The end-of-year holidays are fast approaching, but November brings a key moment for online retailers first: the Black Friday weekend. A genuine phenomenon in the United States, and now here too, so how do you get your e-commerce business ready for the flood of online orders? Romain Syed, CEO of Shippr, helps many online retailers get to grips with their logistics over this critical weekend. In this article he shares his experience, along with practical advice for preparing your logistics and making Black Friday 2021 a success.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is a Friday that opens a few days of exceptional promotions, roughly a month before Christmas. This year the event falls on Friday 26 November 2021.
The origins of Black Friday
Straight out of the United States, the phenomenon arrives the day after their well-known Thanksgiving holiday. Many Americans take the Friday off to make a long weekend of this “black Friday”. The keenest have been known to camp outside the shops from midnight to be first to the bargains, and the event has made plenty of headlines over incidents involving crowds of frenzied shoppers. But where does the name come from? The term is thought to have appeared in the 1960s and to take its origin in retailers’ accounts. Traditionally kept by hand, those ledgers used a colour code: red for losses and black for profits. Because Black Friday sales pushed so many accounts into the black, the expression “black Friday” was born.
Black Friday vs Cyber Monday: what is the difference?
While 26 November is officially Black Friday, it is followed by Cyber Monday on 29 November. Like Black Friday, Cyber Monday is a day of heavy discounts. The difference between the two events lies in where you can take advantage of them. Black Friday lets you walk into a shop, whereas Cyber Monday stands apart because it happens entirely online.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday in numbers
In 2019, Black Friday was already seen as hitting a new record in France: 29 November counted more than 56 million card payments, up 12% on the 2018 figures. And that was before 27 November 2020 which, according to Criteo data, produced a peak of +127% in sales compared with the October average. In other words, sales more than doubled on that “black Friday”. The figure underlines how impatient and how quick to react French consumers are when this event comes round, and that eagerness is unlikely to fade if Deloitte’s estimates are anything to go by. They expect online sales to rise by 11 to 15% at the end of 2021 compared with 2020.
A favourable trend for small retailers
Like the e-commerce giants, small businesses also have the wind in their sails during the event. Consumers were hit hard by the health crisis and now tend to support smaller names: 46% said they intended to favour these small online shops for their purchases.
Why is good logistics crucial on Black Friday?
As we have seen, Black Friday has not finished gaining in importance and popularity. But more online orders also means more deliveries. Logistics has become a decisive asset in many sectors: for online retailers it accounts for 50% of their success. Yet it rarely comes up first when you think about a customer loyalty strategy, where the focus usually falls on customer service, communication and the like. Logistics is nonetheless a major factor in keeping customers. According to a Fevad source, 35% of customers who have had a bad delivery experience will not buy from that online shop again. Improving customer satisfaction, and holding on to those customers, therefore runs through an effective logistics strategy.
Deliveries during Black Friday: a few tips from Romain Syed to help you handle them
Since Shippr was founded we have had the chance to support many professionals through their seasonal peaks. Periods such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the end-of-year holidays and Black Friday are critical to our partners hitting their targets. Logistics is a key part of that process, so it has to perform as well as it possibly can if these online retailers are to last. Everything must be done to give consumers a positive online shopping experience, since for most of these businesses delivery is the only moment of physical contact between their customers and their brand. That means a quality delivery service and a customer experience that triggers a “wow” moment. Every year, Shippr supports many online retailers with their logistics in the run-up to Black Friday. Here are a few tips drawn from my own experience.
Forecast and anticipate what you will need
Good logistics management is a considerable asset in the sales funnel. It is also an extremely complex and time-consuming job. When I talk to online retailers, I often ask how they handle activity peaks around events such as Black Friday. For companies that already have their own drivers, being flexible enough to absorb swings in volume is very hard. It takes organisation and resources: vehicles, drivers, handling staff, and above all the responsiveness to adapt quickly to one-off surges. Seen that way, an external partner such as Shippr can step in on a one-off basis to absorb the volumes your in-house fleet cannot handle. For companies with no drivers of their own, an external provider means handing over the whole of their logistics management. It all depends on each company’s needs and on the level of logistics already in place. We give them a turnkey solution that is available at any time and copes with variations in delivery volumes. Bear in mind that poor first-mile and last-mile management weighs heavily on logistics costs, which account for roughly 80% of total logistics costs. Anticipating activity peaks matters, so that you do not sell more and earn less.
