Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend has become the busiest online shopping time for eCommerce retailers. With the festive season in sight and fantastic deals aplenty, the competition for Cyber Monday sales is fierce. That’s why you need to plan in advance to make sure you are well-stocked, your service is slick and your fulfilment process is top notch. Working with an experienced fulfilment partner can help to give your eCommerce business the edge. With your fulfilment in hand, your concentration is exactly where it should be, on your products and customers.
There are a number of areas that eCommerce retailers should concentrate on to create the best buying experience for their customers. Having had almost 50 years’ experience in the business, here’s our top fulfilment tips to make sure you have a smooth and profitable Cyber Monday.
Getting your website ready
Getting your website or marketplace ready is the first step to success. Check that your site is loading smoothly and quickly and is able to still function well with the uptick in traffic. Make sure your website is optimised too as this is going to bring in the most organic traffic to your site.
This is also the time to ensure your checkout process is seamless and easy-to-use on both mobile and desktop devices, and any third-party apps, like Shopify. Multiple payment options at checkout will make a completed sale much more likely, so make sure you have these options available for your customers.
Inventory management
Planning your stock levels is must. If you have been trading for over a year, review your stock, sales and returns from last year to make sure you are prepared. If this is your first year of trading, over planning is better than being caught out on the day. Researching your competition can also be a great way to prep for your first Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale.
It’s especially important to check that all the stock levels on your website are up to date, correctly categorised and are synced with your fulfilment partner, so you can live track sales and returns and replenish stock on the go.
Align your customer service with your fulfilment partner
Be prepared for an influx of customer queries over this busy period and set yourself up to deal with them effectively and quickly. Provide different ways for customers to get in touch, such as through website chat, social media and email. You’ll also want to be clear on your response time depending on their urgency.
Because of the level of impulse buying that happens on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’ll want to be prepared for more returns than usual. Your fulfilment partner will need to be well set up for this, but you will want to make sure they clearly understand your returns policies and procedures, including timeframe, return delivery options, condition and resale options.
Choose the right eCommerce fulfilment partner for your business
Working with a reliable and cost-effective fulfilment partner like SAE Logistics will ensure that your orders are fulfilled efficiently, your inventory is accurately managed and any customer returns are handled smoothly.
All of these processes are managed and monitored through our dedicated fulfilment and logistics platform, which we can help sync with major marketplaces and website platforms, which makes a busy time a breeze to manage.
To find out more about our eCommerce fulfilment services, or to get in touch, click here.