Amazon were one of the first companies to offer Black Friday deals to UK customers in 2010 and last year they reported Black Friday to be the busiest sales day in the UK with more than 7.4 million goods sold. This year, Black Friday is due to fall on 24 November 2017 and is expected to be bigger than ever. Whether you’re a small business or a large online retailer, here are four key tips Black Friday you should look at when planning your sales.
1. Choose your product range carefully
You’ll see better results if you offer a large discount on a small range of products, compared to a small discount on a large range of products. Seek out the products that you can afford to discount more than your competitors and focus on promoting these.
One product area which works well in the run up to Christmas is gift sets and bundles. Can you make up your own product bundles and gift sets?
Plan how you’re going to market these deals, particularly as there will be lots of other sellers competing in the same space. Do you have an email list to promote your Black Friday deals to existing customers? Do you have new sales banners and other online imagery in production? What about your social media following?
2. Plan for your Black Friday delivery options
Many retailers were unprepared last year when it came to shipping the larger volume of orders they received on Black Friday, including a number of high profile companies like Tesco and M&S who failed to meet next day delivery options.
If you’re a seller who’s still using the Post Office as your main delivery channel, you should definitely consider an online delivery broker (like My Parcel Delivery) which can offer you access to discounted rates from a range of different courier services, so if your main delivery partner can’t deliver, you have plenty of options available to ensure your customer receives their item in a timely manner.
It’s also worth thinking about the delivery options you’ll be offering for Black Friday purchases, in particular offering a “next day” delivery service could pose the risk that the items won’t be delivered as promised and lead to unhappy customers.
Whatever you decide on, be sure to communicate the delivery options clearly to your customers and be upfront with them that delivery for items could take longer than normal.
3. Picking and packing orders
For smaller sellers who manage their own order fulfilment, don’t underestimate the volume of Black Friday orders you’ll receive. You may need to draft in some extra support to get all your orders picked and packed (particularly if you’re offering bundles and gift sets), so give your friends and family advance notice that they’ll be needed or if you have the resource, draft in some seasonal workers. This will hopefully make your Black Friday order fulfilment less stressful.
4. Don’t forget refunds and returns
This is an area that can get overlooked in the rush to be ready for Black Friday, but more orders means the potential for more returns. Many retailers extend their returns policy during the festive period, so that less time is spent dealing with returns during this peak trading period. Consider if you’re going to offer an extended returns period and if so, find the best way to communicate this to your customers.
The other aspect to consider when looking at returned stock, is whether you’ll be able to re-sell it over the rest of the Christmas season.
Get ready for Black Friday
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