Black Friday (29th November) is just around the corner, and this is a key day (and weekend) for all retail stores to reach maximum sales and customers. In the UK, Black Friday has grown massively over the past few years and shoppers are keen to seek the best deals they can over the weekend. This can put a huge amount of pressure on stores, as the footfall will increase greatly over the course of the weekend, and therefore it is so important that businesses are prepared to ensure the weekend runs as smoothly as possible.
Black Friday is the perfect opportunity to offer your customers amazing deals (just in time for Christmas) and create brand loyalty and trust. You do not want your shop looking messy, or leave customers feeling dissatisfied with their experience, and therefore we are going to help you get prepared for the Black Friday 2024 weekend.
Start by Planning and Prepping Early
Whether it be signage for your store windows, emails to be sent, or in-store leaflets, make sure you have all valuable promotions prepped and ready to go well before the Black Friday weekend, to ensure things are easily given out on the day. You can even start by giving out teaser ‘save the date’ leaflets or having reminders around your store to build excitement.
Have a plan of exactly how you want the store to be laid out on the day and purchase any floor signage to ensure your customers will be aware of where to queue and the systems in place to get around the store. You can never plan too early with Black Friday (as it will be one of your busiest weekends for sales).
Optimise your Store Layout
No matter how big or small your retail store may be, if you’re expecting a large amount of footfall, you need to prepare the store as much as possible to ensure the customer experience is not effected. Whether this means you need to move racks/ shelving around or add overhead signage to ensure every customer is aware of where everything is.
Make sure your promotions are all in the same area of the store and labelled clearly and it is important to have a focus on the main promotions (and therefore have them at the front or centre point of your store on the day). You want customers to have the least amount of disruption as possible, and therefore want to make it easy as possible for them to find what they need.
Prepare your Staff Members
It is crucial to ensure your staff are fully prepared for your Black Friday weekend, in order to avoid disruption and keep customers as happy as possible. You need to have more staff in than needed on a usual Friday, and they need some training on the sale and exactly how you want them to approach customers. Staff should know exactly how much the sale items are discounted to and know how much stock is left of items. Get this training in as soon as possible to ensure they feel prepared for the event and work together as a team on the day to ensure everything runs smoothly. Make sure you preplan when staff can take breaks and create a well organised schedule and rota for the day.
Purchase Great Shelving
In order to ensure your store is looking amazing and organised for your customers, it is key you have your stock stored away neatly on both shop floor and your stock room. Making sure you have sturdy shelving to store away your stock both neatly and safely will be a game changer on Black Friday.
Here at Rhino, we provide boltless storage systems for retail stores, and these come in both MDF form or wire shelving. Both look amazing in retail stores and can organise your stock accordingly. Having your items being displayed neatly on these shelves can make customers find items easily, and it will make their shopping experience so much better (leading them to shop with you again).
Your stockroom should not be neglected on Black Friday as it will be the backbone of the day running smoothly. By having strong, reliable shelving in your stock room, you can ensure that stock is stored away neatly and in order, making it so easy for staff to navigate stock and be aware of what is in stock and out of stock. We believe our wire shelving range looks incredible in retail stores, as it is flexible, easy-to-build and has a beautiful black steel finish.
Make Sure you Start Early
Black Friday may seem like a while away, but it will come around extremely quickly, so make sure you begin to prepare your store now! We offer free shipping and same day dispatch on all of our heavy-duty shelving, making it as easy as possible for you to be organised just in time for Black Friday.
Shop now, and get your store looking amazing with Rhino…