November 29th – Black Friday – marks the biggest sales of the year and the start of the Christmas shopping season. For e-commerce stores, sales that grow from a few to several dozen times their usual volume bring not only revenue but also numerous challenges that businesses don’t always manage to handle successfully.
Darius Borisas, founder of the fintech startup Ecomland, notes that small or newly established e-stores often lack practical knowledge on how to properly plan and execute sales campaigns. To address this, the startup has created a digital guide to help e-businesses adequately prepare for Black Friday sales.
“Mistakes made during the biggest sales event of the year can be very costly for e-stores. For example, poorly planned advertising might not help sell all available products, or conversely, an insufficient product quantity might fail to meet demand. Customers who have a negative experience rarely return to the same e-store, so it’s crucial to prepare thoroughly for the sales rush,” said Borisas.
Black Friday poses challenges not only for e-retailers but also for logistics companies, which notice an uptick in e-commerce activity and parcel volumes well before November begins. According to Mantvydas Kaukėnas, Head of Fulfillment Services at Venipak, the surge in orders is when e-businesses typically encounter their greatest difficulties.
“For Black Friday to truly be a success, every retailer’s logistics processes must be meticulously coordinated. This is not always easy, especially during this intense period when equal attention needs to be given to sales strategy implementation. Businesses should evaluate whether they can manage everything on their own or consider sharing the burden,” Kaukėnas points out.
He explains that when sales volume is low, an e-store can manage independently – for instance, by storing goods at home or in a garage. However, as sales grow, shortages of space, staff, equipment, packing materials, and other resources quickly emerge.
“All of this translates to additional investments. Yet businesses, especially those just starting, want to focus on selling goods, making profits, and enjoying the return of satisfied customers,” says Kaukėnas. “Moreover, in e-commerce, it’s common for order volumes to drop significantly during certain months, like January. If a business rents space for goods storage or hires employees, it will always incur fixed costs, regardless of sales volume.”
Kaukėnas notes that comprehensive order fulfillment services can help e-retailers avoid fixed costs while enabling them to direct their attention and investments toward sales promotion, assortment, and business expansion.
“This service covers complete order fulfillment – from receiving the client’s goods into the warehouse, storage, preparation, and packaging according to client specifications (e.g., adding fragrances to parcels or including leaflets), to delivery to the recipient by the chosen method (door-to-door or parcel locker) and reporting. Ultimately, the e-business pays only for the operations performed during a given month,” he adds.