreds of price claims, a wave of canceled purchase orders (POs), and split shipments that later look like shortages.

Black Friday can make—or quietly drain—your year. Not because shoppers didn’t show. Because your price files, promo proofs, and terms confirmations didn’t lock before the doors opened, when they’re off, you don’t get a few invoice issues—you get a mass event: price variances across every store, on every unit, all weekend long. That’s how great promotions turn into invoice claims on Monday.

If you’re staring at December 31 and thinking, “We’ll clean up deductions after the holidays,” here’s the friendly nudge: don’t. A slow dispute now becomes a write-off later.

Peak inbound season is a gift to sales—and a stress test for your operation. When docks are stacked and teams are sprinting, shortage deductions  climb. Not because your product vanished, but because counts, paperwork, or scans didn’t line up under pressure. Let’s keep your December revenue from becoming January deductions. Here’s how to tighten counts, Proof of Delivery (POD) , and research packages so you can prevent  shortages—and win  disputes when they pop. What’s at sta