3 Ways To Prepare Your Store For Black Friday

This Friday is Black Friday. And because it traditionally follows Thanksgiving Day in the United States, it’s notorious for being a huge shopping day south of the border. Don’t be mistaken though. Black Friday is just as big in Canada. And for retailers all across this great country of ours, November 25th is bound to be a big day for sales. That is, of course, if they are well prepared in advance!

How can you prepare your store for Black Friday? Here are three tips:

1. Keep your sales strategy simple. Try not to confuse customers by offering different discounts on all of the different items you have for sale. In most cases, it’s a lot easier to advertise store-wide discounts. On Capterra.com, Cara Wood suggests that you refrain from offering discounts that are too complex. “Try, instead, offering a certain percentage off your whole store, and perhaps a special on 1-5 clearly-marked items,” she recommends.

2. Call on all of the troops. It’s very well possible that you may need each and every one of your employees to be available this Friday. To say that extra help will be needed is an understatement. Especially if you have advertised your Black Friday sales (which you certainly should be doing all week long), you’ll need to ensure that your store is capable of handling a large rush of customers throughout the day.

“Impress upon your staff the importance of these sales events for the store,” advises Intuit.com, “First, make sure everyone knows that they’ll be needed on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. If an employee typically has Friday or Saturday off, check with him or her to determine if his or her availability might be different for these two days. Make sure they are intimately familiar with whatever promotion or sale you’re going to run.”

3. Be sure to stock up on inventory. One from the “no brainer” category, the need to fill your shelves with product is a necessity this week. Naturally, you’ll want to ensure that you have the supply to meet the demands of your customer base. The last thing you want is to disappoint shoppers who are more than ready to spend money in your store. Intuit.com fully backs this suggestion, even if it requires that you look into getting extra working capital to do it.

“If you decide to offer a discount or special sale, especially on a specific item, you might consider taking out a loan to make sure you have enough inventory,” says the site, “You also need to determine what you’ll do if you run out of the item (e.g. offer a raincheck or substitute), and determine how you’ll spread the word if you do run out…Consider alternative lenders for these smaller, more targeted loans, as bank loans normally have a very intense application process and take a while to get approved.”

At Canadian POS Corporation, we couldn’t agree with that last statement more. If you’re in need of some extra working capital, we offer a merchant cash advance program that can get you the money you need in as little as 24 hours. Unlike the long and drawn out processes that are commonplace when applying for loans, our application process is quick and easy. We approve business owners for cash advances based specifically on their credit card and debit card sales.

As a result, no credit checks or collateral is necessary! For more information about the merchant cash advance program offered by Canadian POS Corporation, give us a call at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.