The shopping season is well under way, and Black Friday is just around the corner, so now is the time for your small business to prepare.
Taking place on Friday 29th November, Black Friday is the biggest day of consumer spending in the calendar year, with retailers offering huge discounts on their products. The day is filled with frantic shoppers fighting over products from televisions to blenders, but there are ways you can prepare your business to ensure it is a huge success.
Here are some points to keep in mind ahead of the big day.
Be resourceful
Major retailers such as John Lewis, Argos and others, are likely to see significant consumer spend as shoppers will naturally flock to these established giants due to their range of deals and the savings that can be made in their Black Friday sales.
As a small business, there are other things to consider when planning for your Black Friday. If you’re based in an area with a multitude of local businesses, team up with them to promote your businesses together. Create a hashtag to promote your businesses on social media, making the local community aware of the sales that you will be hosting.
Consider holding an event on Black Friday, set up a stall outside your shop and display your best-selling products. This is a good way to engage with your audience and it provides something more intimate than holding a quick-fire sale.
Prepare your staff
Black Friday is busy for any business offering deals, and you will need all the help you can get, so prepare for this in advance. Make it clear to your staff that they will need to be in work to help, and emphasise the importance of their presence on this day. The last thing you want is a store full of interested customers and not enough staff to serve them.
Provide incentives and rewards for your staff during the day and afterwards. If they’re coming in early to help prepare the store, put out a breakfast buffet or buy a round of drinks at the end of the day to show your appreciation.
Advertise in advance
The most important thing when preparing for Black Friday is to get the customers to your door, so hype up your sale in the run up to the day. Update your website (even if you don’t offer e-commerce) to coincide with the theme of Black Friday, and this will make it clear to your shoppers that you will be taking part.
Make sure that all your communications advertise that you will be offering a sale this Black Friday. Emails and social media posts need to state that you will be taking part to interest your current and potential customers. If you haven’t already started making your customers aware of your Black Friday sale – you should start doing this as soon as possible.
Stock up
Your Black Friday sale will not be a success if you run out of best sellers and sale stock. Prior to the day, make sure you do a full audit of your discounted products. Identify exactly how much stock you
might need and overestimate as it is better to have too much than to run out on the day. Again, you don’t want customers arriving at your store to find that the item you’ve been promoting as part of your Black Friday sale has sold out. Prepare in advance to avoid this situation.
Accepting payments on Black Friday
To get the most out of your Black Friday sale you need to consider the expectations of your customers at each point in their journey and ensure your payment technology can accommodate any preferred payment methods.
Retailers of any size stand out through simplicity, convenience and ease of their customer journey.
It is likely that most of your customers will be paying by card so ensure your payment terminals are up to date and working perfectly.
If you don’t currently offer card payments, or you’re looking to switch card payment providers, take a look at what we offer here.
