Black Friday is back. It's that time of year when eager shoppers take to high street stores and online shopping in search of the best deals. It may be a chaotic time of year, but it's a crucial period in the calendar that provides retailers with huge opportunities to maximize sales and growth, and they must respond to not only meet but exceed consumer expectations.
Black Friday has huge potential to drive sales and is an opportunity for brands to build relationships with new consumers while strengthening existing ones. If merchants' Black Friday sales are executed correctly, they'll create strong foundations that deliver both short-term sales and long-term customer loyalty. To help retailers succeed this year, here are three key tips essential to driving sales during this shopping period.
1. Enabling smarter decision-making
The retail industry is a fast-paced environment with constantly changing trends and patterns. Throughout Black Friday, there is a constant flow of change in product stock, orders, and store performance. Leveraging analytics and reporting tools in a retailer's tech stack provides the ability to act faster, make sales predictions quicker, and maximize opportunities through better preparation.
Teamwork Commerce's reporting and analytics tools supply retailers with accurate insights that assist with in-the-moment decisions, tracking stock levels, sales performance, and supply chain sustainability in real time. The system provides automated reports and alerts on demand, if stock levels drop to a certain threshold, teams are informed and can take action to avoid stockouts. On a broader level, the technology creates a full picture of store performance in one easy-to-read dashboard, so retailers can interpret Black Friday data and take decisive action immediately.
2. Tackling tedious stockouts
Once analytics and reporting tools are in place, retailers can gain control of in-store operations, and do the same with their supply chain through inventory management control. One of a retailer's biggest drawbacks during busy periods, and a significant customer frustration, is stock availability and stockouts. Deploying item-level RFID lets retailers accurately track products from manufacturer to shop floor.
Teamwork's RFID-powered stock counter app gives retailers complete accessibility to stock levels from all locations across all channels. The Android Bluebird RFID Scanner App, used with Teamwork Commerce, lets retail associates conduct stock checks in a matter of seconds while providing complete visibility of inventory in back rooms and on the shop floor. As products sell, associates can replenish quickly, maximizing sales opportunities, and spend less time in back rooms and more time delivering high-quality customer experiences.
3. Soothing customer chaos
Finally, control the chaos. Customers are the main puzzle piece to retail, so it's necessary for retailers to fully understand and anticipate their wants and needs. The shop floor across Black Friday can be chaotic, from impatient customers to unreliable checkout systems. The key to success is fast, seamless, and consistent transactions that keep up with demand.
Teamwork Commerce's RFID-powered self-checkout solution restores confidence, providing reliable technology that supports day-to-day transactions across the shop floor. Customers simply place their items in a designated area on the kiosk, RFID readers scan all items immediately with full accuracy, and the transaction completes in under 30 seconds, reducing queue times and enhancing the customer experience.
Theft is another consideration during Black Friday. According to Statista, 15% of small business owners in the US say they suffer from retail theft every day, and one in four small business owners say they lose between $1,500 and $2,000 a month. RFID tags trigger in-store alarms and are only deactivated once transactions are complete, so any item that passes through security barriers unpaid immediately alerts teams to a possible theft attempt.
Guarantee success
To succeed this sales season, having the right tools in place for effective decision-making, enhancing customer experiences, and staying on top of stock availability will define retailers' success. High-quality experiences during busy periods go a long way toward building trust between retailers and their customers. Black Friday presents a unique opportunity to maximize sales over Cyber Weekend while creating long-term relationships.