Key Takeaways

• Call volume for retail brands surges up to 6x during peak weeks with a second wave of returns & exchanges in January.
• The holiday shopping window is starting earlier. Call volume begins increasing November 1 and “Peak Week” is December 15-21. 
• WISMO and Returns are the dominant holiday call drivers. Brands that proactively set shipping expectations and automate return flows will absorb the most volume.
• Buy Online Pick Up in Store calls rose 3x, nearly twice the overall holiday increase. Last minute shoppers drove the increase. 39% of the volume occurs in 8 days: December 17–24
• Order By Phone automation is quickly becoming a top priority for retail brands as the holiday season approaches, creating ease for customers and driving revenue for brands.
• More promotion goes with a bigger spike. There is a +14% median brand lift in call volume during the holidays, but brands whose calls mention promo codes have a median lift of +49%.
• A CX AI partner is critical infrastructure for handling holiday volume.
• Revenue opportunity: With automated Order Saves and Redirects, BOPIS, and Order by Phone, the right CX AI partner not only increases efficiency but drives revenue.

Shoppers flood phone lines pressured by hard holiday deadlines, while seasonal weather amps up Delivery Missing and Delivery Running Late calls. Together, these create massive volume spikes that can overwhelm human agents.

How Flip handles it:

• Automates 75%+ of WISMO calls with zero human intervention
• Auto-escalates genuine problem orders beyond fulfillment windows
• Offers to send tracking page via SMS
• Strategizes additional messaging that communicates weather delays to ease customer concerns
• Sends personalized follow up messages such as SMS subscriber opt-ins thanks to integrations with platforms like Attentive, Klaviyo, and Postscript

A wave of return and exchange requests drive a post-holiday volume surge from January through February. This second wave rivals the pre-holiday rush.

How Flip handles it:

• Starts returns via API with Loop, Happy Returns, Narvar
• Offers automated save attempts to prevent returns, including automatic price adjustments, free exchanges, or instant credit instead
• Shares return/refund status in real time
• Collects return reasons for CX insights
• Offers strategy to ease volume: planned extended holiday return windows, personalized additional messaging, and new, holiday-specific return workflows for easier tracking on the backend.

Gifting inherently creates more order change and cancellation requests than any other time of year.

How Flip handles it:

• Integrates with leading 3PLs such as ShipStation, BlueBox, ShipBop, and 50+ others for real-time delivery details and modification syncing. This ensures real-time updates to customers and prevents shipments of cancelled or incorrect orders.
• Cancels or modifies orders via API (Shopify, Salesforce)
• Offers automated retention saves:– Propose edit instead of cancel– Propose free exchanges instead– Offer discount code, price adjustment, or instant credit to keep order as-is
• Configures cancellation windows with varied handling
• Collects cancellation reasons for CX insights

Order by phone automation is quickly becoming a top priority for retail brands. It creates ease for customers and drives revenue for brands. Order by phone calls from November 1 to January 1 averaged 42% above the baseline. 

More promotions and coupon codes coincide with a bigger spike in call volume. There is a +14% median brand lift in call volume during the holidays, but brands whose calls mention promo codes have a median lift of +49%

How Flip handles it:

• Builds the order on the call: confirms the product, variant, size and supply count, creates an invoice, then texts or emails the checkout link.
• Stays PCI compliant. Card details are entered on the checkout link, never read out on the call.
• Integrates with Shopify for checkout and account matching. When Flip matches the caller to a Shopify account, their details are pre-filled and the caller can use their normal payment method and sees an order summary before paying. Abandoned-cart emails fire if they don’t finish.
• Saves unmatched callers. Draft order keeps their phone number so an agent can follow up.
• Starts Subscriptions and one-off orders, then offers to ship their next order now or add an item to the subscription.
• Adds brand-specific settings, like custom messages to advertise discounted products

For all retail brands, Buy Online Pick Up in Store rose 3x from October to December, nearly twice the overall holiday volume increase. The last minute window drove it: December 17–24 was 39% of the month’s store pickup calls in 8 days.

How Flip handles it:

• Keeps it automated: Flip’s AI agent can resolve Buy Online, Pick Up In Store requests. No need to route it to a live person.
• Offers order status updates. During “where’s my order” calls, Flip can read BOPIS statuses – cancelled, processing, ready for pickup, and picked up – and tell the caller if there is an update. This also includes orders that are part pickup, part shipped.
• Recognizes “How do I buy it for pickup?” calls, then walks the caller through choosing in-store pickup online and offers to text the steps. Each client can switch on extra details, like a reminder email and if they need to bring an ID for pickup.
• Initiates store stock checks. Flip can answer stock questions per store where the client’s data allows.

Holiday Readiness Features

Flip offers three configurable features specifically designed for peak season.

What’s New This Holiday Season

These new features are perfect additions to enhance holiday readiness.

The Revenue Impact

AI Automation has moved beyond a critical holiday volume management strategy and into a revenue driver. With automated order saves and redirects, Buy Online Pick Up In Store, and Order by Phone capabilities, the increase in call volume presents an opportunity for untapped revenue increase. Automation capabilities ensure phone and chat lines are available 24/7, while previous additional hiring can be reduced from the budget.

Flip works with hundreds of retail clients. Our deep industry expertise ensures these high-pressure workflows are already tested and successfully deployed. That means more resolutions and more order conversions. Plus, happy customers = more spending.

Schedule a demo to learn more. See how your CX team can drive revenue with Flip during the holiday season.

Frequently Asked Questions