Black Friday is coming!
Even amidst the coronavirus pandemic and considering the stress that came with this year, we sure deserve a break. What better way than making huge sales while delighting customers?
Here is a checklist to determine whether or not you are ready for Black Friday. If you still have some boxes unchecked, get to it immediately so you can make the most of one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.
How prepared are your staff to handle the increase in the number of shoppers? Are they acquainted with questions that might come up while customers are shopping? It is necessary to have a fresh round of training for your staff to prepare them for the season rush. Remind them to remain respectful and patient even when a customer is rude or impatient. Your front line staff should be able to help customers discover products and recommend alternatives. Help customers get the most of their experience and improve customer satisfaction, and increase sales by upselling and cross-selling.
Have you decluttered your store? Take out items that might block customers’ pathways. It is necessary to have an open floor where customers can move freely without bumping into each other or things. Place and display high-profit items conspicuously and within reach to avoid customers knocking other items down while trying to reach a product.
The Black Friday season is synonymous with an increase in foot traffic in stores. Even though the fears of covid-19 lingers, you need to put proper precautions in place to dispel the fear of your customers and assure them of their safety.
Just as you get your physical store ready for foot traffic, you have to prepare your online store for the surge in visitors that can cause your website to crash. A website glitch or lack of speed will turn customers away from your website, and that would cost your business. You want to make sure that does not happen by testing your server and running the speed of your home page. It is also necessary that you check the responsiveness of your website on a mobile phone because most people shop with their phones. Test how your store looks on mobile and ensure it is easy for users to make purchases.
Are you prepared for the worst that could happen this black Friday? Think of everything that could go wrong and create a backup plan A, B, and even a C. Thinking this way is certainly not to stir up unfounded fears. It is, however, necessary to prepare for terrible situations like running out of stock faster than you expected or a delay in shipping by your shipping provider. Having a plan for situations like this is very necessary so as not to be disappointed. It is better to create a contingency plan now than to be left scrambling amid your busiest time.
Start by talking about your Black Friday deals well in advance via both emails and social media campaigns. Social media can be a great boom to your e-commerce business. If you are already selling on multiple social media channels, identify the one which is most lucrative for your business and double down on this channel during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday season. Create a sense of urgency by identifying when a deal will end, and share a sneak peek of upcoming discounts to build anticipation. Also, pay attention to your existing customers by using email marketing to offer discounts on products.
Narrow down on products you want to promote early, most especially if you rely on suppliers to manufacture that inventory. When choosing products to order, there is a need to predict customers’ demand to optimize supply decisions. If you use a good point of sales software like ICG, one place to start with is your reports. Make use of the sales report presented by the software and filter by your last year Black Friday/Cyber Monday dates to see products that typically sell well during this season. Finally, it is also advisable to consider products that have seen a rise in demand since the pandemic.
Make sure you have a concise, fair, and well-communicated return policy in place at your store. Black Friday season comes with a rush, and a situation where customers purchase the wrong size or product is unavoidable. Understanding this and having a concise return policy help build customers’ trust in your brand.
Have you settled for that irresistible, jaw-dropping black Friday offer to lock your customers focused on shopping from you this season? Draw customers in through your front door with this strategy, and there is a high chance they would reach for one or two things on their way out. Identify what your jaw-dropping sale(s) is and focus on promoting these items on all your sales channels instead of putting up all your sales at the same time. Another alternative to the irresistible offer is creating daily deals available for a limited time, spin-to-win discounts, and offering product bundles. You can take it up by offering free delivery to compel shoppers to add more than they intended to buy to their cart.
As the adage says, knowledge is power. Understanding customers purchasing capacity and interest will help in identifying products that need the extra push and products customers love. You can make use of the free Google analytics tool to track traffic on your website and understand shoppers’ behavior. There is also a lot you can learn using your point of sales analytics function, such as knowing how well-marketed goods are converting to sales and insights on the general outlook of your marketing campaign.
When the Black Friday season finally comes to an end, take a holistic look at your business to check how the sales did overall during this period. Doing this is an excellent opportunity to learn from the mistakes made during the season and prepare for the next. So as you implement new ideas this year, take note, document decisions, and record these outcomes. Your analytics will give you a standard for the next season while also allowing you to see what works for your business.
Now that we have covered the checklist, we hope that you have a successful Black Friday! If this is your first, see it as a learning curve, stay motivated, set realistic expectations, and enjoy the ride! Want to get a pos software in time for Black Friday? Contact us at pos@posshop-ng.com.