Black Friday is just around the corner and for some SMEs that will bring a wave of panic as well as a rush of excitement.

An event that’s grown into one of the busiest days of the retail calendar, Black Friday can be great for boosting sales, but it can also create a number of challenges for an SME business if you’re not properly prepared.

When is Black Friday 2022?

First of all, you need to get the date in your diary so you can start working towards it.

This year, Black Friday UK will fall on Friday 25th November. Although it’s worth bearing in mind that some retailers, such as Amazon, start offering Black Friday deals even earlier.

What you need to consider for Black Friday 2022

As an SME business owner, part of getting ready for Black Friday will involve being aware of potential issues that Black Friday sales could pose for you.

Let’s take a look at the top five concerns around Black Friday, and what you can do about them:

1. Know which Black Friday deals to promote

When it comes to selecting which Black Friday deals to promote, the best advice is to keep it simple.

There are lots of strategies you could employ, such as blanket discounts, free gifts with qualifying orders, or special bundle deals.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s offering genuine value to your customers and that deals are promoted in an easy to understand way. It's also good to know that most consumers expect a minimum of 20% off on Black Friday, so keep that in mind when choosing how to cut prices.

2. Have enough stock to fulfil Black Friday sales

Planning in advance means you won't have to worry about running out of stock.

To mitigate this, you could restrict offers to certain product lines of which you have plenty of stock or offer larger Black Friday discounts on those items.

You could also think about things like a series of time-limited promotions which can help you create a buzz around your most popular lines without the worry of selling more than you have. And when you’re ordering stock for Black Friday, remember you’ll have another chance to shift it with Christmas just around the corner.

3. Arrange delivery for Black Friday orders

Arranging an increase in deliveries over the course of Black Friday doesn’t have to be daunting.

Parcel2Go has lots of options to make sending parcels easier and more cost effective.

As well as giving you access to delivery services from the biggest and best parcel couriers, we’ve got tools such as Smart Send which is designed to help SME businesses manage their online orders and deliveries all in one place! It's free and easy to set up and you can integrate with all your sales channels, such as Amazon, eBay and your own website, to automate your parcel delivery and manage invoices from one platform.

You can also keep your Parcel2Go account topped up with PrePay. When you top up by £100 or more, we'll give you 2% extra on us!

4. Maintain customer service levels over Black Friday

Make sure you have the resources to deal with the additional marketing efforts before the event, as well as the capacity to cope with extra orders on Black Friday itself. This will go some way to helping you maintain your customer service levels and see those customers come back to your shop.

You’ll also need to put some thought into whether you want to communicate any potential delays in delivery times to your customers, and if you intend to make any changes to your returns policy. Due to Royal Mail strikes, many small businesses have been affected by slow parcel delivery. If you usually use Royal Mail to deliver parcels, read more on how you can prepare for Black Friday during the postal strikes.

Planning to deal with an increase in returns and customer queries following Black Friday will also help keep your customers happy.

5. Ensure websites can cope with higher Black Friday traffic

Getting the right level and type of hosting to cope with increased online traffic over the Black Friday period is crucial for your sales to be a success.

More than ever, you’ll want customers to easily navigate your site, get access to your Black Friday deals, and complete their purchases without your website going down in the middle of a sale.

You should carry out tests well in advance of Black Friday to make sure your servers can handle the additional traffic. Analysing your website to spot any potential problems that might come up is also just good practice. This might involve outsourcing help, but it will be well worth the cost in the lead up to Black Friday and Christmas sales.

Another way to avoid website traffic being affected is to sell on a marketplace, such as Etsy or Amazon. If you already sell on these marketplaces, leaning into their resources can help ease your burden during busy sales periods.

For some more tips on make the most out of Black Friday 2022, take a look at our blogs on 5 Tips for Sellers Facing Black Friday and 10 Insightful Tips to Increase Your Black Friday Sales.

Parcel2Go can help you this Black Friday – get a quote today to see how much you could save on parcel delivery!