Top Tips for tackling Black Friday
The peak season in shipping is commencing and with numerous setbacks such as supply and congestion issues, it is important to keep on top of planning and optimise your processes as much as possible.
We’ve put together these tips for getting through the Black Friday rush, which is only a month away.
- Optimise Your Warehousing and Logistics Processes
No one could have foreseen the impact that a global pandemic would have on online sales. However, it has taught us a valuable lesson in being prepared and taking a ‘just in case’ attitude towards stock, processes and general business practices.
Organising space for your warehousing activities can allow for much more productive peak periods. Placing best selling or in-demand stock closer to packing and despatch will speed up operations and minimise delays.
Analysing sales from previous years as well as more recently will allow you to acknowledge continual or ‘classic’ best selling products as well as trending items. Running a stock check will help to know stock levels and keep a close eye on this data to use post-sale periods too.
- Plan Early
You may well hear people say that Black Friday or Christmas gets ‘earlier every year’. There is an amount of truth in this, as marketers and sales teams alike know getting in early means you are ahead of the curve and have a greater chance of reaching a wider audience.
Start communicating your offering in the lead up to the big day, create sign up lists and ways to capture what your audience is interested in. This all helps you to be prepared but also keeps your audience informed and engaged.
- Manage Expectations
This is particularly timely as there is a lot of talk in the news and media about delays and shortages, therefore any information you can obtain on lead times and obtainability is vital. Keep communications open within the supply chain so you can convey information back to the customer and keep them updated from the outset. This also goes for stock levels, if something is limited then be sure to let your customers know to avoid disappointments and therefore inevitable complaints.
These next few months will continue to test supply chain logistics services and all retail outlets along with small businesses. Delays and bottlenecks are a constant concern, but planning will help to avoid delays as much as possible. Being proactive and opening communications with your customers from the beginning will help to set their expectations and allow them to consider other options available to them and hopefully retain their custom for years to come.
For more details on how we can help optimise your supply chain logistics, warehousing activities and order fulfilments, contact us today on +44(0)330 043 2395 or send an email to [email protected].
