It’s that time of year again: when people’s online shopping carts fill to the brim and businesses scramble to keep up. This year, Black Friday falls on November 28th with Cyber Monday following on December 1st; two days of the year when everyone’s on the prowl for securing good shopping deals. A busy holiday season means that businesses need to stay ahead of the peak season ahead of them, and it starts with early preparation.
To ensure a smooth and successful shipping process during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the following preparations should be considered before the influx of orders. From delivery times to the packaging itself, there are a myriad of areas to focus on in order to keep shoppers satisfied. With ShipHawk’s assistance, this holiday peak season can be a breeze.
With shoppers flocking online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, having a user-friendly website for both desktop and mobile is essential to attracting and retaining customers. A site that looks visually unappealing, hard to access, or has any broken links is sure to drive potential customers away. Having a dynamic, intuitive website is key, so it’s ideal to assess how your website looks and operates on multiple devices in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Weeks before Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around, it’s best to begin implementing marketing and newsletter campaigns in order to draw in potential customers. Tailoring your campaigns to typical customer shopping behavior, especially amongst Millennials and Gen-Z crowds, and utilizing social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok will entice potential shoppers. Additionally, choosing products you want to promote for Black Friday and Cyber Monday should be done early, which means you should identify which products are in high demand by reviewing past inventory.
With ShipHawk’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), your business can increase warehouse inventory accuracy and order integrity, allowing you to maximize efficiency through every step of the warehouse and shipping process. Knowing your customers’ wants are critical to establishing an inviting marketing campaign, as this can help you drive sales up and keep you prepared for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping rush. By having access to past warehouse inventory with ShipHawk, you can pinpoint what draws customers’ attention and formulate a marketing strategy ahead of time.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday will dominate online shopping. With marketing campaigns, promotions, and sales being established weeks leading up to these events, there will be opportunities to drive in-person shopping as well. With the gradual influx of shoppers, it’s best to prepare customer support for the surge; an increase in purchases also means an increase in customer inquiries. Prepare your team with the right tools and information they need to cover all kinds of requests, as it’s especially important that your team responds to all inquiries within a quick time frame. Train your team to have strong communication skills by providing standard phrases and replies in advance; there’s nothing that drives shoppers away more than a rude or unhelpful exchange with customer service. Additionally, including shipping updates, return questions, and an easily accessible FAQ on your website is also essential to manage the workload for your customer support team.
Shoppers always want to know when their packages will arrive, as that dictates whether they push the buy button or not. The vast majority of shoppers won’t proceed if there’s no guaranteed delivery date, so it’s important to list delivery times for each shipment and display dates that are in shoppers’ ideal time frame. Additionally, offering multiple shipping options, like free shipping and low-cost delivery, is ideal, as some customers prefer that their shipment arrives quickly while others would rather pay less and receive their shipment later. It’s important to know your customers’ shopping behaviors in order to cater to their delivery needs and expectations, so being on top of delivery time listings is important to keep shoppers satisfied.
Shoppers are likely to proceed when given delivery accommodations, and to throw in more enticing offers, including an easy return policy and a return shipping setup can elevate the shoppers’ experience. Simplifying returns builds customer loyalty, as shoppers are more inclined to return items if the process is straightforward.
Paired with ShipHawk’s Transportation Management System (TMS), you can find the best carriers and shipping rates while saving your business time and money throughout the shipping process. With the addition of FTL functionality, shippers can process parcel, less-than-truckload (LTL), and full-truckload (FTL) shipments all from one platform.
ShipHawk TMS helps your business keep up with orders and ensures fast, accurate deliveries during the holiday season.
From fragiles to perishable goods, businesses need to ensure that shoppers’ items don’t get damaged or spoil during the shipping process. Shipping delays during this peak season could also potentially damage shipments and, consequently, hurt your business’s credibility, so it’s important to utilize right-sized packaging for extra protection. Packages that don’t match the item inside results in a waste of materials and potential damages from any internal collisions during transit. Additionally, many shoppers seek eco-conscience businesses, so incorporating right-sized packaging not only protects these shipments, but it also contributes to creating a better sustainable practice.
Relying on efficient shipping technology is key to maintaining a smooth process while also ensuring that shipments are packaged correctly; ShipHawk’s Smart Packing tool for cartonization helps shippers select the right box or pallet needed, maximizing efficiency during busy shipping seasons. Likewise, our dimensioner also allows you to streamline how you capture the weights and dimensions of your shipments with a modern, time-efficient solution that writes the data back to your ERP, ensuring that your packaging is accurate. Protecting your shipments is essential to maintaining customer satisfaction, especially during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as choosing the right packaging goes a long way.
Preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. To prepare for peak season, you can start by asking yourself ShipHawk’s essential questions for tackling the top 5 supply chain challenges. From inventory management to time sensitivity, there’s an array of areas that you’ll need to cover in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Additionally, choosing ShipHawk for all of your warehouse and transportation needs during this peak season holiday rush means achieving efficiency on a greater scale. Some of the additional benefits you’ll receive from ShipHawk WMS include:
Likewise, with ShipHawk’s TMS, you’ll be able to accelerate order processing with automated ratings, optimizing areas like:
It’s always best to reference ShipHawk’s peak season playbook for all upcoming holiday seasons as well, as you want to stay ahead of the process by implementing good practices and constantly assessing the areas you can improve upon. By utilizing ShipHawk, you’ll be ready to face this holiday season with confidence.
If you’re interested in learning more about preparing for Black Friday/Cyber Monday or ShipHawk, please feel free to talk to us today!