6 tips for retailers to win during Black Friday (and Cyber Monday)

Is your online store and fulfilment team ready for the busiest and most exciting sales season of the year?

Firstly, make sure you have these important dates in your calendar. There are two global sales over four days, starting with Black Friday (26 Nov) and ending on Cyber Monday (29 Nov). Sales numbers hit record highs every year, with Australian shoppers each buying an average of 4 products.

Black Friday 26 November 2021 & Cyber Monday 29 November 2021

Let’s look at how we can get you and your online store, ready for the busy sales season.

It’s hard to know how this impacts our revenue until we work it out. Below, Portent explains how much money you gain or lose for each second the page takes to download. If 100 people visit your website for a $50 product, this illustrates the difference in earnings:

• <1 second for 1st page $405.50 (8.11% conversion)
• <1 second for 2nd page $316.00 (6.32% conversion)
• <2 seconds for 2nd page $232 (4.64% conversion)

2. Automation keeps orders moving out the door

During busy sales times, your priority is getting orders out the door and into the hands of their new owners. With fulfilment automation software, your team could save up to 80% of their time by automating fulfilment tasks such as generating labels, selecting couriers, validating addresses, custom forms and sending tracking notifications. Removing manual tasks eliminates human errors, which keeps your orders moving. As your order volumes increase, automation will be the reason you’re able to continue to dispatch orders.

3. Display returns policy at checkout

To minimize cart abandonment, clearly display your simple returns policy during checkout. At this moment, customers want reassurance that they can easily return an item. You can implement a very easy returns policy using Starshipit, which provides an easy-to-use self-service shipping label generator. The shopper simply emails their reason for returning the item and they are sent a printable shipping label they can then use to return the parcel. It’s that easy to manage returns.

4. Address validation & the cost of an incorrect address

On the list of things people are good at, remembering addresses is not up there with having opposable thumbs. An incorrect address is an honest mistake, but also a costly one. A parcel sent to an incorrect address incurs redirection fees, manifest fees and most costly of all, your store may get a bad review or mention on social media (60% of millennials share poor post-purchase experiences on social media). Thank goodness this can all be avoided by simply auto-validating addresses. The address validation feature flags incorrect addresses and highlights suggestions. This level of detail ensures you increase first-time deliveries whilst delivering a great customer experience.

76% of customers want to be updated along the post-purchase journey, by automating delivery updates, you can send customisable tracking notifications at five different stages of the delivery journey. You can personalise these notifications to include cross selling, social media handles and even high-value content. For example, you could include tips on how to wear/use their purchase. These updates win loyalty and reduce “where is my order?” queries to free up your customer service team.

6. Unboxing moments are social proof gold

In the click and deliver age, how can brands recreate and leverage the excitement of customers receiving their new item? Called the “unboxing” moment. Our tip is to simply ask your customers with a message or card in their parcel. In exchange, they will receive a voucher for their next purchase at your store. This will help create social proof and get consumers talking about your products on multiple channels. Remember, if you use customised packaging to showcase your brand’s sustainability values. Our friends at Better Packaging Co are the experts at sustainable packaging and they can help you with this.

Deliver exceptional customer experiences with fulfilment automation

Looking for a smarter way to ship? Shipping automation software, Starshipit, integrates with Couriers Please, to help retailers ship more orders to more customers. Starshipit gives you one dashboard to manage all your orders and easily integrates with your eCommerce and inventory software.
You can print shipping labels, manage returns, and use automations to complete time-consuming tasks, saving you up to 80% in handling time. Sign up for a free 30-day trial (no credit card details required)