Qvalon Blog article content
By: Jul Domingo
Black Friday is the most awaited commercial event of the year.
ABC News reported that Black Friday retail sales reached approximately $6.3 million total spent per minute—in the United States alone.
That’s why retailers are excited about this day as much as anyone else.
In 2020, 73% of consumers planned to shop in stores for the best Black Friday deals despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As things continue to improve, this number is likely to rise, posing some challenges for retailers.
Dive in to discover Black Friday Retail Tips that will make your customers’ return to in-store shopping a great one.
What’s Black Friday?
Black Friday occurs on the last Friday of November. It’s typically a day commonly associated with special offers and reduced prices and marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
But it wasn’t always the case. The first use of the term occurred in 1869, when the prices of gold dropped.
The Black Friday we know only today started in 1960. Black refers to stores going from red to black. Red ink meant losses, and black meant profits in old accounting records.
Black Friday benefits for retailers
Black Friday brings joy and money to Retailers—if they do it right. Here are some of the most exciting perks:
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Increase sales. Many people consider Black Friday as bargain-hunting. Most people will shell out money to buy gifts for the upcoming holiday season. Moreover, Black Friday entices consumers to buy more things at full prices—not just bargains. This creates incremental sales for your retail store and could lead to increased profit.
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Reduce stocks. It’s common to see old stocks being put on sale on Black Friday since it’s the best time of year to get rid of them and convert them into sales. You can also use it as a reason to clear your inventory in time for the Christmas season.
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Acquire new customers. Working retail on Black Friday offers a fantastic marketing opportunity to gain new customers. It’s a chance to grab their attention and keep it long after the holiday season ends.
Tips for Black Friday for retailers’ store preparations and planning
Retail stores have their hands full on Black Friday. And for that, accurate planning is necessary to meet shoppers’ needs, maximize your profits, and prevent problems. Here are ways on how to prepare your store for the Black Friday retail sales:
Improve product catalogs
Black Friday requires excellent product management. Firstly, decide what products to showcase in your physical and digital stores, and determine how much inventory you have. Don’t put low inventory items on sale because customers may become frustrated, leading to mistrust and lost sales.
Organize your shop
Many people will be coming into the doors—as early as a few days before the Black Friday madness. Give them a superb shopping experience by organizing your stores properly. Flawlessly position every fixture, light, and shelf. More importantly, your visual merchandising plan needs to be clear, fluid, logical and offers a lot of open space. Group products together, so you don’t confuse your customers.
Establish a Plan B for logistics and fulfillment
Having stock-outs can cost retailers nearly 50% of what they want to sell, according to a Harvard Business Review study. Add to that Black Friday is a whole new ball game—you need to have a contingency plan for logistics and fulfillment to avoid stock-outs and satisfy customer demand. Here are some ways you can achieve that:
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Assess your current logistic and fulfillment operations for potential bottlenecks, such as suppliers with frequent shipping delays.
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Make internal communications transparent, especially logistics, across departments.
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Develop a diverse network of carriers and logistics providers.
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Look into near-sourcing—it’s got multiple benefits over the long haul.
Monitor your shelves
Expect Black Friday merchandise to fly off the shelves. Providing an excellent in-store experience means regular shelf replenishment—especially if you don’t want to lose sales. Management can use a remote monitoring to keep an eye on the shelves and make sure they are stocked, and everything is in the right place.
Keep your branding consistent
Regardless of how busy Black Friday shopping can get, always hold your brand to a high standard. Audits and digital checklists are both helpful for making sure your stores comply with existing operation standards regarding cleanliness, design, ambiance, lighting, and other aspects. Stores should have the same look and feel. Brand consistency can increase revenue by 33%
Prepare your Black Friday staff
A chaotic floor can make staff feel overwhelmed—but that’s how Black Friday tends to be. With too many people and goods scattered all over the place, management will have trouble keeping track of employees’ responsibilities. Providing them with a tool to manage tasks and collaborate better, such as QVALON, helps them stay organized, prioritize tasks, and handle urgent situations better.
Learn from experience
So this Black Friday tip might not be applicable right now. But it pays dividends if you monitor your performance this season. Having data to look back to can help you assess your performance in the future by the next Black Friday. Take a moment to reflect and think about what was successful and what wasn’t. Tweak effective tactics for other seasonal sales, or drop those strategies that didn’t work.
Additional tips to boost your Black Friday sales
“Hook” products and special discounts are some of the most common Black Friday marketing strategies, so it’s imperative to plan. Entice them to fill their carts with other stuff from your store.
Increase retail sales online as well
According to Forbes, more people use their phones to purchase things online. And by 2022, mobile e-commerce sales will grow to 68%. So it’ll be possible if retailers can adapt to mobile shopping. Black Friday for retailers is a day to snowball your business’s sales and profits.
One of the Black Friday marketing ideas that retailers and Black Friday staff should consider is strategic promotion set-ups.
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For physical stores, it’s common to see “buy two-take one” promos. For digital stores, it can be substituted by giving exclusive offers for bulk orders.
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Giving special discounts for every referral is also a coveted tactic. This doesn’t only increase your Black Friday retail sales, but it also gives you loyal customers.
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Use email marketing or SMS marketing to notify your existing customers.
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Ensure your website is working well. Check whether it has a mobile-friendly and user-friendly layout and design.
Register promotions and discounts
Offers can make customers flock to your store. Ensure that all the changes in prices and the promotions you advertise are registered in the system. This makes the checkout process more accessible and smooth, leaving no chance for consumers to remove items from their cart.
Notify existing customers
Ramp up the excitement for the incoming sale with email and SMS marketing by giving them the lowdown on what will happen. Most customers prefer to receive brand updates via SMS (48%) and email (22%).
Make this Black Friday sale a success
These Black Friday retail tips can make a big difference in the success of your sales. But instead of doing it manually, simplify your and your staff’s workload, especially on such a busy shopping day.
QVALON can be extremely helpful. The things you can do with this mobile retail solution are endless. You can perform regular audits, manage tasks, simplify processes, collaborate well, and monitor outlets remotely. The best way to implement Retail Black Friday best practices is to invest in a tool to accomplish these tasks. Book a QVALON demo right before the busy season kicks off.
