Black Friday: How to Prepare a Store for High Sales

Black Friday puts increased pressure on a store's warehouse, checkout, sales staff, website, payments, and delivery. If the promotion terms are configured in advance, the store can serve customers quickly, control stock levels, and assess the actual profit from the sale.

Preparation should start with products and numbers. After that, define discounts, check the technical setup, prepare the staff, and coordinate offline and online sales channels.

Define why your store needs Black Friday

Before choosing products and discount sizes, define a specific goal for the promotion. It will affect the assortment, prices, and the way you evaluate the result.

The store may plan to:

increase the number of sales;
increase the average purchase amount;
sell seasonal stock;
reduce stocks of slow-moving products;
attract new customers;
bring back regular customers;
increase sales of a specific category or brand.

Each goal requires its own products and conditions. For example, to clear excess stock, you can set a larger discount on selected items. To increase the average purchase amount, bundles or discounts for buying several products may work well.

Analyze sales before purchasing additional stock

Buying additional products simply because a major sale is approaching is risky. Check your sales history first.

Divide the assortment into at least three groups:

products with stable demand — items that sell regularly and may require additional stock;
products with moderate demand — additional purchases for these items should be planned carefully;
slow-moving products — these can be included in the sale to reduce remaining stock.

Separately check products that sold well during previous promotions. Regular sales and discounted sales may differ, so it is better to base the forecast on several indicators.

In the Torgsoft accounting software, you can analyze product sales, stock levels, cost, and profitability. This helps you select products for the promotion based on the store's actual data.

Check actual stock levels

Before the promotion starts, you need to know how much product the store can actually sell. Stock discrepancies during a high volume of orders lead to cancellations, replacements, and additional work for staff.

Before the sale:

check products with zero and negative stock;
compare the actual quantities of key products with the data in the software;
check reservations and orders that have already been placed;
add missing barcodes and replace damaged labels;
check the stock of products that will be advertised most actively;
carry out an inventory count if necessary.

In Torgsoft, under Warehouse → Warehouse Status, you can view product quantities, selling prices, cost, and products that are running low. This allows you to prepare the warehouse for the promotion before advertising starts.

Do not apply the same discount to the entire assortment

The discount amount should be determined based on cost, current price, turnover, and the sales goal for a specific product.

A small discount may be enough for popular items. A larger discount may be applied to products with excess stock. It may be reasonable to leave part of the assortment at the regular price.

Before approving the promotion, calculate the economics of each main product group:

Expected result per unit = discounted price − cost − variable selling expenses.

Variable expenses may include payment processing fees, marketplace commissions, packaging, delivery paid by the store, and other costs associated with a specific order.

High revenue alone does not show the result of the promotion. A store may sell more products but earn little profit because of an excessive discount.

Use clear promotion terms

The customer should quickly understand the price and the conditions for receiving it. The rules should also be unambiguous for staff.

For Black Friday, you can use:

a discount on a specific product or category;
different discounts for different product groups;
a product bundle at a special price;
a discount based on the quantity of products purchased;
a threshold condition — for example, special terms when purchasing for a specified amount;
separate offers for regular customers.

If product, customer, cumulative, and other discounts operate at the same time, check the order in which they are applied in advance. The seller should see the final price in the software, and the customer should understand it before payment.

Check prices before launching advertising

The price on the advertising banner, price tag, website, and checkout should match the promotion terms. Before launch, make test sales of the main promotional products.

Check:

the initial price;
the discount percentage or amount;
the final price;
the products to which the discount applies;
exceptions from the promotion;
compatibility of several types of discounts;
the accuracy of the price on the receipt;
the display of the promotional price in the online store.

Do not create an artificial initial price before the sale. Customers should see real and clear purchase terms.

Synchronize the store, website, and marketplaces

If a product is sold simultaneously in a physical store, online store, and marketplaces, you need to maintain unified stock levels and current prices.

During an active sale, the same product may be purchased almost simultaneously through several channels. Without synchronization, the store risks receiving an order for an item that is already out of stock.

Before the promotion starts, check:

stock transfer;
transfer of retail and promotional prices;
the appearance of new orders in the system;
product reservation rules;
data updates after sales and returns.

When Torgsoft is synchronized with an online store, product quantities, retail prices, and discounted prices can be transferred. This helps maintain consistent data in the accounting system and the online catalog.

Check the checkout and payments

At the checkout, during periods of high sales volume, every unnecessary manual operation increases service time. Therefore, equipment and basic sales scenarios should be checked before the promotion starts.

Make several test sales and check:

barcode scanners;
receipt and label printers;
the bank terminal;
PRRO or another fiscalization scenario used by the store;
product returns;
cancellation of an incorrect transaction;
different payment methods;
application of the promotional price.

Prepare a supply of consumables: receipt paper, labels, packaging, and other materials actively used during sales.

