The Rise of Black Friday
Adopted from the USA and popularised in the UK by brands like Amazon and Asda, Black Friday has been a mainstay in British festive calendars for over 10 years.
Growing at an exponential rate over its tenure, Black Friday 2023 saw £13.3 billion in sales; a new record for the event. According to a recent Mintel report, 2023 Black Friday shoppers were driven by the UK’s cost of living crisis, with 52% claiming that they relied on seasonal promotions more than usual to purchase both luxury and necessary items.
A Golden Opportunity
In a September 2024 survey by ecommerce platform Woocommerce, nearly half of merchants stated that up to 30% of their annual revenue was generated during the Black Friday period, demonstrating the immense value of this annual event to online retailers.
A well-executed Black Friday plan can increase website traffic, conversion rates, basket size and overall sales. However, to capitalise on this golden opportunity brands must ensure that their systems are built to cope with a sharp increase in demand.
Data Frustrations
A lack of connectivity between business systems such as ERP, CRM, Accounting platforms, 3PL systems and ecommerce sites can be difficult for businesses to deal with year-round. Black Friday promotions can magnify existing issues, wreaking havoc throughout businesses and cause major chaos for administrative teams, causing them to miss out on the Black Friday opportunity.
- Slow manual data entry: Manual data entry is slow with disparate systems. During regular sales periods, this may be tolerable and administrative teams may be able to just about keep pace with orders coming through the website. However, during Black Friday, admin teams can struggle to keep up with the level of orders they have to process or transfer between systems. This can lead to a backlog of orders, meaning customers must wait extended periods to receive their items. With 84% of customers stating that a positive black Friday experience is crucial for them to use a brand again, meeting order fulfilment deadlines during black Friday should be a priority for brands.
- Human error: With manual data transfer comes the element of human error. Oftentimes, mistakes are made, meaning data is mis-matched across systems. Issues in this respect can lead to customers receiving the wrong item. In the best-case scenario, the customer returns the item, costing the retailer time and money. In the worst-case scenario, the customer can leave scathing reviews online, damaging brand reputation and influencing potential future customers. Factor in costs associated with replacing incorrect products, and this situation quickly becomes a logistical nightmare!
- Lack of real-time sales data: Most ecommerce brands are keen to know how they are performing in real-time. A lack of cohesion between systems can mean data is quickly out of date, and manual intervention is required in order to see the latest information. Having stale and out-of-date data prevents business leaders from making informed decisions about future promotions, product viability and more.
Digital Transformation
With Besyncly, the perfect Black Friday is within reach! Business can transform the way they operate, streamlining internal processes and increasing efficiencies.
- Eradicate manual data entry: Besyncly facilitates the automation of data transfer through API keys, meaning that the need to re-enter data is gone. Processes are sped up without the need for manual admin, and time is saved allowing teams to focus on business growth.
- Reduction in data inaccuracies: Due to the reduction in human intervention, the risk of data being accidentally entered wrongly by a member of the team is eradicated, meaning data stays accurate through all systems.
- Real time information: With Besyncly you can sync data as often as every 5 minutes, or automatically with selected premium plans. This means that fresh data is always available, allowing leaders to make quick and informed decisions.
Helping Brands to Mitigate Black Friday Madness
Besyncly is trusted by ecommerce brands across the UK including Dog Kennels Direct, The Real Olive Co, Smarter Surfaces and Pharmed Group, helping them to handle busy periods for their website sales.
As stated by Aideen Horan, Ecommerce Manager for Pharmed Group, on the situation the business was in before approaching Besyncly for systems integration “This was fine when it was only a couple of orders but now that we’re building our online presence and e-commerce space, the orders are flooding in and it’s becoming less manageable.”
Since working with Besyncly Pharmed have been able to automate data transfer tasks saving them time:
“The Besyncly team demonstrated the system’s ability to enable sales order automation through integration of Sage 200 with Shopify and WooCommerce. Allowing for staff to focus upon the relevant tasks to allow growth of Pharmed’s various e-commerce sites, rather than spending time processing the data.”
A Brighter Future
If you’re looking for ways to enhance your Black Friday Plan and maximise the opportunity in future, Besyncly could be the solution you need. With a growing range of connectors and an average time saving of 12 hours per week for our customers, we are confident that Besyncly can transform your Black Friday business processes.
Reach out to our team of integration experts today for more information or a tailored quote today.
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