Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Prep:
A Checklist for eCommerce Businesses

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most important days for eCommerce businesses, as they offer a chance to attract more customers, increase sales, and boost profits. However, these days also require careful planning and preparation as you must ensure that your online store can handle the high volume of traffic, orders, and inquiries that come with these events.

You also need a reliable and efficient eCommerce fulfillment provider that can handle the increased demand and deliver your orders to your customers on time and in perfect condition. I-Fulfilment is a third-party logistics (3PL) that takes care of all the logistics and fulfillment for your online orders, from storing your inventory in their fulfillment centers to processing your orders to picking, packing, and shipping your items to your customers. In this article, we will show you how to prepare your e-commerce business for the peak season with this comprehensive checklist.

Why is it Important to Prepare Your eCommerce Business for the Peak Season?

Before diving into the checklist, let’s first understand why preparing your eCommerce business for the peak season is important. According to Adobe Analytics, online sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2022 reached £9.11 billion ($11.3 billion) in online spending, breaking eCommerce records, and 2023 may break records as well!

This means eCommerce business has a huge opportunity to increase their sales and profits during this period. However, it also means that there is a huge challenge for eCommerce business owners to manage their inventory, packaging, order processing, shipping, returns, quality control, peak traffic, customer support, and post-event evaluation. That’s why we have created this checklist for you to follow and ensure that you are ready for the peak season.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Brief Checklist for eCommerce Business Owners

Inventory Preparation

This is the process of making sure that you have enough products to sell during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. To prepare your inventory, you need to:

Forecast demand and estimate order volume

Allocate sufficient inventory for high-demand products

Coordinate inventory intake, storage, and organisation for easy access

Plan ahead for receiving new stock before the events. Adjust your ordering schedule with suppliers and logistics partners to ensure timely inventory intake.
Organise your storage space to accommodate the increased inventory efficiently.
Arrange your inventory to minimise picking and packing time, helping you fulfill orders more swiftly.

Packaging Supplies

This is the process of making sure that you have enough materials to pack and ship your products safely and securely. To prepare your packaging supplies, you need to:

Ensure you have an ample supply of packaging materials, including boxes, tape, and inserts

Customise packaging to accommodate potential gift wrapping or special promotions

Verify that all packaging materials are in good condition and ready for use

Before the shopping events begin, inspect all packaging materials for damage and usability. Checkboxes for any damage, ensure tape rolls are full, and confirm inserts are printed accurately.
Maintaining well-conditioned packaging materials avoids shipping issues and preserves a professional presentation. By verifying the condition of your packaging materials, you're setting yourself up for smooth operations.

Order Processing

This is the process of making sure that you can handle and fulfill your orders quickly and accurately. To prepare your order processing, you need to:

Prepare for a surge in orders by optimising your order processing workflows

Partner with a fulfillment center to efficiently pick, pack, and label orders

As the volume of orders rises during these shopping events, consider partnering with a fulfillment center. These centers specialise in order fulfillment and can handle tasks like picking products from your inventory, packing them securely, and labelling them for shipping.
Fulfillment centers are equipped with the necessary infrastructure and expertise to manage high-order volumes efficiently. This partnership can help you maintain quick order processing and shipping times, even during the busiest periods.

Implement barcode scanning and quality checks to minimise errors

To reduce the risk of errors during order processing, consider implementing barcode scanning technology. Each product and order can be assigned a unique barcode, which is scanned at various stages of processing.
Barcode scanning helps ensure that the right products are being picked for each order and that they are accurately labelled. It minimises the chances of mixing up orders or sending incorrect items to customers.

Shipping Planning

This is the process of making sure that you can deliver your products to your customers on time and at a reasonable cost. To prepare your shipping planning, you need to:

Collaborate with a fulfillment center to anticipate and secure adequate shipping capacity

Collaborate with the fulfillment center to provide accurate forecasts of the number of orders you expect to receive. This helps them allocate the necessary resources, including staff and equipment, to meet the demand during these busy periods.
By securing adequate shipping capacity in advance, you can avoid delays and ensure that orders are processed and shipped on time.

Strategies shipping methods to meet delivery timelines and customer expectations

Consider offering expedited shipping for customers who want their orders to arrive quickly, as well as standard shipping options for those who are willing to wait a bit longer in exchange for lower costs.
Clearly communicate the estimated delivery times for each shipping option on your website to manage customer expectations and reduce post-purchase anxiety.

Automate shipping label generation and tracking updates

Integrate your eCommerce platform with shipping software that can generate shipping labels automatically based on order information. This ensures that each package is labelled accurately and with the correct shipping details.
Automated tracking updates allow customers to monitor the progress of their orders in real-time. They receive notifications when their packages are shipped, out for delivery, and successfully delivered, enhancing the customer experience.

Returns Management

This is the process of making sure that you can handle and resolve customer returns and exchanges in a timely and satisfactory manner. To prepare your returns management, you need to:

Prepare a streamlined process for handling potential returns and exchanges

Outline the steps customers need to follow to initiate a return or exchange. Provide them with a user-friendly returns portal on your website where they can submit return requests and receive instructions on how to proceed.
Make sure your returns policy is easy to understand, and communicate it clearly on your website. This includes details about return windows, acceptable reasons for returns, and any associated costs.

