Black Friday for shoppers can mean excitement, happiness, and satisfaction, but for some small business owners it can mean added stress and anxiety. To help you through one of the biggest shopping periods of the year, we’ve put together a few ways to help you prepare.
1. Observe the trends
There are usually new trends each year. Before stocking inventory for your business, pay attention to what customers want and stock up on those items. If you don't, you might have items on shelves for quite some time or items that customers want that you don't have on hand.
2. Plan promotions
Promotions are an excellent way to attract new customers and bring back former customers. For online sales, free or reduced shipping is always an attractive choice. You can also offer coupons and discounts on orders.
You'll also need to decide if you want to offer special deals on Cyber Monday too. Once you've decided on your promotions, you can use your social media profiles to advertise your special deals and keep your customers in the loop about shipping deadlines and your store's holiday hours.
3. Defend yourself and your customers against fraud
Because of the high volume of credit card purchases around the holidays, fraudsters target businesses and individuals the most at this time. Remind your customers to keep their credit card information safe, and make sure you’re signed up for our Advanced Fraud Detection Suite—it’s included with your payment gateway account, and protects merchants year-round with a complex algorithm and customizable fraud filters.
The businesses most at risk tend to be those who takes donations or large lump sums, like nonprofits, service providers and specialty item stores. This is because the transactions are frequent and/or have a high price tag.
4. Add flexible payment options
During Black Friday and the upcoming holidays, your customers may feel stressed with party planning and long shopping lists to complete. Offering easy and flexible payment options is a great way to remove some of the stress from holiday shopping.
With Authorize.net you can accept payments anywhere and offer your customers their preferred payment method.
