Black Friday Checklist: 5 Ways E-Commerce Sellers Can Prepare Now

Black Friday is right around the corner!

While this is an exhilarating time of the year for customers, it can be incredibly stressful for e-commerce business owners. From promotional content to inventory and more, there are many steps required to make sure that you are prepared for the holiday rush.

So, what should you be doing on the days leading up to Black Friday? Here’s our checklist for some tasks you can do to get your e-commerce business ready now.

2022 Black Friday Checklist

Promotional Content

If you haven’t already started advertising your Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, we recommend starting now. In addition to this, we also recommend scheduling content ahead of time for the week following Thanksgiving day. This way, you can focus on other aspects of your business without having to worry about advertising. As you’re creating Black Friday content, make sure that you provide a clear call to action for potential customers. Without an easy way to transition to your storefront, customers could potentially become disinterested.

Inventory

Make sure that your inventory is fully stocked, especially popular items. If you’re unsure of how much inventory you need, take a look at your historical sales and inventory numbers. It’s important to look at not only your holiday sales and inventory, but sales and inventory from the rest of the year. These numbers should give you a better idea of how much stock you need.

Storefronts & Marketplaces

Your storefront and marketplace listings should be up to date with accurate product listings and quantities. Without accurate stock numbers across all of your storefronts and marketplaces, you risk missing out on sales or having customers place orders for out-of-stock items. To help ensure that all stock levels remain accurate, we recommend utilizing a fulfillment management software.

Packaging

Make sure you’re stocked up on all things needed to package your items. We also recommend limiting the types of packaging that you use. Instead of having multiple types of boxes and mailers for your items, try to limit to one type of smaller package for your individual items and one type of larger package for your larger items or multiple-item orders. This makes it easier to purchase packages in bulk, meaning you can receive additional discounts.

Shipping

Account for your shipping and shipping packaging within the price you list your products for. This is especially important during the holidays when holiday surcharges are in place. To simplify this process, we recommend leveraging a fulfillment software to shop for the best shipping rates for every order.

How Soapbox Can Help

The Soapbox software automatically shops and selects the most cost-effective shipping carrier for every order. Plus, with our smart shipping packaging selection, you can always choose the optimally sized package for your order, saving time and money on fulfillment this holiday season.

Our software has a number of additional features designed to simplify your fulfillment. This includes syncing your storefronts and marketplaces under a single dashboard, the option to create custom orders, and allowing you to print your pick list, pack list, and shipping labels all in one convenient place.

Curious about how our software can simplify your holiday fulfillment? Create a free account here. You can also reach out to us at support@soap-bx.com with any software questions.

To learn more about holiday surcharges, check out our article, “2022 Holiday Surcharges: How to Get Ready Now.”