Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the biggest shopping days of the year, potentially bringing in a huge uptick in traffic and sales.
However, this surge in demand can turn into a logistical nightmare, especially if you run out of stock of best-selling items or struggle to process orders quickly enough. Inevitably, this leads to stressed staff, disappointed customers and a damaged reputation.
So how do you avoid all of that? Preparation is key – and automation is your ultimate defence.
Ahead of our 15-minute demo of our Automation Engine – where you can enjoy a Starbucks on us, just for coming along – we’re revealing the simple automation steps you can take to get your online store ready for a surge in demand during BFCM.
1. Automate your order processing
Handling orders manually during BFCM is a fast track to staff burnout. With the surge in sales, mistakes and delays become inevitable if you stick with a manual approach.
Tools like Brightpearl’s Automation Engine can help you handle a dramatic uptick in demand without breaking a sweat. Everything from processing invoices and purchase orders to updating stock levels and printing shipping labels can be done automatically.
The average retailer saves 352 hours a year with Brightpearl, using simple, no-code rules to streamline these tasks. It’s a foolproof way to stay efficient and error-free, even through a peak sale surge.
2. Automate your inventory management
BFCM demand spikes are great – as long as you have enough stock of the right items to meet the demand. The worst thing that can happen is running out or overselling, which means you’ll have to turn your hard-earned customers away. That’s why automating your inventory management is so important.
With Brightpearl, it’s easy to automate inventory forecasting – factoring in seasonality, promotions, as well as historical sales and recent shopping trends. You can even automate warehouse transfers to ensure you keep stock in the right place, and avoid wasting cash on inventory you don’t need.
Automated inventory management is a key step in ensuring you’re ready for the BFCM rush, without risking missing a sale.
3. Automate your customer comms
During peak season, customer expectations are higher than ever. BFCM shoppers want to be kept in the loop at every stage of their buying journey – especially when emotions are running high with holiday deals and product scarcity.
If you keep them informed, you’re not just ensuring a smooth transaction; you’re building trust and creating loyal customers who will return long after the season ends. This doesn’t mean dedicating a team of staff to providing updates.
With Brightpearl, you can automate post-purchase emails and updates, providing timely order confirmations, shipping updates and delivery notifications. This level of communication keeps customers happy, reduces support inquiries and strengthens your reputation – which will all pay off once BFCM has been and gone.
4. Automate your marketing
To avoid a flood of returns from recent shoppers, it’s crucial to tailor your BFCM marketing by excluding those who have recently made purchases. With automated customer segmentation, you can easily create targeted campaigns, ensuring you’re sending the right offers to the right people. This is vital during BFCM when inboxes are crowded and competition is intense.
Brightpearl’s automation functionality allows you to segment customers based on pre-defined or custom tags, so you can personalize promotions effortlessly. For example, you can reward customers who’ve spent over a certain amount with exclusive VIP deals by automatically flagging their orders for your packing team.
Importantly, you can also automatically track and evaluate your campaign success with Brightpearl, helping you make data-driven decisions and optimize your marketing spend for future campaigns.
Curious about how automation can give you an edge during BFCM? Register now for our 15-minute demo (and get a free coffee on us!).
