How to Prepare Your eCommerce Business for Black Friday
Black Friday, also known as crazy discount day, will take place on November 25 this year. It generated more than $9 billion in sales globally last year. Your eCommerce business has a great chance to boost sales on the top shopping day. But have you ever considered issues related to returns, shipping operations, stock controls, and storage problems resulting from great discounts? You don't need to worry about it because this blog is designed to manage your eCommerce business during the busiest time of the year.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the first Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. This day has been accepted as the beginning of the Christmas celebration for many years and is known mainly for the stores in the US that open very early and close late and offer much higher than standard discount rates.
When is Black Friday?
Black Friday takes place on November 25, the first Friday after Thanksgiving in the US.
Key Points to Check Before Black Friday
We know that this time of the year is the time from Black Friday to Christmas. For this reason, planning before the chaotic season begins on Black Friday will make your eCommerce brand easily overcome any hardships during this period.
You need to do critical controls for your eCommerce brand before Black Friday to get through this process as non-problematic as possible and increase your sales.
You have planned for the products you'll sell, the discount rates, the operations you'll use, and more. Later, you thought your brand was ready for a fantastic shopping period. But suddenly, your website crashed due to high traffic! Or maybe, due to abnormally increased demands, you lose control over your stock numbers and cannot meet inventory needs.
These examples could be worst-case scenarios, and to prevent this from happening, test your structure and ensure your system is ready for the increased demand. Moreover, your social media marketing plans, logistics and storage solutions, and payment and cargo integrations should be checked so your campaigns will be as effective as desired and your brand will stand out among other brands during Black Friday. After all these checks are done, it is possible to have a smooth Black Friday for your eCommerce brand.
Product Stocks
During Black Friday, you may need to secure that you have available stock to meet a suddenly increasing volume of orders. While having the right product in the right place at the right time is critical, you must ensure that you have enough stock for customer traffic to catch opportunities.
So how do you decide how much of each product to stock? It will be easy for you to choose these products based on previous Black Friday data or by analyzing the products you sell daily.
In Black Friday campaigns, you will need more stock than usual. To meet the increase in demand, you need to manage your inventory accurately. That's why it's critical to have the right product at the right place and time. You should ensure that you have enough product stock for dozens of customers who want to take advantage of opportunities. To increase your sales without losing customers, you should check inventory and make sure you enter Black Friday with enough stock. In cases where you are unsure how much you should concentrate on and which product is in stock, you can decide this by looking at your overall sales.
Order Tracking and Shipping Processes on Black Friday
Your eCommerce brand should be prepared to offer the products on many platforms on Black Friday if you want to differentiate your brand from your competitors. However, your eCommerce brand may face an operational intensity during this time. Therefore, operational intensity should be resolved before the shipment as best. Suppose you increase the number of employees or people in the operation process. In that case, it may cause more work for your eCommerce business on Black Friday. To prevent this extra work from occurring for your eCommerce brand, you must carefully prepare your eCommerce company for Black Friday, and in this way, you can satisfy your customers with order tracking and shipping operations.
On the other hand, carrier integrations are a solution to the late delivery or shipping information consumers complain about most. While these integrations enable the consumer to access transportation information, these integrations will also be a reliable solution for your eCommerce brand. When the intensity experienced in the whole world and country is considered, you should find the best logistics company to achieve customer satisfaction in deliveries.
Partnering with OPLOG, you can optimize your storage and logistics processes and deliver your products to your customers. It is possible to track the status of the orders you sent through the OPLOG platform without agreeing with a courier company.
You can quickly take care of all your sales channels with one logistics partner, one inventory, and one e-logistics system. So, boost your sales and maximize product distribution by OPLOG.
Test Your Website
The fact that the website you are using for your eCommerce brand has not caused you any problems so far does not mean that it will not cause problems on Black Friday when sales will be the highest. Are you sure your website will handle the possible density of people that your site will attract after crazy discounts? But what if your site crashes during Black Friday sales?
Not only your site crashes, but also, if the system fails to work correctly due to the system density, it would cause an undesirable situation. Suppose the information flow between the products sold and stock information is not entirely correct. In that case, you need to solve your stock problems that may arise by "apologizing" to your customers, which will not be the best buyer experience for you.
For this reason, checking your website before the big shopping season is recommended.
Make sure your website is User-friendly
It is essential to gain customer traffic to your eCommerce brand's website on Black Friday, but also it is important to make the customers stay at your website. But how can you manage it? By making your website user-friendly and easy to use.
People think that when you make a complicated website interface for your brand, it is the best one to show your brand's quality, but it is not. Making your interface easy to use has always been preferable for the customer who wants a good shopping experience.
The first thing customers look for on your website is accessible surfing. They want to find the discounted product they seek without much effort. To design a user-friendly website, you must ensure that you provide customers with what they want. With this, you may increase sales and have happier customers.
Cross-Border eCommerce and Payment Channels
Using more than one selling channel throughout Black Friday may boost your sales. You have an excellent opportunity to engage in international eCommerce. Even though cross-border eCommerce has numerous benefits, e-export payments made in foreign currencies enable your eCommerce brand to make money without being impacted by exchange rate changes.
Although there are specific problems for firms who choose cross-border eCommerce on Black Friday, payment options are the most common. The markets that your eCommerce brand aims for should inform how you structure their payment alternatives. For this reason, if you choose cross-border eCommerce, you must incorporate systems appropriate for payment choices. However, these payment systems are also different from country to country. Credit card payments, mobile payments, money orders, and alternative payment methods are favored (eNETS, Sofort, Stripe, Ideal, Qiwi, eNETS, etc.).
Especially in the USA, some problems arise in payment transactions due to inflation. While most people may not find credit cards secure, using "buy now, pay later" systems can boost your sales on Black Friday.
Discounted Products
If you want to benefit from Black Friday at most, it is essential to decide on the products which will be on sale on Black Friday; this will be an excellent advantage for your eCommerce brand. It is crucial to apply a discount on your trending products or most sold ones to increase your sales and also gain new customers.
For example, try to find the most demanded product. Analyze your products that will continue to attract attention until and after Black Friday and will not lose customer demand soon. In this way, you aim to get maximum profit from your products that you can sell a lot after Black Friday discounts. Include your products in a segment where you have few competitors on the shopping day, so it will be much easier for you to attract attention to products with few seller options.
Increase Your Sales and Stand Out on Black Friday
You might analyze and reorganize your social media marketing strategies to increase sales and stand out among other brands on Black Friday. For instance, social media marketing strategies include SEO checklists, Google ads, email marketing, and social media marketing.
OPLOG provides omnichannel fulfillment services to its customers by aiming for operational excellence and using the latest supply chain technologies. Working with OPLOG can reduce operating costs, increase customer satisfaction, and benefit from unlimited advantages.
