Peak season is around the corner. To make sure you and your merchants are set up for success, we’ve pulled together essential resources and updates so you can plan with confidence.
We’ve created a 2025 Peak season hub where you can find everything you need in one place—from surcharges, to strategy, to deadlines (Coming soon!).
Peak Prep recommendations
For a successful holiday season, we recommend merchants enable localized market pricing, review HS codes and product classifications to avoid customs delays, and identify opportunities to expand into new markets using insights from our State of Cross-Border Consumer Insights report.
📦 Surcharges
Each year, shipping providers implement carrier surcharges, additional fees applied by shipping providers to account for factors like peak demand, oversized parcels, or special handling, and they impact both DDU and DDP shipments.
Express shipments:
Demand surcharges during peak season typically range from $0.05–$1.90 per lb or $1.10–$4.25 per package, depending on region and service level. Additional surcharges for special handling, large packages, and over-maximum limits may apply, and can run as high as $540 per package. These surcharges are dynamic and change throughout the season.
Standard shipments:
Most standard services will not incur demand surcharges, though some economy products may see up to $0.32 per parcel depending on carrier and shipping window.
How FlavorCloud helps:
FlavorCloud’s AI-powered routing intelligence dynamically selects the winning carrier and presents all-inclusive, guaranteed shipping rates at checkout so that any seasonal surcharges are automatically accounted for upfront.
Additionally, we have created a resource on Surcharges for merchants that contains links to carrier specific resources.
📅 Holiday deadlines
Carrier cutoff dates for international shipping will be released soon. We’ll update our Peak Hub by the end of October so you can plan your promotions and fulfillment timelines accordingly.
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