How to Prepare for Black Friday Delivery in 2022?

Black Friday, One Big Day for Shoppers and eCommerce Owners Alike

Brace yourself, Black Friday is upon us all!

More than just the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday has long become one of the biggest shopping days in not just the US, but the rest of the world too.

Both offline retailers and online stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices, starting their business as early as on Thanksgiving, some even opening up at midnight to welcome their overly eager customers, who want nothing more than an intense shopping spree from their favorite retailers, proven by the ever-growing spending in Black Friday every year.

In 2021, US shoppers alone contributed $9.03 billion on Black Friday, inching up 0.3% from that of the previous year [1] and, notably, $8.9 billion of which were spent online [2].

Black Friday starts on Nov. 25, 2022, this year. But the promotions and sales for eCommerce transactions often carry on to Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving and at least a week after.

On Cyber Monday 2021, Shoppers spent $10.7 billion on one single day, overshadowing the spending on Black Friday of the same year [3].

The competition online would only be heater this year, as consumers have been recovering from the pandemic gradually, and the growing demands require planning ahead, from marketing strategies, selling plans, to warehousing, global shipping, and logistics.

If you are yet to plan your order fulfillment solution, this article will help you get a head start on Black Friday shipping.

Here are 4 know-hows to help you better prepare yourself for the upcoming Cyber Week and Black Friday delivery, and, hopefully, fruitful eCommerce business.

Choose the right fulfillment solution

Your logistics operations must be prepared in advance. After all, despite all the efforts spent in marketing and selling, it is the fulfillment and distribution logistics that ensure the top experiences for your customers.

To set up the right fulfillment solutions beforehand, you can either partner up with external professional logistics providers, such as contract logistics providers or 3PLs, or conduct in-house logistics activities yourself.

Partnering with a trusted omnichannel fulfillment provider like EcomHalo can provide your business with access to a suite of these services, including inventory management, order processing, warehousing, transportation management, and customer service support, without the hassle or expense of setting up your own logistics infrastructure.

But if you are low in capital yet want a more flexible method to suit your high-growth business strategy, then there may be better options than the latter.

Moreover, local 3PL warehousing service accelerates shipping times by reducing last-mile deliveries via a decentralized fulfillment approach.

The warehouse set in your consumers’ locations can highly offset the delay during peak seasons like Black Friday.

If they happen to be located in your next target market, resonating with your “going local” strategy, it will improve customer experience with faster shipments and reduced shipping costs and provides a more environmentally friendly distribution logistics solution.

Don’t overstock or understock

Inventory management has always been the key, and more so during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other sales events, when understock may devastate your businesses greatly and render the replenishment inefficient, while overstock may lead to slow selling.

That’s why you need to plan stock accordingly to guarantee sufficient inventory levels so as to better meet the precise demands in Black Friday delivery and enable your warehouse partners to pre-pack your most sold items in advance, speeding up the fulfillment process in general.

In doing so, your teams can thus prevent order fulfillment delays in the first place and guarantee a fast order delivery at all times, no matter what volumes occur.

Track your shipment to ensure the best performance

Trackability is not just a bonus, but a must for 3PL teams you intend to work with. Real-time visibility on the exact location and status of your shipment allows you to keep an eye on fulfillment performance and, most importantly, troubleshoot operational issues to keep everything in control.

Always choose an international freight service provider with proven tracking solutions that link and update incoming orders with stock levels, and you leave no room for things going wrong in the first place.

Analyze the data for the next sales events

Black Friday, among other sales events, is not just a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, there will surely be more in the coming years.

So, no matter what sales performance you achieve this year, you still need to learn from experiences (be them successes or failures) to be better prepared for the next upcoming events.

Once your last order associated with Black Friday delivery was successfully completed, it’s time to reflect on this experience to see if there’s anything for improvement and evaluate your fulfillment partners’ performance to see how well they actually fulfill your orders.

About YunFulfillment Warehouse

Speaking of global shipping and logistics, especially during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, YunFulfillment Warehouse can satisfy the demands of worldwide eCommerce businesses.

Supported by Yun Express, whose network covers over 200 countries on five continents with capability to process one million packages on a daily basis, we are a one-station and high integrated service supplier, offering warehousing, picking & packing, and more!

We are ready to provide the end-to-end order fulfillment solutions and fast-acting global shipping and logistics services, and help you harvest the most during Black Friday in 2022.

References:

• [1] 11 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Online Retail Stats.
• [2] US Holiday 2021 Review and Holiday 2022 Preview
• [3] How to Create a Black Friday eCommerce Strategy

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