Ensure returned items can be efficiently inspected, processed, and restocked

Inspect returned items to determine their condition. Assess whether they can be restocked for resale, need refurbishing, or must be written off. Having clear criteria for determining the condition of returned items helps maintain transparency and consistency.
Restock items promptly to prevent delays in fulfilling new orders. Efficiently processing returns contributes to a smoother inventory flow and a more positive customer experience.

Quality Control

This is the process of making sure that your products and services meet the highest standards of quality and customer satisfaction. To prepare for quality control, you need to:

Implement rigorous quality checks to ensure accurate order fulfillment

Assign dedicated personnel for final quality control before shipments

Address any potential issues or discrepancies promptly and professionally

Peak Traffic Readiness

This is the process of making sure that your order management system can handle increased traffic and demand during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. To prepare your peak traffic readiness, you need to:

Test and optimise your order management system to handle increased traffic

Prior to the events, conduct thorough testing of your website's performance under heavy traffic. Use load testing tools to simulate high user activity and monitor the response times, page loading speed, and overall system stability.
Optimise your website's code, databases, and server configurations to enhance its performance. This might involve caching frequently accessed pages, optimising images for web use, and minimising unnecessary code.

Monitor real-time order volumes to adjust staffing as needed

Implement real-time order volume monitoring tools that allow you to track incoming orders and website traffic as they happen. This data can help you identify peak periods and allocate staff resources accordingly.
Have a plan in place to scale up your customer service team and order fulfillment staff during anticipated peak times. This might involve hiring temporary staff, extending working hours, or redistributing responsibilities.

Customer Support Readiness

This is the process of making sure that you can provide excellent customer service and support during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. To prepare your customer support readiness, you need to:

Connect with a fulfillment support centrewith customer support to handle an influx of inquiries and order-tracking requests

Coordinate with the fulfillment center to ensure that their customer support staff are well-prepared to handle queries related to order status, shipping updates, and any potential issues that customers may encounter.
Provide the fulfillment center's support team with up-to-date information about your promotions, shipping timelines, and any changes to your standard processes during these events.

Offer real-time customer support to address any shipping or order-related concerns

Implement live chat or chatbot functionality on your website to offer instant assistance to customers. This can help address common questions and concerns related to orders, shipping, and products.
Provide clear communication channels for customers to reach out, such as phone, email, and social media. Ensure that your support team is adequately staffed and trained to handle a variety of inquiries.

Post Peak Evaluation

This is the process of making sure that you can learn from your experience and improve your performance for future peak periods. To prepare your post peak evaluation, you need to:

Collaborate with your dedicated fulfillment center to review performance and address any challenges:

Schedule a meeting or debrief with your fulfillment center's team to discuss how well they managed the increased order volume, any challenges they encountered, and any areas where improvements can be made.
Address any issues that arose during the events, whether related to inventory management, order processing, or customer interactions. This collaborative approach helps identify strengths and weaknesses in your operations.

Gather feedback from clients and customers to identify areas for improvement:

Reach out to your clients to understand their perspective on your services during peak events. This could involve discussions on order volumes, communication, and fulfillment accuracy.
Additionally, collect feedback from customers through post-event surveys or reviews. Ask them about their experience with your website, order process, shipping, and customer support. This can help you identify areas for improvement from the end-user perspective.

Client feedback and customer feedback are invaluable sources of information for improving your e-commerce operations.

Use post-event analysis to refine strategies for future peak periods

Analyse the data collected, both quantitative (order volumes, website traffic) and qualitative (feedback and reviews), to identify patterns and trends. This analysis can highlight areas that worked well and those that need improvement.
Use the insights gained to update your planning, preparation, and execution strategies for the next peak events. Adjust processes, allocate resources more effectively, and implement changes based on the lessons learned.

Ready to Make This Year's Black Friday & Cyber Monday a
Success for Your eCommerce Business?

You can download our free infographic that summarises the key points of the checklist in a visual and easy-to-understand way.
You can use this infographic as a quick reference or share it with your team and partners.

Download our FREE checklist

Partner with I-Fulfilment for a smooth Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale Order Fulfillment

If you are looking for a reliable and professional fulfillment provider to partner with for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, you should consider I-Fulfilment. A leading e-commerce fulfillment service provider that offers end-to-end solutions for your online business. Whether you need inventory management, order processing, shipping, returns, quality control, or customer support, we can handle it all for you. With I-Fulfilment, you can:

Save time and money by outsourcing your fulfillment operations to a trusted partner.
Access a global network of warehouses and carriers to reach your customers faster and cheaper.
Benefit from advanced technology and software that integrates with your eCommerce platform and provides real-time visibility and control over your orders.
Enjoy flexible and scalable services that can adapt to your changing needs and demands.
Enhance your brand image and reputation by delivering high-quality products and services to your customers.

Getting in touch

I-Fulfilment has helped thousands of eCommerce business owners achieve success and growth during the peak season. Don’t miss this opportunity to boost your sales and profits. Contact us today and get ready for the best peak season this year!

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Prep:A Checklist for eCommerce Businesses

In this piece, we will explore the following;