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With a surge in gift set orders ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the fulfillment industry has launched preparations for the holiday peak season. Since goods must be shipped before the fixed holiday period begins, companies are securing workforce and warehouse processing capacity in advance while activating operational systems to respond immediately if order volumes spike beyond expectations.
Industry experts agree that responding based on the assumption that holiday logistics volumes will follow a similar pattern annually is difficult. This is because the timing and scale of order surges vary depending on client types, promotions, and inventory management methods.
This volatility is also confirmed in logistics data. Analysis by logistics IT startup TechTaka of its own Mid-Autumn season shipment volumes over recent years revealed that pre- and post-holiday cargo flow patterns differed year by year. In the 2024 Mid-Autumn season, weekday shipments decreased by approximately 4.3% compared to a normal July month, while in 2025, they fell by 3.4% compared to a normal August month.
Shipment volumes do not necessarily increase immediately before the Mid-Autumn holiday break. According to an analysis based on the four business days preceding the holiday start, 2024 shipments decreased by 12.6% compared to a normal month, whereas 2025 saw a 9.1% increase.
TechTaka analyzed that even during the same Mid-Autumn Festival, cargo volume scales vary depending on variables such as holiday schedules and promotions. This year, shipments increased by approximately 10–15% compared to usual levels during the one to two weeks before the holiday break, influenced largely by Mid-Autumn promotions.
The timing of cargo surges has also changed from past years. Previously, when courier operations halted during the holiday period, volumes often piled up all at once after the break ended. Recently, with the expansion of same-day delivery and holiday delivery services, the trend of concentrated post-holiday volume is gradually easing.
In the capital region, same-day delivery operates normally except on the actual holiday day, and Sunday deliveries by courier companies have expanded to cover approximately 90% of nationwide delivery zones. The logistics operating environment is shifting from processing accumulated pre-holiday volumes all at once after the break to distributing deliverable volumes across periods before and after the holiday.
To respond to such cargo volume changes, TechTaka integrates product management, order collection, and warehouse management into a single system. It connects over 600 domestic marketplaces to monitor order and shipment status step-by-step, utilizing AI and robotics technologies to address cargo fluctuations.
The fulfillment service 'Pumgo', operated by Two Hands, responds to peak seasons by predicting cargo volumes in advance and adjusting operational plans according to actual order situations. Using an AI-based cargo prediction model, it forecasts order volumes per client and utilizes these figures as criteria for workforce deployment scale and logistics center processing capacity (CAPA) allocation.
A key feature is not fixing operational plans based solely on predicted values. The company monitors real-time order volumes and CAPA fluctuations transmitted through its platform to reflect them in same-day shipment plans. By monitoring inbound volumes and processing speeds at major centers nationwide, it immediately adjusts workforce and cargo if a specific center's volume exceeds expectations. It also standardizes the scale and timing of subcontracted labor deployment, managing each center's operational status via dashboards.
For Pasto Robotics, concerns ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival extend beyond cargo volume alone. With the expansion of guaranteed delivery date services on online platforms like Naver and Toss Shopping, ensuring goods are shipped by specified deadlines has become increasingly important. Guaranteed delivery services operate by having platforms compensate buyers if products are not delivered within the promised timeframe.
Especially during holidays when order volumes surge sharply, shipment delays are highly likely to lead directly to delivery delays. This is why logistics centers must manage processing speeds while appropriately adjusting shipment volumes and operational workforce.
Workforce procurement is also a key variable cited by fulfillment companies. During holidays, logistics demand spikes simultaneously, intensifying competition among rival firms that secure workers by raising labor unit costs. Centers lacking sufficient surrounding residential areas face structural difficulties in securing workers as they must rely on shuttle buses to transport personnel.
A Pasto representative stated, "In the past, when requesting 100 logistics workers from subcontractors, assignments often included surplus staff, but recently, cases where fewer than required numbers are deployed due to factors like population aging have increased."
Pasto is addressing this through automation and robotics solutions. While maintaining same-day shipment for orders received by midnight as a principle, the proportion of weekday night shift workers has risen, and weekend workforce deployment has also increased compared to the past. A Pasto representative added, "Utilizing automated equipment and robots can reduce the workforce needed for night or holiday operations, thereby lowering additional labor cost burdens."
This acceleration in automation equipment adoption among fulfillment companies stems from worsening labor shortages driven by a declining working-age population and negative perceptions regarding logistics center working conditions.
An industry representative remarked, "Holiday logistics requires considering not only increased cargo volumes but also multiple variables such as delivery deadlines and workforce procurement," adding that "fulfillment companies are shifting their peak season response strategies toward combining advance prediction with real-time response while leveraging automation technologies."
[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]
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