Top Ways to Prepare Your E-Commerce Store For Black Friday 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for your e-commerce business — Black Friday.

The unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season is upon us, and planning ahead now will help maximize your e-commerce store’s full potential for retail sales.

Analyzing inventory, selecting a big-ticket deal item, marketing, and streamlining logistics for shipping are some ways to prepare for one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Here are five simple ways to get started:

Select Sales

The first order of business is determining what sales you can afford to have. Whether you have a small or extensive product line, the best rule of thumb for highlighting Black Friday deals is to pick one high-priced ticket item at a reasonable discount to attract consumer attention to other products as well. One example is if you’re selling beauty products, you could consider marking up an anti-aging serum 20% off and feature other offers like 10% off face masks. Another sales tactic could be buy one get one half off or having a flash sale with a time limit so consumers feel the urgency to buy and feel like they’re not missing out on a one-time sale.

Prepare Inventory 

Anticipate your sales demand by ensuring you have ample inventory in stock ready to be shipped when deals start. Prepare by looking back at high-demand holiday season sales from last year or the year before to identify how many items of current sale items were sold. Ensure orders are made with manufacturers for an ample amount of time to ship to your storage facility.

Reserve your top-selling items for a release on and not before Black Friday so you don’t deplete inventory for hot products too early.

Troubleshoot Tech Early 

The last thing you want to happen on one of the biggest retail sales days of the year is for your website or app to crash or find that there’s an issue with online payment methods. Get in front of these potentially pricey glitches early on by checking web page and mobile app usability. Like a brick-and-mortar retail store, make sure your website and mobile app are optimized with signs and language to direct customers so they know what’s for sale and how they can buy it now for easy navigation. Next, anticipate a flood of traffic to your website and app ahead of the big sales day by checking website load capacity to prevent unwanted crashes.

Execute Order Fulfillment

Gear up for the finish line to your sales transactions by streamlining warehouse order fulfillment. Sales volume can easily overwhelm a small e-commerce business and delay orders. To prevent this, consider outsourcing logistics to a fulfillment company to handle seasonal sales, so all you have to do is focus on growing and scaling your business. This will also ensure that your customers get their orders on time and prevent future shipping delays when demand heightens. Enlisting a third-party logistics service can also help e-commerce businesses by providing a warehouse for storage, managing inventory during chaotic holiday sales demand, cutting down on labor, and providing customized marketing materials to promote your business with a unique consumer unboxing experience.

By Brendan Heegan

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