Black Friday can be totally manic for any business, whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or an eCommerce site. This year's big day will be followed by Cyber Monday on 2nd December, so if you're a business owner, now’s the time to prepare.
© Stock Rocket / Shutterstock.com
How much do UK shoppers spend on Black Friday?
In the UK, Black Friday is massively important for retailers, as British shoppers spend more than their counterparts across the rest of Europe. In 2019, consumers in the UK spent a total of £8.57 billion, allocating themselves a higher budget than many other countries across the world, according to statistics compiled by Statista.
The average Black Friday spend per person in Britain was £346, with the sale of fashion and luxury items rocketing by 437% on the day, compared with the normal consumer spend on an average Friday in November. The age-group who bought most retail goods were 18 to 24-year-olds, with 51% going on a spending spree.
According to the most recent survey results, 73% of respondents plan to shop more online this year, compared with 27% who will favour the high street, says Statista - although most people plan a mix of the two. People are being more cautious because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Is Black Friday busier than Christmas for retailers?
Considering it's one day in the year (or two if you count Cyber Monday), Black Friday can be worse than Christmas for retailers in terms of manic preparation.
While shoppers often start buying Christmas presents many weeks or months in advance, in the case of Black Friday, people are all starting to shop at once - even at the stroke of midnight in the case of online stores.
Amazon's European retail arm had its busiest shopping day ever on Black Friday 2014, with its website selling more than 5.5 million goods, at a rate of 64 items per second, from midnight onwards. In the past, websites have crashed due to the sheer demand, while shoppers can often be found camping out all night on the high street to grab the best bargains.
In some stores, extra security staff have been employed to avoid some of the scenes of recent years, when fights have broken out among shoppers grappling for mainly electrical goods at knockdown prices.
For most retailers today, Black Friday is considered to be the first day of the Christmas shopping period. Rather than looking at it as spending a lot of time preparing for one day of shopping, they see it as the start of their customers' festive spending spree.
How can you prepare your warehouse for Black Friday?
Whether you're a large department store, a supermarket, an eCommerce retailer, or any other business with customers to satisfy, your warehouse needs to be prepared for Black Friday. Most importantly, get your stock early. Make sure it's in your warehouse as soon as possible, as nobody wants to be unpacking deliveries and carrying out quality control checks at the last minute.
Take into account the storage space you'll need for additional stock before Black Friday and reorganise your warehouse accordingly. Make sure every person in your operations team is available on the day for picking and packing orders to go out, rather than unloading deliveries.
Organising your stock efficiently is equally important. For example, if you're offering Black Friday deals on best-selling items, be prepared by putting them in easily-accessible locations in your warehouse. This will make picking as fast and simple as possible in the hectic atmosphere.
Make sure your team members are fully briefed on where the most popular items are located and the best packaging to use on these popular products. Have all your warehouse resources ready in advance, including equipment, packing materials and human resources.
What about Black Friday shipping times?
When you're sending out goods over Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, set realistic shipping times. Forecast the number of goods you're likely to be sending out and analyse a realistic shipping time, in terms of your carrier network.
All your resources will be stretched due to the massive spike in demand, so don't offer shipping times you can't fulfil, as customers will become more annoyed at parcels being late than they will at being told in advance they may have to wait an extra day or two.
Never offer a next-day delivery service if you've no chance of achieving this, as it will give you a bad reputation for being unreliable.
How important is it to keep organised?
Keeping well-organised is the key to Black Friday success and profitability. Plenty can go wrong if your warehouse isn't efficient enough. At the very least, a disorganised warehouse can lead to unnecessary labour costs, as extra personnel will have to step in to trace missing goods.
Incorrect use of racking arrangements and storage systems results in many companies ending up with their warehouse shelves full, without any extra space for the influx of Black Friday goods. The worst-case scenario could leave you unable to fulfil orders on time, or even at all, leading to a tainted reputation and a loss of trust from consumers.
For information on warehouse storage solutions, contact Solent Plastics - be prepared for the biggest shopping day of the year!