Your Last-Minute BFCM Ecommerce & Fulfillment Checklist

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) just days away, now is not the time for brands to launch a complete overhaul to their ecommerce and fulfillment operations. It is, however, time to double and triple check your setup to ensure that you are ready ready for peak season. 

Here’s our quick rundown of to-dos that will help brands be as close to certain as is possible that their ecommerce and fulfillment operations are in lockstep. 

Ecommerce Infrastructure & Performance

Let’s first look at server capacity.

Load test your site at three to four times normal peak traffic to stress test its ability to manage significant traffic spikes. 

Ensure that your CDN caching is properly configured so that copies of your site’s static content are stored on multiple servers across different geographies. This results in quicker load times.

Double check redundancies. Are backup services on standby? 

Next, examine your cart and checkout operations. 

Is your cart abandonment tracking active? This will help you identify potential issues in the checkout process, understand customer behavior, and ultimately improve the shopping experience.

Is guest checkout working properly? 

Do you have payment gateway redundancies in place so that you can still handle transactions in the instance in which one gateway experiences technical issues or goes down?

Is the checkout flow pixel perfect on mobile? Have you tested it on multiple devices? Multiple browsers? (Mobile accounted for over 50% of all Black Friday purchases in 2023. You cannot pay enough attention to your mobile checkout flow.)

If you have questions about your ecommerce infrastructure and performance, contact your ecommerce platform provider (i.e., Shopify, Adobe Commerce, SFCC, etc.) or your web development team.

Inventory & Fulfillment

First up, stock management.

Is inventory syncing in real-time across all channels? This is mission critical to prevent stockouts, keep customers happy, and minimize the risks associated with overstocking or understocking.

Are you prepared with safety stock to account for expected surges? This is also important in relation to potential transportation delays. (This time of year, you never know!)

What about situations in which a product sells out and goes out of stock? Do you have protocols in place to inform customers, offer alternatives and manage backorders? Has all of that been tested?

Review your inventory threshold alerts too. Are they properly configured? These alerts also help prevent stockouts and overstocking.

On to the warehouse.

Schedule one last BFCM chat with your fulfillment provider. Go over how they’re staffing up and training additional labor. Ensure that picking routes are optimized for your best sellers. If they’re doing specialty packaging or kitting, are they equipped with extra supplies? Review carriers and confirm that carrier relationships are ready to roll. 

We also recommend creating a “war room plan” with your fulfillment partner. (Whether or not you actually want to have a room is up to you.) Within this “war room plan,” establish a primary communications channel. Pick what’s most efficient that also allows for escalation. Slack or Teams for non-urgent needs. Text messaging when there’s a little more urgency but no immediate response required. Phone calls for when I NEED YOU NOW. 

And while you may not set up an actual “war room,” document your plan virtually where all the appropriate parties have the appropriate level of access. This could be as simple as a shared document or something more comprehensive, like a virtual collaboration tool. 

Good Luck Out There

May your servers stay up and your stock stay accurate.