Black Friday Survival Guide for Retailers

Prepare your store for Black Friday with this survival guide!

Black Friday is a day full of opportunities to plumb up a retailer’s bottom line, this is why it’s vital to have your store prepared for the event.

Get in there early

The organisation is key to success. Lots of shoppers start their holiday shopping as early as October, so the earlier you start preparing for the holiday the better.

This covers everything from choosing what deals your going to offer and how long they will last to formulating your marketing strategies and don’t forget to plan for contingencies.

Things like delayed product shipping or what you would do if your site was to crash.

Testing the speed and mobile-friendliness of your site is also key to make sure the host can handle potential spikes in your online traffic and don’t forget to let customers know in advance about your offers so they can start spreading the word for you with plenty of time to do so.

Sales and Advertising

If you’re a somewhat larger retail store with a presence online then it’s important to not let your services go unnoticed. Asses recent sales and decide how much stock you are going to need for black Friday and also Christmas.

Promote your services and deals through social media and paid advertising. Promote specific products to specific demographics, send newsletters out to any customers signed up and make sure to highlight why they should be shopping at your store during the period.

Merchandise demand

During Black Friday, product demand increases exponentially. Everybody’s after the cheapest products and best deals so you need to make sure your inventory’s plentiful and vast and that you restock employees are at the ready.

You will also want to consider what are the newest or hottest items in your retail category and then make sure that you have a sufficient amount of stock on your shelves.

Get seasonal staff

With this shopping period being the busy one it is, it’s a very good idea to have a backlog of seasonal and temporary staff to aid the customer with completing their purchase quickly.