Are you ready for Black Friday on 29 November??

…If not, now is the time to get your shop ready! Figures show year on year that Black Friday shopping sets sales records – so you need to be ready to serve your customers when the orders come pouring in. 🙂

Packaging that saves you time:

When orders are pouring in, time is of the essence – and at the same time, you need to get a much larger number of orders out the door. Looking back over the past two years, experience tells us that it can be a very busy day – the turnover figures from NETS speak for themselves and we need to be ready to roll up our sleeves. In this case, smart packaging can provide innovative and time-saving solutions to optimise your flow on the day.

Examples of such packaging could be the following:

> Packaging with automatic bottom:

A case with a vending machine bottom assembles 2.5 times faster than a standard folding case – saving you a significant amount of time – and as you know, time is money. You can see an automatic bottom demonstrated in the video below. Here are 3 examples of clever packaging with an automatic bottom:

The three boxes shown are all 3 with automatic bottoms. No. 2 has an adhesive closure, which closes the box quickly and easily and you save on package tape.

The last and 3rd box has the clever feature that the customer can send back in the same box. The box has a perforation and an extra adhesive seal, which the customer can use after opening the box at the perforation. This allows you to control the quality of return shipments and saves the customer a lot of hassle, which is good when the relationship needs to be maintained.

> Box with variable height:

Variable height boxes give you the advantage of not having to stock 10 different sizes of boxes – you can use the same box to adjust the height to suit your item. This minimises wasted space, storage space and extra courier costs. Variable height boxes are also available with automatic bottom and adhesive lid, see some different options below.

Black Friday and Christmas 2019:

This year, and especially this year, Black Friday is going from being a one-day sale to BECOMING a ‘Black Week’ for many. This is partly because the day is so close to Christmas shopping and therefore many feel compelled to ‘steal the thunder’. Partly to avoid chaos in deliveries and partly to avoid Black Friday taking too much of the Christmas shopping.

In terms of packaging, here you have the opportunity to give the customer the option of Christmas wrapping. Many take advantage of the day to save money on Christmas purchases.

Martin Andersen from Pricerunner says (1):

“It’s especially children’s toys that we’re hunting for good ‘Black Friday deals’ on to save money on this year’s Christmas gifts.”

…and the latest Salesforce Holiday Shopping Report (made with data from the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Nordics), showed that in 2018, users had made 50% of their Christmas purchases by December 3. In fact, the so-called Cyber Week (with the days before and after Black Friday) contributed to stores (retailers) making 37% profits over Christmas.

So if you are smart you have Christmas packaging ready in your shop.

Black Friday 2018 – that’s how wild the day was last year:

In 2017, Black Friday set a record for sales, with Danish consumers spending DKK 2.117 billion when they swung their credit cards. Online sales alone increased by 22% compared to the previous year.

In 2018, Danes spent DKK 1.94 billion, which is 8% lower than in 2017. Jeppe Juhl-Andersen, CEO of Nets, said (2):

“This is probably a reflection of the fact that many stores this year had chosen to spread their battle offers over several days”

But this year, online retailers are turning up the heat even further, as it’s also payday on Black Friday.

The new forecast, according to Pricerunner, is for Black Friday to be the biggest sales day of the year and for November to take over as the biggest shopping month of the year. A title that previously belonged to the Christmas month.

Let’s see – we’ll certainly be ready. 🙂

Here is a summary of the 3 biggest trading days in Denmark’s history:

• Black Friday: 24/11/17. 2.117 billion DKK.
• Black Friday: 25/11/16: 2,001 billion DKK.
• Black Friday: 27/11/15: 1,983 billion DKK.

The figures are taken from Nets and are based on total credit card usage.

(sources: 1. https://www.fdih.dk/medlemmer/pricerunner-denmark-aps/m-8204/nyheder/20429 | 2. https://ehandel.dk/black-friday-kolliderer-med-julehandlen/ )