2026 Peak Season: Inside the warehouse

Peak starts for us way before October, months ahead of time. We are looking at our planning assumptions, stress testing the building, and looking for every way to be as prepared as possible. But if you’ve worked in operations during peak, you understand that things can change quickly. So, we’ve built a fluid, adaptable system that can absorb a wide range of freight and get it into the marketplace in time for customers to buy it.

What peak looks like on the floor

Our warehouses are in peak season, and our team is ready for it. We’re moving millions of units a week, many times what we handled at this point last year.

Peak always brings pressure, and 2026 has added some new issues: China delays, record diesel prices, and a new layer in Amazon’s inbound network, regional distribution centers (RDCs). We’re actively working through each of them so your products are staged and ready to ship when orders come in.

Pattern COO Rob Hahn’s advice for brands is simple: Get ready for the unexpected.

Inside the warehouse: how Black Friday through Cyber Monday gets handled

Black Friday through Cyber Monday is four days, but what happens inside the building throughout the year determines how successful those days are. Here’s how it works at a Pattern warehouse, step by step.

1. Inbound, before the rush. In Pattern’s warehouses, inventory has to be received and checked in. The moment the pallet hits the dock, we get it scanned in. On average, it takes Pattern 3.5 days to receive, process and ship units out. That makes sure that nothing sits and nothing gets lost, even before Q4 ramps up.

2. Pick and pack. We fulfill over 15M units a month, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday is when that pace really picks up. More hands, more shifts, and a system built to flex through the surge.

Pattern’s fulfillment network integrates our proprietary warehouse technology with guided automation, including conveyor transport and auto-carrier sortation systems capable of processing over 225 cartons per minute. This technology-driven infrastructure allows our facilities to absorb 35–40% peak volume surges.

3. Final scan and sort. Every order gets a final scan through our vision tunnel before it’s routed to the right lane, so what the customer ordered is what shows up. The tunnel uses a five-sided camera to capture every box as it passes through. Our WMS uses that information to assign each box a destination, and our shoe pin sorter sends it to the right lane in the most efficient way, so your products reach the correct marketplace as quickly as possible.

4. Inventory in position. From the dock, we create shipments into marketplaces like Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Walmart, routed to the fulfillment centers that serve your customers. Because of the volume of shipments we handle, we can place products as close to those customers as possible, so orders reach their doorstep fast. That speed, backed by 99% on-time same-day shipping, helps improve conversion.

5. Load trucks & ship. Pattern consolidates shipments across brand partners to execute over 95% Full Truckload (FTL) deliveries into Amazon, with more than 50% fluid loaded to maximize trailer density and lower per-unit freight costs.

Fluid loading unlocks separate warehouse receiving appointments from standard palletized loads, allowing Pattern to leverage pre-secured standing slots across Amazon’s network and providing an average time of 1.6 days from departure from Pattern’s warehouse to receipt at Amazon during peak season.

The takeaway for brands: your inbound has to land early. Get products checked in and positioned before the sale starts, and the rest of the process can do its job. That matters even more this year. With RDC appointments and dwell times stretching, products that land early have more room to absorb delays. We cover what that means in our RDC update.

Come see for yourself. Request a tour of our warehouse.

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