Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are among the highest-grossing and busiest shopping days for both online and offline retailers. It is anticipated that three-Quarters of US consumers plan to spend roughly $158 billion and take advantage of Black Friday Deals in the year 2022.
A large number of shoppers may stress retail businesses. Therefore, they need to be ready in advance to capitalize on buyers looking for discounted deals in Black Friday Sales. Any glitches, particularly in inventory, can lead to several consequences and reductions in profit. Therefore, it demands a lot of foresight.
Let us see how inventory management support can solve the most common inventory challenges that trouble businesses in the retail industry.
1. Proper Inventory Levels
Inventory shortages during the Black Friday sales can pose huge problems. If you have spent a lot of time on your Black Friday sales promotion, inventory shortages can hinder your profits on the biggest shopping day. An extended shortage can be a major blow to your brand.
Only an accurate forecast can avoid inventory shortages. You should pay attention to the inventory flow and observe the demand in the market. You can look at the previous year’s BFCM sales to make a sales forecast. An automated inventory management system with an experienced business process outsourcing company, like ARDEM, can help you with the best sales forecasts.
2. Fulfillment Process Planning
Insufficient planning may cause huge losses. If you think of launching a Black Friday sale just one week beforehand, it is another way of putting your business at risk. Businesses should be proactive and start filling their inventory for the holiday season many months in advance to avoid unforeseen problems. You should be aware of the timeframe your suppliers require to get your products or materials in time.
Inventory management can help you to schedule a calendar for all holiday season activities. If you are worried about shipping delays, incorrect inventory placement, higher transport costs, etc., you can consider outsourcing companies. They are experienced in logistics management and take your responsibilities. They can handle fulfillment and shipping on your behalf. You can keep the focus on e-commerce strategy and marketing, and do what you do best to serve your customers with quality service.
3. Inventory Monitoring
Periodic inventory can save you from inaccurate financial reporting that can make it challenging to identify if you are making profits. Moreover, the inventory count is infrequent, your products are susceptible to inventory-related fraud, like theft by your employees and customers.
There should be an efficient inventory management system that can find out missing stock quickly. You can understand the consequences of not knowing your inventory balance before and after the sales period. It will be like a nightmare for businesses. There should be regular audits and product segmentation for regular inventory track. BPO outsourcing service providers can help you in this time-consuming process with cost-efficiency.
4. Performance Measuring Metrics
A proper assessment allows businesses to learn from their previous Black Friday sales. You need to understand your consumers’ perspective to anticipate their future demands. Counting cash and inventory can help you as a quantitative performance measure. For qualitative output of their Black Friday deals, businesses need to consider working capital and understand their cash flow. Know your customer acquisition and operations costs.
An automated inventory platform integrated with your accounting system enables you to track both your inventory and profits in real-time. Renowned business process outsourcing companies can help with highly accurate data entry services.
Conclusion
Thus, good inventory management support can help retail businesses to prevent Black Friday inventory issues. Ensure customer retention with both service and product satisfaction using inventory management outsourcing services.
ARDEM provides Business Process Outsourcing and Business Process Automation Services to established companies to help them improve operational Efficiency and Reduce Costs. For more information please reach out to us at pricing@ardem.com or call us at 908-359-2600.
