How to get ship ready for Black friday & Cyber Monday
Is it that time already!? Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are here, and it means that as the orders are coming in, you’re doing your best to fulfill them and ship them as quickly as possible, all while marketing and maintaining client expectations. That’s a lot of moving pieces so, we wanted to give you a couple of ways that you can make sure the back-end of your shipping is ready for this busy season.
Ask Questions
You’re relying on us, your third-party app providers, to make sure that we are in tiptop shape, so your BFCM is successful. We’ve made a list of questions that you can ask your third-party app providers – that way you know they’re ready too:
- What hosting company do they use? Cloud hosting is key here – shared/VPS hosting does not scale well and has no proper failover.
- If their app goes down, do they have a status page where you can monitor the problem? Check out the Intuitive Shipping status page.
- Has a third-party agency reviewed their server architecture? This is critical for any app like ours that directly impacts checkout.
- If not, do they have a server architect on their team who has reviewed their setup?
- Will they offer 24/7 support?
- Have they performed load testing on their servers to ensure they can handle the rush?
- Are their servers scalable to ensure your customers don’t bounce due to increased loading times? Every second of loading time contributes to customers abandoning their cart.
Not every app requires this much preparation, but it’s best to do your due diligence to ensure you have a successful and worry-free Black Friday and Cyber Monday!
Set Up Early
Confidently take on your biggest sales season by setting up in advance.
We encourage you to set up & test your BFCM shipping scenarios early. You can set these up without impacting your current shipping options. This way, when Black Friday arrives, you can turn the scenarios ON, and customers will begin to see the rates that you want them to see! You can learn how in this HelpCentre Article.
Pro Tip: Offer customers accurate live rates at checkout in addition to your standard option to ensure that their parcel arrives in time for the holidays. Having more than one delivery speed will support a positive customer experience.
Lean on our Help Centre to search for your configuration questions.
Prepare For A High Volume Of Sales
If you’re doing a flash sale this BFCM or are expecting high volumes, know that third party apps can be limited to the number of API requests that can be submitted. This means that if you have a large number of checkouts at the same time, it can cause your third-party apps – like Intuitive Shipping – to stop returning rates. But don’t worry here are some things you can do to be ready:
- Review Shopify’s Flash Sale documentation for detailed advice on how to prepare.
- Notify Intuitive Shipping if you’re expecting a very high number of sales orders or if you’re having a Flash Sale leading up to Black Friday.
- If you’re a Shopify Plus merchant, notify your Merchant Success Manager and ask to have the API request limit temporarily increased.
Following these important steps will help ensure that your customers have a smooth checkout and that your sale is a successful one!
Create A Fallback System
If you’re using Live Rates at checkout, not having access to those rates can be devastating to your Black Friday sales. With Intuitive Shipping, you can create a fallback system to ensure that you always have rates available. If you’re using the New version of Intuitive Shipping, you can find instructions for this in this Help Center Article. If you’re using the Legacy version, you can find instructions here. Not sure which version you’re using? Find out here. It has Screenshots and instructions on how to get these set up!
Add Fallback Costs
If you do not want to set up an alternative Parcel Service Shipping Method with a backup carrier, the Carrier Service Fallback Rate allows you to set up a flat, fallback shipping rate that is displayed to your customer in the event that the rate request sent to the carrier times out. This typically occurs when the carrier rates are not returned to Intuitive Shipping within six (6) seconds or when carrier rates are down and not responding at all.
Check Our Status Page & Reach Out to Our Team
If we become aware of known issues with carrier rates, we’ll post an update on our Status Page. You’ll also get a notification within the app.
Also, don’t be a stranger. Our 5 Star Customer Success Team is here to ensure you have your best BFCM yet! Reach out if you have questions or need help preparing. You can do this through the app or see our Support Page for ways to connect!
