8 Black Friday Delivery Tips to Boost Your Business

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and the ‘Biggest Shopping Day of the Year.’ Earlier, it was celebrated in the US and is now across the world. So, it’s better to roll up your sleeves for delivery business owners in order to avoid losing your potential customers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday, famous for its massive offers, is a recognized shopping event worldwide and discounts. But this does not mean the customer experience should be compromised. No matter how many attractive discounts you offer, your customers are likely to turn their back if they don’t like your service.

According to a survey made by Northern Arizona University, 88% of customers are less likely to return to your site if their experience is impacted.

Therefore, most businesses try their best to deliver an excellent customer experience. Similarly, Black Friday is an important day for eCommerce businesses, where they can lure more customers with timely deliveries. Let us learn about some Black Friday delivery tips that can help to grow your business and make more money.

About Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Black Friday usually falls on the fourth Friday of November month. This was started back in the late 1950s in Philadelphia. It marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States.

Cyber Monday lands on the first Monday right after the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It is by far the biggest online shopping day of the year. Cyber Monday is a 24-hour online shopping event to encourage people to do their shopping. It is often regarded as an extension of Black Friday sales.

Businesses can make more profits by replacing unpopular offers with great deals that are in high demand. Here are some of the eye-opening stats about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in 2021:

• Number of holiday shoppers: 155 million 
• Retail sales grew to $886.7 Billion, which is 14.1% over 2020 
• Out of 155 million, 88 million buyers made a purchase
• Amount spent by retailers on Black Friday: $8.9 Billion

2022 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Dates

Following the above stats, we bet you are keen to know the dates for upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Alright, here they are::

• Black Friday– November 25, 2022
• Cyber Monday– November 28, 2022

Saved the dates? Then, let us find out how to prepare for Black Friday & Cyber Monday. 

How to Prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday is the biggest shopping event of the year. Hence, it is important to get yourself prepared to grab the best Black Friday deals in the coming weeks.

We will take you through some of the easy ways to make this shopping season as stress-free as possible. Here are simple ways that will help you deal with special-day deliveries.

1. Revise your budget plan
2. Compare prices with your main competitors
3. Make delivery deadlines
4. Enable flexible shipping options
5. Be in touch with your carriers or delivery managers

Once you are all set knowing that demand will go to skyrocket, performing deliveries will be easy. However, you can follow handy delivery tips in the next section.

8 Essential Delivery Tips for Black Friday

These delivery tips may come in handy for business owners on upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

1. Create an inventory

Preparing inventory or logistics during the peak holiday season is very crucial for shipping success. You can check the inventory or supply data from the previous year and prepare an inventory. Let us take a look at the steps to prepare your inventory for BFCM 2022:

• Plan for the holiday season
• Use an inventory management system
• Add the promotions and coupons to the inventory
• Be prepared for last-minute orders

2. Expand your storage area

It is very obvious that you must keep some extra storage space reserved for any last-minute orders during this holiday season.

And if you run your business online or an online store, make sure that the merchants are all stocked up before the Black Friday sales start. This will help to avoid any bad customer experience due to the non-availability of the product.

One more tip is that you can keep the fast-moving goods near the operating areas. It will help to move the products out swiftly and make space for the new items.

3. Make sure your delivery team works round the clock

Black Friday is important not only for the buyers but also for the retail stores.

You will need sufficient delivery drivers during this peak season of sales. You can consider hiring additional seasonal staff members because the more staff you have you can manage tasks.

Always be ready with extra drivers or staff members just in case of any urgency. Make a list of separate drivers who can be available on short notice of time.

Also, try to keep a stress-free environment for your drivers as tired drivers will be the less efficient ones. Prepare a proper work hours schedule for them to be well rested so that they can give their best performance.

4.  Check if your vehicle is in running condition

On a busy shopping season like Black Friday, you need to be proactive as you cannot afford any vehicle breakdowns.

Just an unwell employee is a disaster for your delivery services; the same goes for vehicle breakdowns. Therefore, it is very essential to examine your vehicle before Black Friday/Cyber Monday and fix the issues immediately.

