Autumn – with Black Week and the beginning of Christmas shopping – is the most crucial period for many e-tailers, so make sure to get your e-commerce ready for this year’s peak.
Handling increased parcel volumes
Black Friday has long been the starting point for Christmas shopping, and for a few years now, it’s been more of a Black Week than a single day of offers and discounts. The result is that a record number of parcels are sent between e-tailers and customers during a limited period of time. Also, nowadays we shop online more than we did before the pandemic. Despite inflation, rising interest rates, and higher energy prices causing consumers to keep a tighter grip on their wallets, the PostNord E-barometer report shows that a lot of Swedish e-commerce companies still believe in an increase in sales for the year.
In order to manage this intense period, planning well in advance is of course the most important. This means everything from planning prices and offers, to booking pick-up of parcels and reviewing your return solutions.
Preparing for Black Week
The following tips can help you to prepare for Black Week and Christmas shoppers:
- Your customer prefers flexible deliveries and lead times. Think about which delivery options are suitable for your company, your products, and your target group.
- Communicate with suppliers and customers to manage expectations during Black Week.
- Do your marketing on time and in channels relevant to your customers.
- Stress-test your website to make sure it can handle the increased traffic.
- Make sure to have easy-to-understand information about returns on your website.
- A flexible returns solution is not only positive for your customer, but it also aids the handling of your goods and delivery flows.
Olof Källgren, Market Information Manager, Direct Link
