Comment: The fulfilment essentials for a successful Black Friday

As we move towards the opportunity presented by the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend it is worth considering the fulfilment perspectives and the often-overlooked importance of delivery and returns on the overall multichannel retail offer.

While the recently-published Digital Maturity Index by Transform indicated that 32% of organisations have achieved front end integration, only 19% are fully integrated from a digital perspective – indicating that the customer offer, and the ultimate execution, may be lacking in coherence.

Given the challenges presented by the recent unseasonably warm weather on customer demand, many retailers will be looking towards the last weekend of November as an opportunity to accelerate Christmas sales and recover some lost ground.

Not too many years ago, customers looked at whether an item was ranged, whether it was available and whether it was affordable as the key determinants of an online sale.

Now, the consideration factors are broader, and take into account delivery and return options in the case of 66% of consumers.

Delivery options can be distilled down to whether the retailer provides service choices that fit with the customer’s lifestyle, whilst return options boil down to simplicity and convenience.

In many respects, these choices must present a high ‘easy’ factor. BT’s compelling research suggests that 32% of shoppers regard ‘easy’ as a top-five determinant of whether they will shop, and 78% typically buy more from companies that make it easy for them to do so.

Furthermore, customers finding it ‘easy’ are 40% less likely to churn from the retailer. Collect+ seeks to help customers to balance these lifestyle pressures

So a consistent offer – both front and back-end - is critical in providing the customer with the service that he/she is seeking in the widely anticipated click-and-collect Christmas that we are approaching.

So, my five tips for success:

• Ensure that the choice of fulfilment solutions is convenient, simple and appropriately priced or the customer, and ensure that click-and-collect, locker collect, standard and premium home delivery sit within a credible fulfilment price hierarchy. 50% of customers selecting home delivery do so in the knowledge that they will not be home – so provide them with choice, and be clear about how your delivery services work. Manage expectations thoroughly.

• Ensure that return options are easy and, wherever possible, free. ‘Boomerang Thursday’ quickly follows Black Friday, and you will need to be able to retain the customer through these early season changes of heart. Collect+ research indicates that 75% of customers would be more likely to use a retailer if they offered free returns, and that charging for returns produces the opposite effect with 74% less likely to shop with the retailer.

• Provide your carriers with the most accurate demand plan that you can achieve. Carriage will, as in previous years, be at a premium and so securing your volume commitment as early as possible is essential.

• Ensure that your after-sales services are game-ready. With the proliferation of information at the customer’s fingertips though their varying devices, your contact centre will be the home of the most complex, challenging, and most important interactions. Your front line teams will need information at their fingertips, or rapid access to it if it is not to hand.

• As insightfully advocated by Professor Martin Christopher back in 1992, “plan for capacity, execute against demand”. What we can be sure of is that the actual pattern of orders will be different from any plan so be prepared for the flexibility and agility that the season, and the customer, demands.

Here’s to delivering a simple, convenient and consistent Christmas.

• Neil Ashworth is chief executive of Collect+