Black Friday and Cyber Monday: A Retail Competition

Retail stores and websites compete with each other every year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to see who will offer the best deals and sell the most product. Customers will find different stores to shop at if the deals don’t appeal to them as much. It seems to me that over the years, stores like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Amazon have always competed for more customers by trying to offer the best Black Friday prices. Personally, I have found that Best Buy significantly discounts items for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. When I needed to purchase a new cell phone, I decided to do it on Black Friday and I ended up finding the best deal at Best Buy. The phone that I purchased was triple the price after Black Friday and no other store sold the same

The first step I would take as a manager would be to order extra merchandise for the big day and make sure that the supplier can handle the amount of product that I would need. The stock room would also need to be organized and have designated areas to keep the excess merchandise needed for Black Friday. Next, I would ensure that the storefront was well organized and that all the products were easy for the customers and employees to locate. Another step would be to schedule the proper amount of staff members. If the store were to be understaffed on such a busy day like Black Friday, it could turn out to be a disaster. So, making sure the staff members that are scheduled can handle the rush would be very important. The most experienced staff should be on schedule for the day, and they must be prepared to handle the influx of shoppers. If there are enough employees scheduled and they are prepared for one of the busiest shopping days of the year, business will run much more

Stores can not always offer huge discounts or free merchandise, but they have to find some way to increase customer loyalty. Customers love to see low prices at retail stores, but there are other things they look for that will make them want to go back. One thing that may attract customers is maintaining quality customer service. If someone goes shopping and has a positive experience because the employees were helpful and friendly, it may make them want to return more frequently. When a customer has a negative experience with a rude employee for example, it will reflect on the company and they can easily find somewhere else to do get their shopping done. Another thing that might appeal to customers, especially for Black Friday and holiday shopping, would be hassle free returns. Being able to return items easily is important to customers. If they have a hard time getting a refund for their purchases, they may not want to buy anything else from your store and waste their money if they know they can not return the items. Lastly, to encourage customer loyalty, businesses can offer loyalty cards. A great way to get a customer to return to your store is to offer them a discount, in-store credit or some other special offer after visiting the store so many times. The business would incur an expense in the long run, but if the customer has to come back to the store