Black Friday (3)

Black Friday (3)

On 24th November Black Friday sales will bring the biggest shopping day of the year to our shores. What does your business need to do so you can capitalise on this?

On the 24th of November retailers across the different sectors will experience the biggest shopping day of 2017, a day of huge deals and bargains and one which will possibly see demand for your products rise significantly – providing you manage this effectively. We are of course referring to ‘Black Friday’.

Despite its American origins – being the day after Thanksgiving where American stores drop their prices and begin the present purchasing run up to Christmas – these sales recently have found their way over to our shores and this Black Friday promises to see the largest retail spending day ever. Such demand though can be problematic if you’re not ready for it, especially for e-commerce; fortunately for you, DHL domestics are here to help you out.

In the first of a series of posts leading up to the big day, we’ll be taking you through what you need to know, what to watch out for and other great and useful tips you can take on board and use with your business.

What you might encounter

To start with the basics and to give you a clearer idea of what to expect, here’s what you might well come up against at some point in the run up to and during Black Friday:

A significant rise in orders
Unprecedented demand for your goods and services
More paperwork
Customers expecting to find bargains
Customers expecting fast deliveries from online sales
Increased queries and information requests
Potential increase in profits
How you can prepare

So where do you start with all of this? Well, the first piece of advice is to act now and start making some of the following preparations:

Research your rivals

From a straightforward business perspective, like with all market research, it’s worth having a look at what offers your competitors are promoting for Black Friday.

Decide on your deals

You can then use this information to decide what deals you’re going to promote to try and make your business the more favourable option. This could be money off, free extras or other discounts on certain purchases. Also be sure to promote these well in advance of the day on your website and social media profiles.

Assess your stock

With the above you also need to think about which items of stock are more likely to be sold than others. Look back over your sales history and identify items that have sold well and those that haven’t and then base your promotions around these.

Order in more of your popular lines

To ensure you give your customers what they want you should order more of these popular lines to have as surplus supplies – especially if they’re going to be discounted or under a promotional offer.

Take on or have extra staff available

It’s not just about your stock though, demand for goods means increased amounts of work from dealing with customers, to shipping, answering questions and much more. If you can, either take on temporary staff to manage this or put on extra shifts and for smaller SMEs try to rope in friends and family to help out.

Use an external delivery firm

One problem you might face is having to send out more deliveries; moreover, if you don’t have the capacity to manage this yourself, your customers might end up with late deliveries, or you face the difficult situation of having to cancel them. Needless to say really but both of these can be very damaging for your business in the long run.

While having more staff around to help manage this is useful, using the services of a trusted and reliable delivery company like DHL domestics can ensure your customers get their Black Friday bargains.

Be realistic

The final thing to do is to be realistic about what you can manage. The last thing you want to do is promise something that you can’t deliver or you run the risk of upsetting clients and possibly deterring them from returning to you. Be ambitious to capitalise on the increased business, but don’t mislead your customers!

So, as aforementioned you should start putting some of the above into practise now to start getting your business ready for the 24th. Also, be sure to check back with our blog for more insights regarding what to do in anticipation of this big day in the retail calendar.

 

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