Black Friday Shipping – 5 Tips to Get Ahead of the Competition
Are you ready for one of the most exciting days of the year? Black Friday is a golden opportunity to increase sales for your business, but it can also be a huge challenge for you as an online retailer. If you’re not prepared, the holiday rush can easily overwhelm your business and ruin your chances of a successful season.
Did you know that in 2021, 87.2 million people shopped online during Black Friday? This is a dramatic increase from previous years and will only continue to grow. As an online retailer, you must be prepared for this influx of orders while maintaining an edge over your competition.
Here are five tips to help you get ahead of the competition and make the most of Black Friday shipping!
1. Be Mindful of Delivery Cutoff Dates... And Plan Inventory and Fulfillment Accordingly
Our first tip may feel like a no-brainer, but it’s essential to reiterate it nonetheless. You need to have a clear understanding of your shipping cutoff dates and plan your inventory and fulfillment accordingly.
As we all know, the holiday season is a busy time for everyone involved in the shipping process – from the retailers to the carriers. This means shipping times will be longer than usual, with potential delays. You need to ensure that you have enough inventory on hand to cover the expected increase in orders, but you also don’t want to be stuck with excess inventory that you can’t sell.
To prevent this, we recommend working backward from your shipping cutoff dates. This will help you determine how much inventory you need and when you need to start your fulfillment process.
2. Have Your Website Optimized for Increased Traffic
As we mentioned, there will be a significant increase in traffic to your website during Black Friday. If your website isn’t prepared for this influx, it could crash or run slowly, leading to a frustrating experience for your customers.
To avoid this, you must ensure that your website is optimized for increased traffic. This includes ensuring that your server can handle the increased traffic, that your website is loading quickly, and that your checkout process is smooth and easy to use.
3. Ensure Your Products Are Always in Stock
If you've got a hot product on your hands, there's a good chance it will sell out fast on Black Friday. To avoid frustrating your customers (and losing out on sales), you must ensure that your products are always in stock.
This may seem like a difficult task, but there are a few things you can do to make it easier. First, you can use data from previous years to predict which products will be the most popular and plan your inventory accordingly. You can also keep an eye on your real-time inventory levels and reorder products as soon as they start to run low.
4. Prepare for High Shipping Volume
There will always be a higher volume of shipments during the holiday season. This is why it’s essential to have a plan in place to deal with the increase.
One way to do this is to ship orders in batches. This means that you group orders together based on their shipping destination. For example, if you have several orders going to the same state, you would put them in the same batch. This can help you save on shipping costs and make the most efficient use of your time.
Another way to deal with the increased shipping volume is to use a fulfillment service. A fulfillment service can help pick, pack, and ship your orders quickly and efficiently. This can significantly help during the holiday season when you deal with a higher volume of orders.
5. Partner with a Reliable Shipping Platform
Shipping platforms often specialize in certain areas of shipping, so it’s crucial to partner with one that can best support your Black Friday shipping needs.
For example, if you’re looking for help with order management, you’ll want to partner with a shipping platform that offers robust order management features. There are also shipping platforms specializing in last-mile delivery, which can be extremely helpful if you expect a high volume of orders.
Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, so it’s essential to be prepared. By following these tips, you can ensure your business is ready for the influx of orders and stay ahead of the competition.
The Benefits of Partnering with Freight Club
Black Friday shipping can seem complex and daunting, but with Freight Club’s years of expertise and excellence, you can ensure you are ahead of the game. At Freight Club, we help you simplify your shipping process by effortlessly managing everything from quoting, booking, and tracking to complete claims management and secondary insurance protection - all on one platform with zero subscription fees.
We offer one of the largest selections of residential shipping solutions in the United States, with up to 7 levels of delivery services, including White Glove services.
Our members enjoy enterprise rates from 30+ pre-vetted carriers with no volume requirements – ship your big and bulky products with ease!
Whether you are an SMB or an enterprise business, we can help you help your business grow and reduce your shipping costs and damage rates this Black Friday.
Are you ready to have an exciting Black Friday season? Get in touch to know how we can help you enhance your shipping performance.
Trusted by thousands of small to medium businesses since 2015, Freight Club enables shippers to ship with confidence and ease.