It seems to get longer and start earlier every year, but officially on the 26^th November we leap into the key shopping event which we are all becoming familiar with, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

This huge sale event has become increasingly popular in recent years, with new retailers joining the event every year.

UK consumers will now look to buy the majority of their Christmas shopping during this sales event and with the increase in online sales since the pandemic, this years Black Friday period could be the busiest ever.

So how will StoreFeeder help your business during this key trading event?

Capacity - 2020 Cyber Weekend in numbers:

Here are some stats about Cyber Weekend in 2020 over our platforms.

StoreFeeder Preparations

Whilst we have confidence we will be able to deliver everyone a high standard of service, we have gone further:

• Over the past 3 months our developers have worked non stop to improve speed and stability of functions and pages.
• Prior to the event we will spare no expense to increase server and database capacity. We want every one of our customers to succeed and limit the effects of the increased orders coming in. 
• We will also pause any development or update releases to keep software stable and ensure all functions and pages run just as you expect.

How can you maximise the performance of your StoreFeeder Account?

As you will appreciate, StoreFeeder holds A LOT of data, orders, products, listings etc., and a lot of this data gets queried when you do basic tasks or filter grids on the system.

It is always good practice to remove old and obsolete data from your account to keep the system running at optimal performance.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Remove old orders - Do you really need those orders from 2018? Old, unneeded orders will slow down searches and have an impact on other areas of the system as they will be interrogated by some processes. Therefore keeping the number of orders on your account to a minimum.

***Please do not just select orders and hit delete!!! This will have an adverse effect on your inventory levels***

You can manage your order deletion through the 'Data Management > Data Retention" page. Here you can set the number of days you wish to keep order data for. So for example, if you wanted to keep data for 2 years and then delete it permanently from StoreFeeder, you would enter 730 days.

Our KnowledegeBase Guide for this action can be found here - https://support.storefeeder.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360007792238--Data-Retention

***It is very important to follow this method for order removal as other ways will cause you inventory issues.***

• Delete old products - As with orders, certain actions inside StoreFeeder will interrogate ALL products, so removing old ones that you no longer sell, or need the historical data for, is a good practice.

Unlike orders, deleting products can simply be done by selecting the product and clicking 'delete'.

StoreFeeder Black Friday Tips

So we have discussed what we are doing to help you succeed during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and what you can do to keep your StoreFeeder account optimised. But what can you do as a company to stand out from the crowd?

• Engage and keep the customer:

Prepare you eCommerce site - A lack of speed will turn customers off. In fact, 46% of shoppers* have said they’ll never return to a slow website. You want to make sure that doesn’t happen on your website.

Double check your checkout - Make sure your checkout process is as good as it can be. Customers may have thousands of stores to select from and a limited amount of time. They will leave your store if your checkout isn’t running smoothly. Taking a day to improve your checkout process could pay off for you on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You may consider adding extra payment options including Paypal.

• Get the Warehouse ready:

Here are our suggestions for some basic things you can do in the run up to Black Friday to help you cope with the peak:

1. Stock Levels. Reviewing historical sales data helps ensure sufficient stock levels.
2. Staffing Needs. Not surprisingly, it takes more employees to handle the increased workload. Many companies hire temporary help to avoid staffing shortages.
3. Testing the Technology. Today’s warehouse operations depend on barcodes, scanners, printers etc. Making sure all technology tools are in good working order helps meet the increased demands of Black Friday. Have backup scanners, printers etc if possible and ensure they are all tested.
4. Organizing the Warehouse. Whether you are using a warehouse or your basement to fulfil orders, you want to make sure your most popular products are accessible for quicker picking and packing. Organising your stock efficiently is equally important. For example, if you're offering Black Friday deals on certain items, be prepared by putting them in easily-accessible locations in your warehouse. This will make picking as fast and simple as possible in the busy atmosphere.
5. Keep stocked up. Make sure pick locations are topped up with stock from bulk locations
6. Speak to your couriers. It is not just you that is busy, so coordinating with shipping suppliers is important. Speak to your couriers in advance about increased collections, more volume and larger vehicles if needed.
7. Pre-Pack items if possible. If you anticipate selling a large volume of a certain product, use any free time in the run up to Black Friday weekend to pre-pack items. Then pick the packed item and save on packing time on the day. •
8. Don’t run out! Make sure consumables are ordered and ready:  Packaging, Tape, Carrier Thermal Labels, Invoice Paper, Printer Ink……
9. Prepare for returns season. Increased orders shipped may mean increased returns.

• Be Efficient As Possible

StoreFeeder has some great labour saving features built in, so taking some time to make sure these are optimised and working correctly before they are needed, will help your pick, pack and despatch run as efficiently as possible.

1. Make sure product information is correct. Ensure all your products have Packaging Sizes and Quantities.
2. Ensure your Shipping Rules are working. This will ensure that orders get the correct shipping method and mean less manual allocation.
3. Check your listings are mapped. Make sure you’ve mapped your listings to products products. This will stop "Unrecognised Product" orders and ensure stock levels remain accurate
4. Think about Pre-Generating labels. This will speed up the despatch process. This not only saves time on the scan despatch page, but does not tell the channel that the order is despatched (just in case you cannot fulfil on time. (https://support.storefeeder.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360007741597--Pre-Generating-labels)

Some good tips and advice here to help your Cyber Weekend run smoothly.

Happy Selling!