Black Friday not only kicks off the festive shopping season but also serves as a critical milestone in the retail calendar, marking the start of significant profits in the industry. Initially coined to refer to the day that retailers moved from red ink (negative balance) to black ink (positive balance) in their financial ledgers, Black Friday still represents a major increase, with consumers in the UK alone expected to spend £3 billion in 2023.
Now expanding across the weekend into Cyber Monday (the eCommerce-focused counterpart), there are many advantages for retailers. For example, in the US,
- Total online spend from Nov-Dec 2022 reached $211.7 billion
- Retail sales on Black Friday increased 12% YoY.
- There were 196.7 million shoppers on Black Friday in 2022.
Black Friday Challenges
But amidst the rise of discounts and increased consumer demand, the key to Black Friday success extends beyond tempting deals and marketing finesse. It converges on flawless retail execution, where the availability of products becomes the linchpin for attracting and retaining customers.
The demand for products during Black Friday escalates dramatically, and any issues in inventory management or sales operations can result in lost sales opportunities and damaged customer relationships. You can have the best product, with the best marketing and promotional offers, but if it’s not available at the time when the consumer wants it – it may as well not exist.
Aforza provides a complete suite of cloud & mobile solutions to help you address this, connecting trade planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of margin erosion, missed revenue opportunities and ineffective trade spend.
Customer success is Aforza’s top priority, and we are proud to be trusted by Consumer Product companies around the world; including leading breweries, food & beverage manufacturers, consumer healthcare companies and major distributors.
Let’s focus on a few of the key areas where you can accelerate your margins this Black Friday, with Aforza Visit, B2B & Studio.
Aforza Visit
Product availability is one of the major pitfalls retailers can fall into during the Black Friday rush. To benefit from the hype around the day, you need to have your products in store so that they can be bought, rather than competitor products. With strategic account segmentation and route planning, Aforza Visit ensures that field teams can prioritize high-value accounts, guaranteeing products remain in stock where it matters most.
Streamlined field engagement and step-by-step merchandising enhance efficiency, ensuring products are readily available for customers amidst the Black Friday frenzy, making it an essential tool for maintaining stock levels and driving sales success.
Aforza B2B
As Black Friday extends into Cyber Monday, growing its digital reach across diverse customer segments, the ability to ensure your products are available across the fragmented market is critical.
Efficient order execution not only streamlines operations but also enhances the overall buying experience for retailers. It ensures that products are readily available, empowering retailers to guarantee stock availability during the Black Friday frenzy.
Aforza B2B enables consumer product companies to navigate efficiently, reducing costs and extending their market reach through self-service channels. With AI powered 1-click ordering, telesales support for in-flight updates & amendments and guided promotional claims process, it’s easier than ever to drive consistency across channels with the same penny-perfect pricing and promotions everywhere.
Aforza Studio
With Aforza Studio you can empower retailers and suppliers to detail brands to perfection, ensuring that every piece of digital content resonates with brand identity and message. Precision across your brand is vital during Black Friday, where the sheer volume of marketing materials demands consistency and quality across all sales touch-points.
Moreover, Aforza Studio guarantees promotion compliance, enabling retailers to align their promotional strategies.
This assurance ensures that every deal and offer communicated to consumers translates accurately across various channels, eliminating confusion and bolstering trust during this high-stakes shopping period.
Get Started Today
Prepare for Black Friday by integrating these powerful capabilities of Aforza Studio and Aforza B2B’s efficient ordering system. Seamlessly manage digital content and streamline customer orders, to maintain a high-level of customer satisfaction during this critical retail period. These tools don’t just ensure success for the season; they lay the foundations for lasting growth.
Take a look at our full Season Of Studio Hub, where we showcase leading examples of Digital Content Execution for the Consumer Products industry with tangible demonstrations that you can get going with today.
