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Black Friday and Cyber Monday pose an amazing opportunity for retailers to increase sales, drive revenues, and improve exposure – but only if sales and security are handled properly. A few simple mistakes can be enough to set you back considerably, costing you time, money, and your reputation. Here are some ways to protect your business and ensure the upcoming holiday weekend runs smoothly.
Prepare Appropriate Inventory
Selling out of inventory is unavoidable sometimes. If demand is higher than previous trends indicated, it’s not easy to keep shelves stocked. However, lacking inventory should not stand in the way of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Before opening your doors after Thanksgiving, be sure your approach to inventory management is on point. Look at past performance during sales events to highlight top selling products to place additional orders or produce extra merchandise. Also, put a strategy in place for rain checks or other alternatives if it’s busier than anticipated. If you have a food service business, take steps to reduce spoilage.
Safety In and Around Your Store
While online holiday shopping has grown more popular in recent years, plenty of shoppers still hit the stores in person. If you have a brick and mortar storefront, prepare for additional traffic over the long weekend. This includes hiring temporary staff to provide better assistance in the store to increasing shoplifting prevention tactics.
If your physical location is in a high-volume shopping area, consider requesting increased police assistance to maintain the flow of both pedestrians and cars. It is also wise to take steps to ensure your parking lot is safe to reduce the risks of avoidable accidents.
Step Up Web Security
Hacking can hurt any small business. Take steps to help keep your business from falling victim to cybercrime during one of your highest sales volume weekends of the year.
To protect against a possible breach, take time to complete a vulnerability assessment, encrypt data, and, if needed, have a professional to check your systems. And remember to check with legal counsel if you are uncertain whether you are treating the data you capture from your customers correctly.
Confirm Server Capabilities
If you're an e-commerce retailer, you don't have to worry about an increased stream of shoppers in your physical storefront, but you do need to prepare for more site visitors than usual.
Even if you’re regularly prepared for more site visitors than you generally get, it’s worth taking a second look to prepare for the holiday weekend rush. Check uptime percentage and loading times to ensure customers can make purchases with as little delay as possible.
Make sure your site is secure for your customers with Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the users computer and the site. You must obtain a security certificate and verify that your web address belongs to your organization.
Know Your Insurance Plan
While it's unlikely anything negative will affect your store, either online or in person, accidents and attacks do happen. Before inadvertently leaving yourself vulnerable to a costly problem, talk to your agent to ensure your business is properly protected. Don’t have a Selective agent? Click here to find one in your area.
Prepare Appropriate Inventory
Selling out of inventory is unavoidable sometimes. If demand is higher than previous trends indicated, it’s not easy to keep shelves stocked. However, lacking inventory should not stand in the way of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Before opening your doors after Thanksgiving, be sure your approach to inventory management is on point. Look at past performance during sales events to highlight top selling products to place additional orders or produce extra merchandise. Also, put a strategy in place for rain checks or other alternatives if it’s busier than anticipated. If you have a food service business, take steps to reduce spoilage.
Safety In and Around Your Store
While online holiday shopping has grown more popular in recent years, plenty of shoppers still hit the stores in person. If you have a brick and mortar storefront, prepare for additional traffic over the long weekend. This includes hiring temporary staff to provide better assistance in the store to increasing shoplifting prevention tactics.
If your physical location is in a high-volume shopping area, consider requesting increased police assistance to maintain the flow of both pedestrians and cars. It is also wise to take steps to ensure your parking lot is safe to reduce the risks of avoidable accidents.
Step Up Web Security
Hacking can hurt any small business. Take steps to help keep your business from falling victim to cybercrime during one of your highest sales volume weekends of the year.
To protect against a possible breach, take time to complete a vulnerability assessment, encrypt data, and, if needed, have a professional to check your systems. And remember to check with legal counsel if you are uncertain whether you are treating the data you capture from your customers correctly.
Confirm Server Capabilities
If you're an e-commerce retailer, you don't have to worry about an increased stream of shoppers in your physical storefront, but you do need to prepare for more site visitors than usual.
Even if you’re regularly prepared for more site visitors than you generally get, it’s worth taking a second look to prepare for the holiday weekend rush. Check uptime percentage and loading times to ensure customers can make purchases with as little delay as possible.
Make sure your site is secure for your customers with Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the users computer and the site. You must obtain a security certificate and verify that your web address belongs to your organization.
Know Your Insurance Plan
While it's unlikely anything negative will affect your store, either online or in person, accidents and attacks do happen. Before inadvertently leaving yourself vulnerable to a costly problem, talk to your agent to ensure your business is properly protected. Don’t have a Selective agent? Click here to find one in your area.