Simplify your flows with integrations
Running an e-commerce business already comes with its share of tasks and constraints. That is where my idea for online logistics management software that plugs straight into our clients’ shops came from. We have a Shippr plug-in for every retailer whose shop runs on Shopify. This quick, simple integration frees you from the constraints of managing your logistics. To add the Shippr plug-in to your shop, follow the guide we have prepared. Other options exist for those who built their own online shop. With an API, you can connect your e-shop, your order system or your ERP directly to an external logistics provider such as Shippr. And for those who are not on Shopify and have no development team, we have set up a .csv import so you can push your deliveries into Shippr in batches from an export of your information system.
Put the customer experience first with tailored solutions
Home delivery, express or scheduled for the day and time your customers choose, fragile parcels, bulky items… there are now as many types of delivery as there are e-commerce customers. Talking to so many professionals is what showed me how important it is to offer a wide range of delivery options, both for them and for their recipients. Broadening your delivery solutions is a considerable asset. That is why we wanted to develop and make available as many delivery services as possible. We work 7 days a week and also run weekend deliveries. In practice, your customers pick the day and time that suits them and we take care of the rest. By letting your customers choose when they are delivered, and by giving them a service that fits their needs, you do a great deal for their satisfaction and gain a fresh competitive edge.
Delivery has to be a “Wow” moment
Delivery is the last link in the e-commerce purchase process. Sometimes it is even the only human contact between a company and its customers. Service quality is therefore paramount, which is why it is essential to entrust your deliveries to professional couriers. At Shippr, for instance, we work only with professional partner couriers. More than 500 partners drive everything from cargo bikes to 20m3 lorries. That wide fleet means our clients can be sure a vehicle suited to the goods will be assigned to them. With genuine transport expertise, those couriers do everything they can to make deliveries that reflect our clients’ businesses.
Be transparent with your customers and give them visibility over the delivery process
We all shop online and we all know how much reassurance matters. A successful delivery experience rests on sustained communication with recipients. That is why, at Shippr, we are constantly looking to bring technology to bear on this need. Through our software, you keep your customers informed of every stage of their parcel’s journey with automatic emails and text messages. You and your end customers can also track the parcel in real time. That first gives our clients a transparent view of deliveries in progress at any moment, and it also lets recipients get ready for the order they have been waiting for. Finally, our advanced communication modules mean we deliver to the recipient on the first attempt in more than 98% of cases. That affects your profitability too: no second or third attempt to plan for in order to get your products delivered.
Offer returns
According to the 2019 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study, returns conditions influenced close to 73% of respondents when deciding whether to buy from an online shop again. Offering returns therefore reassures consumers. At Shippr, we wanted returns built in from the moment a delivery is created: a single tick box tells us that a return is needed. Reverse logistics is demanding, but it is a real asset and a necessity if you want to maximise your online sales.
Put a responsive, high-quality customer service in place
We all know that logistics is unfortunately not an exact science and brings its share of daily surprises. However well organised and planned your operation is, the unexpected can always happen on the road. Responsiveness is therefore the key to resolving it and making the most of the customer experience. During short, sharp peaks such as the Black Friday weekend, the unexpected has to be handled very quickly. Internally, a team dedicated to operational support is essential to solving logistics problems. At Shippr we can count on our operations team to follow every delivery through, day in and day out. Available 7 days a week and highly responsive, it anticipates each problem and brings a fast, suitable answer. Every hitch is turned into a positive interaction with the recipient and feeds our continuous improvement, so that each new case is handled in a more structured way. As well as running the operational side of each delivery, our support team lets us bring the right logistics solution at every stage. As mentioned above, events such as Black Friday mean very heavy logistics flows. When our clients need more drivers to keep their business running, our algorithms take care of finding the extra couriers to meet that need. Our business experts are in constant contact with the support team to keep logistics running smoothly. We work hand in hand so that our clients can focus solely on their core business, where they create the most value for their own customers.
Logistics management: the crucial element in handling the Black Friday - Cyber Monday weekend
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend is on our doorstep. For online retailers and shops it is a real opportunity to grow revenue shortly before the end-of-year holidays: many consumers say they use these exceptional promotions to get ahead on their presents. Managing logistics through these peaks is complex, but it turns out to be a key asset in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Calling on an external provider such as Shippr can free you from some or all of your delivery constraints. Contact one of our business experts to discuss your logistics needs and make this weekend a real success.
