{"id":12019,"date":"2024-11-20T05:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T10:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=12019"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:20:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:20:04","slug":"black-friday-how-retailers-can-prepare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/black-friday-how-retailers-can-prepare\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Friday: How technology can help retailers prepare"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/category\/growth-customers\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Growth &amp; Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBlack Friday: How technology can help retailers prepare\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2024-11-20T05:04:00-05:00\">November 20, 2024<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Black Friday: How technology can help retailers prepare\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/black-friday-how-retailers-can-prepare\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/author\/ashleyhindsmansage\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/02\/Ashley-Thompson-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Ashley Thompson\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/02\/Ashley-Thompson-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/02\/Ashley-Thompson.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Ashley Thompson<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Remember when Black Friday was just a day? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, that\u2019s all changed now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past few years Black Friday has extended its boundaries to include Thanksgiving Day in the US and Cyber Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This can be attributed to retailers wanting to capture sales opportunities however shoppers prefer to shop\u2014in-store, online, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And with shoppers searching for bargains both instore and online, you\u2019ll need to get creative with how to connect your shoppers with discounted merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What core areas should your retail business focus on during the most profitable shopping season of the year?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s where you can leverage technology to increase productivity and make Black Friday both frictionless and profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-here-s-what-we-ll-cover\">Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll cover<\/h4>\n\n\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><div class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-table-of-contents yoast-table-of-contents\"><ul><li><a href=\"#h-black-friday-shopper-behaviour-for-stock-management\" data-level=\"2\">Black Friday shopper behaviour for stock management<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-accepting-payments-for-black-friday-sales\" data-level=\"2\">Accepting payments for Black Friday sales<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-managing-payments-security-during-increased-traffic\" data-level=\"2\">Managing payments security during increased traffic<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-hiring-black-friday-staff\" data-level=\"2\">Hiring Black Friday staff<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-final-thoughts\" data-level=\"2\">Final thoughts<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta gated-content\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Small Business Survival Toolkit<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>A practical guide with easy to use templates to help your new business start, survive and thrive.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-f83d0c91-0a6f-44a6-bc16-55083b9084df\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Get your Small Business Survival Toolkit<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__downloads\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t7,066 readers have downloaded this guide\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1064\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2019\/01\/GettyImages-610436768_super-1064x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"People sitting at desks in a large office\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2019\/01\/GettyImages-610436768_super-1064x810.jpg 1064w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-black-friday-shopper-behaviour-for-stock-management\">Black Friday shopper behaviour for stock management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Look at your data from last year to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/products\/sage-50cloud\/features\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gauge how much inventory you need<\/a>&nbsp;to account for instore sales that will now take place online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investing in that kind of insight is important for creating the capacity needed to manage high demand during peak shopping season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/industry\/retail\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">retail management software,<\/a> you can get instant forecasts to your catalog including seasonal and fast-moving products, as well as avoid lost revenue with automated low stock alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can ensure you have enough inventory for the influx in demand during Black Friday and into the Christmas shopping season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-accepting-payments-for-black-friday-sales\">Accepting payments for Black Friday sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Generational preferences and how comfortable shoppers are with payment technology will also factor greatly into Black Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s customer journeys are increasingly varied, and can be immediate or extremely complex, especially for younger customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They can range from impulse purchases on shopping apps to lengthier, highly considered purchases involving multiple channels for product research and price comparison \u2013 even during&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/black-friday-dos-and-donts-for-small-businesses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Black Friday sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll need to integrate the payment process into your omnichannel customer offering for a frictionless Black Friday experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do so you should consider the customer\u2019s expectations at each point in their journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, ensure your payment technology can accommodate every sale regardless of channel or preferred payment method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retailers of any size will stand out by offering simplicity, convenience, and durable, well-defined value in their approach to payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know from a research over the years that consumers generally can be up to four times more likely to complete a purchase if they see a wide variety of payment types presented to them at checkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demand for mobile payments and digital wallets is growing, so it\u2019s worth exploring these as part of your payment methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-managing-payments-security-during-increased-traffic\">Managing payments security during increased traffic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You should also consider the security of your customers\u2019 financial and personal data, and factor in protection against fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One example of technology that supports this is tokenization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This allows safe storage of your unique card details providing access to the original payment information regardless of the contact point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shoppers have grown more willing to use new payment technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they\u2019re still concerned about the safety of their personal information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Research shows 62% are generally welcoming towards added authentication measures for online payment security as mandated by PSD2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New authentication technologies will revalidate repeat purchases or return shoppers to the website and make their experience even more frictionless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hiring-black-friday-staff\">Hiring Black Friday staff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even with everything else in place, you\u2019ll still need to ensure you have enough staff coverage to deal with stock management and preparing items for delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Insights from a business management solution can tell you how many additional staff you\u2019ll need to hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can also help you with hiring and onboarding and managing schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding more staff \u2013 temporary or full time \u2013 means more&nbsp;payroll admin&nbsp;of assigning employee types and calculating accurate pay and benefits for each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Doing this accurately will be more challenging during the busy Black Friday season, especially if it\u2019s done manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payroll integration technology with time tracking and attendance functionality can make peak season staffing easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Connecting your time and sales data is important for reconciliation purposes, eliminating data errors, and reducing payroll fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping track of this data can also help with planning for other peak trading seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A business management solution equipped with automation can make this easy and error-free for any size staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-final-thoughts\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Black Friday is a fast-paced selling season. If your customer doesn\u2019t get the experience they expect, you might lose a future sales opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use new technology for business management to stay on top of cash flow to purchase enough inventory, manage stock across multiple shops and online, manage staff coverage and scheduling, and keep things running smoothly at checkout.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"cta-content__title\">Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-8949a954-88b2-43bb-8b8a-77c53eb34350\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Friday is one of the year&#8217;s biggest sales periods. Learn how to get your payments, technology, and stock management processes ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":7887,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,29],"tags":[169,265,208],"business_type":[3,99],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[100,83],"imagine_tag":[49,54,67],"coauthors":[346],"class_list":["post-12019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","category-trends-insights","tag-business-strategy","tag-how-to-grow-your-business","tag-staying-competitive","business_type-small-business","business_type-medium-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Ashley Thompson","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1327127856.jpg","imagine_tags":{"49":"growing business","54":"Medium Businesses","67":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=12019"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}