Black Friday (and all of the sales holidays associated with it) are almost upon us and it’s time to start preparing. But if you’re new to the holiday retail rush, you might be wondering where to start, so here are some tips for preparing for Black Friday so your small business can get in on the action.
Start Early
If you’re starting now, it’s probably too late. But that’s OK, better late than never! Next year, consider starting earlier. Black Friday sneaks up on you, and preparing for it can get overwhelming if you leave it to be too last minute!
Advertise Your Offer
Is it really a Black Friday Sale if it’s not on the internet. Don’t answer that—it clearly is, but people won’t buy it because they won’t know about it. When it comes to jumping on the holiday sales train and preparing for Black Friday you need to create a marketing plan.
Some great ways to advertise your Black Friday offer are:
- Post it on your social media channels
- Send it out in your regular newsletters
- Put a banner up on your website
- Write a blog post about it
If you have the opportunity to work with an influencer and it won’t break the bank, it could be a great chance for you to expand your audience. Not only can this help you with sales, but it can also help you with brand awareness.
Test Your Website
For the online retailer, preparing for Black Friday means making sure your website is ready for the rush of visitors you’ll (hopefully) see on your site, purchasing your merchandise.
Essentially you’ll want to ensure that your website can handle increased amounts of traffic without crashing. While you might not see millions of visitors (but fingers-crossed) you’ll still want to make sure that any fluctuation of traffic can be handled.
Be Mobile-Ready
When it comes to preparing for Black Friday, your online store needs to be mobile-ready. So many people online shop on their smartphones (this guy included) so if you want a chunk of that Black Friday change, you need to be ready!
Being mobile-friendly simply means that people can shop from their phones without it ruining the retail experience. It does not mean that you have to have your own app!
Have Great Credit Card Processing Capabilities
You can’t accept cash as an online retailer. Well, you probably could if you wanted to… but what a disaster. When people wander on by (AKA find themselves aimlessly shopping for awesome Black Friday sales) to your store, anything they purchase will need to be paid for via credit card.
So, when it comes to preparing for Black Friday, make sure that you have a great credit card processing system set up. And that it can also handle a little influx of traffic too!
What do you do when it comes to preparing for Black Friday? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Tae started out as a journalist before following the money into the corporate world. But it turns out that the grass isn’t always greener and now you can find her spending most of her time writing about all the things she loves. Namely, money, travel and business with a hefty dose of self-deprecating humor. She is a podcast fanatic, blogging aficionado and loves to find new ways to turn passions into cold hard cash!