You must ensure that you take your vehicles for maintenance, including check-ups or oil changes. This will contribute to avoiding any shipping delays later. Sometimes route optimization software also helps you to keep track of when your vehicle needs routine maintenance.

5. Be transparent to the customers

Honest communication is key to gaining shoppers’ trust and repeat purchases. 

The customer should be aware of the shipping options you are offering. There are two types of customers, one who is willing to pay extra for expedited shipping while the other wants cheaper shipping options and does not mind waiting for their order.

Similarly, late deliveries are a big disappointment for customers. So ensure that you are transparent with the customer and share the shipping details. This will help the customers to know about the estimated date of delivery. And you will have to deliver by the deadline to meet the customer’s expectations.

6. Fulfill your commitments 

The BFCM period marks the start of the busiest time of the year for retailers and shipping company. Losing customers is a natural part of the selling process, be it online or offline.

For example- do not promise customers the same day delivery just to impress them or gain sales. Rather, only offer if you are going to deliver it the same day.

Your professional reputation as a business owner is based on your ability to do what you promise to your customers. By any chance if you let your customers down, there is a chance of losing your potential customers.

A bad delivery is going to impact customer experience. Therefore, it is important to deliver outstanding service to your repeat customers.

7. Motivate your drivers

Delivery drivers are an important asset to your team if you are running a business. Hence, it is important to keep them happy and motivated during this busy time.

Your drivers will really have to work hard during the holiday season to make the deliveries on time. To motivate your drivers and keep them productive, you should give them gift cards or prizes. For example- you can offer a vacation package to the drivers for their exceptional performance.

8. Get an advanced route planner to avoid last-minute route planning

The route planner is considered the backbone of the logistics for any business. Therefore, it is important to choose a route planner that can help you expand your customer base and grow your business.

With a delivery route planner, you can

• Work on multiple platforms like the web, android, or iOS
• Optimize the fastest route for multi-stop routes
• Use  Geocoding feature
• Plan routes for multiple drivers to divide the workload
• Take advantage of dynamic routing
• Manage fleets and delivery driver teams simultaneously

Having a route planner is very crucial for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Traffic also gets bad around Thanksgiving weekend, so route planning software can help you avoid any circumstances.

The route planner helps to get accurate routes considering traffic, weather, and other conditions that affect deliveries. Route planners like Upper can lessen your route planning job with its unique features. This means delivery delays or attempted delivery might not even exist.

Schedule your Black Friday Deliveries on Upper Route Planner

This Black Friday, let Upper help you make faster deliveries with an optimized route plan. Schedule your deliveries in advance and never get into last-minute delivery chaos. With multiple delivery operations likely on Black Friday, it becomes crucial to make the process even more efficient.

Upper Route Planner is an advanced route planning software to streamline delivery operations. You can skip manual route planning and switch to automated processes to ensure the least on-road time.

Let us find out how Upper can benefit your business:

1. Provides efficient routes for more than a hundred deliveries

Stop worrying about the wastage of fuel and time when you have Upper to plan routes and schedule the deliveries in advance. You simply need to focus on growing your business while Upper will take care of efficient deliveries.

2. Ensures customer satisfaction with automated notifications

Upper will help to automate the process of notifying the customers of the updates of the parcel. This helps the customers to be aware of the package delivery time, maintaining customer satisfaction.

3. Helps you collect proof of delivery at the end of the service

This is the feature to take the electronic signature of the customer upon successful delivery. It helps to gain trust and reduces the chances of customer complaints or claims.

To know more about Upper and its route optimization process, sign-up for a 7-day free trial today.

Conclusion

As a delivery owner, you need to be more active on the days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is an opportunity to gain more customers through proper planning and strategic campaigns. So, you must ensure that you are not taking your customers for granted. This is because your competitors are working in a parallel market to attract them with great discounts.

And that’s how this holiday shopping season can convert seasonal shoppers into year-round customers. So, plan ahead to streamline your delivery operations this Black Friday using Upper. To know more about the features of Upper, book a demo with us now.