Preparing Your Store For Black Friday

We know that Halloween hasn’t even arrived yet. But there’s no time to waste in preparing your store for the upcoming holiday shopping season. In fact, in the retail world, the day after Halloween (this Thursday!) is practically when the holiday shopping season begins. And, as all retailers know, Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the season!

This year, Black Friday falls on November 23rd. That means you have less than a month to adequately prepare your store for what should be its busiest of the year. Remember that holiday shoppers will be looking for sales and discounts from every store they visit on Black Friday, so it’s important to come up with ways to entice them to choose your store over others.

Plan your upcoming sales now.

Shoppers expect to enjoy major savings on Black Friday. Quite clearly, it’s a good idea to consider what products you have that can be offered up at the most significantly reduced prices. Be sure to advertise your Black Friday sales by highlighting your most popular products and the incredible savings shoppers will enjoy by choosing your store to get them.

“Look at all of your products and plan your deals and discounts ahead of time instead of putting on a sale last minute,” advises Corey Ferreira on Shopify.com, “One idea is to create a ‘planned sales map’ in Google Sheets or Excel, giving you a simple outline of all your upcoming sales…Choose the products you want to run a holiday sale on and schedule their start dates and sale prices. This way, when the holiday sale rolls around, you can refer to your plans instead of scrambling at the last minute.”

Give your store a makeover.

Since your store will be offering up something special on Black Friday, it’s important that it look the part. A major renovation may not be necessary, but uniquely designed product displays and vivid signage will be very important. You’ll want to ensure that everyone who visits your store is well aware of what they’ll be able to get their hands on and how much they’ll save in the process. It’s also important that your place of business has a spic and span appearance.

On RetailDoc.com, Bob Phibbs actually recommends that retailers clean out their stores. “I’m talking about down to the fixtures here,” he specifies, “Remove every box, bag or tag. Sweep or mop every floor surface. Get your carpets cleaned. The whole goal is to look as new as possible. Don\’t wait! Do it now!”

Make sure to offer the payment options your customers want.

There’s no question that it makes life much easier on both merchants and customers alike when a high-quality POS system is in place to accept payments. Make no mistake about it – on Black Friday, your customers will be visiting your store with their credit cards and debit cards in tow. Be sure to make it easy for them to pay for their purchases with the payment option of their choice.

At Canadian POS, we believe there is no more convenient way to accept payments than with the revolutionary Poynt Smart Terminal. For more information, please don’t hesitate to call Canadian POS at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.