For equipment, the network, and work computers, it is useful to have a clear procedure in case of a technical problem. Staff should know whom to notify about a failure and how to continue working according to the scenario provided for the store.

Check the online store on a phone

For an online store, you need to check the customer's entire journey: from opening the product page to payment confirmation.

Before the promotion starts, check:

the loading speed of key pages;
the website's operation on a smartphone;
search and filters;
product availability;
the promotional price;
adding products to the cart;
promo codes, if used;
checkout;
payment methods;
delivery cost and methods;
messages after placing an order.

You should place a test order yourself. This helps identify errors that customers may encounter during a real purchase.

Before a major sale, it is also advisable not to change the website structure or payment system or connect new critical services without necessity. Such changes require separate time for testing.

Prepare the staff

Sales staff should know the promotion terms before the first customer arrives. A short instruction for staff reduces disputes and manual decisions during sales.

Specify in it:

when the promotion is valid;
which products participate;
how the discount is applied;
whether it can be combined with other discounts;
how returns should be processed;
who can change the price manually;
who resolves non-standard situations;
what to do in case of payment or equipment problems.

Check employees' access rights to price changes, manual discounts, returns, and other operations that affect money and stock.

For periods of peak workload, it is worth separately assigning checkout work, customer consultations, restocking the sales floor, packing online orders, and responding to customers.

Prepare the warehouse for fast order picking

If the store serves customers in the sales area and processes online orders at the same time, define the warehouse workflow in advance.

Check whether:

products are stored in designated locations;
popular items are easy to find;
all products have readable barcodes;
there is space for assembled orders;
reserved products are not sold again;
staff understand the procedure for picking and handing over orders.

The more orders the store processes simultaneously, the more important up-to-date inventory accounting becomes.

Prepare delivery for an increase in orders

Before the promotion starts, determine how many orders the store can realistically assemble and hand over for delivery.

Check:

the supply of boxes, bags, and other packaging;
free delivery rules, if it is part of the promotion;
the delivery cost for the store;
the procedure for creating shipments;
who packs and checks orders;
how the customer receives shipment information;
how order changes and cancellations are handled.

Delivery times should be set according to the actual workload. If the number of orders increases, the customer should receive up-to-date information during checkout.

Notify customers about the promotion in advance

Communication can begin before the main sale period. This gives customers time to review the assortment and plan purchases.

The message only needs to specify:

the promotion period;
products or categories;
the discount amount or principle;
the main restrictions;
the purchase method: physical store, website, or both channels.

For regular customers, you can use your own customer database and permitted communication channels. If the store uses mass mailings, the recipient list and message text should be prepared before the promotion begins.

Monitor sales during Black Friday

After the promotion launches, you need to monitor actual data, especially if the sale lasts several days.

Check:

stock levels of the most popular products;
the number of new orders;
cancelled orders;
checkout queues;
payment errors;
sales by category;
the average purchase amount;
the total amount of discounts granted;
sales profitability.

If a certain item is running out, update the information on the website and in advertising. If the workload exceeds the capacity of the warehouse or delivery service, the conditions for new orders should also be adjusted.

Calculate the result after the sale

Evaluating Black Friday based only on revenue is not enough. After the promotion ends, compare the result with the goal you set.

It is useful to check:

revenue;
the number of sales;
profit;
the average purchase amount;
the amount and percentage of discounts;
sold stock;
products that did not deliver the expected result;
returns and cancellations;
new customers;
the results of different sales channels.

In Torgsoft, reports on sales profitability and discount usage can be used for this analysis. They help assess how discounts affected sales and profit.

After a period of intensive sales, it is also worth reconciling warehouse stock. This helps identify stock mix-ups, shortages, and other discrepancies before they affect future purchases.

Store checklist before Black Friday

Define the goal of the promotion.
Analyze sales and product turnover.
Check actual stock levels.
Create a list of promotional products.
Calculate an acceptable discount considering cost and expenses.
Configure prices and promotion terms in the accounting system.
Check that prices and stock levels are consistent across all sales channels.
Make a test sale at the checkout.
Place a test order in the online store.
Check payments, PRRO, and retail equipment.
Prepare the warehouse and packaging materials.
Assign responsibilities among employees.
Explain discount and return rules to staff.
Prepare delivery and online order processing.
Notify customers about the promotion terms.
During the sale, monitor stock, orders, discounts, and profit.
After the promotion, analyze the result and check warehouse stock.

How Torgsoft helps prepare a store for high sales volumes

Torgsoft accounting software helps bring the store's main operations into one system: products, stock, prices, discounts, sales, returns, and analytics.

Before Black Friday, Torgsoft can be used to check warehouse status, analyze sales and product profitability, set product discounts, and prepare up-to-date data for online sales. During the promotion, the software records sales and stock changes. After the sale ends, the data can be used to evaluate the result and plan future purchases.

Retail automation with Torgsoft helps configure store operating rules in advance and control operations during periods of increased workload.