5 tools to help achieve zen on Black Friday

Black Friday is one of the biggest events in the e-commerce calendar, in 2014 there were 180 million online visits to UK retail sites with an estimated spend of £810 million and this year is set to be even bigger. It’s a great opportunity for online sellers to ratchet up sales in the run up to Christmas.

Selling online is tough. Sourcing products, customer support, picking, packing and shipping orders all take time and energy and during peak times like Black Friday things can get a little hectic! 

Here at Zenstores we like to say we give online sellers superpowers, sounds dramatic I know but it’s true. It’s our mission to enable businesses selling online to be the best. 

So here’s our top 5 tools to help you make the most of peak times like Black Friday.

1 - Research new products with TeraPeak - from £4.99 / month

TeraPeak enables sellers to see what products are currently selling well on eBay so this can be a great tool for sourcing new products. Black Friday is a huge opportunity for sellers and TeraPeak can tell you which products will really ramp up sales. Use TeraPeak to research new product lines and watch sales skyrocket on the big day.

2 - Boost sales with social media using Buffer -  Free

Social media is everywhere. In the run up to Black Friday using Twitter and Facebook to build hype for your products can be an extremely effective tactic. Buffer is an app that enables you easily to schedule posts across all major social media platforms (eg Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin). Buffer also gives you analytics on each post so you can measure your results and optimise for better results. 

3 - Generate repeat purchases using email marketing with Mailchimp - Free

Making your customers aware of the great deals you are planning to offer on Black Friday can be easier said than done, email marketing can be a great tactic for doing this by increasing repeat purchases from past buyers. MailChimp is a free email marketing tool that enables you to create, send and optimise email campaigns. Monitor the open rates, click through rates, A/B test subject lines and more. It is a powerful tool for any marketer and it's dead easy to use.

4 - Pick, pack and ship orders in half the time using Zenstores - from £9.00 / month

During peak times like Black Friday you can see a 10x increase in orders coming from eBay and Amazon which is immensely satisfying to see, however getting those orders out of the door can be incredibly stressful and a race against time in order to keep dispatch times fast and customers happy. Zenstores connects eBay, Amazon and the best delivery networks to save you time dispatching orders. Link your myHermes or Royal Mail DMO accounts and shipments can be booked, labels and invoices printed and orders marked as dispatched with tracking numbers in just a few clicks. Easy.

5 - Stay cool with Headspace  - from £3.74 / month

Dealing with messages from customers, disputes with buyers and keeping on top of orders all whilst trying to grow a business can be a big headache.

Headspace is a mobile app that teaches mindful meditation to help busy people like small business owners relieve stress and stay focused. Having the right frame of mind is important for both personal well being and the success of your business, stay cool and stay focused when things get hectic over Black Friday.

These are just a few tools we like to use here at Zenstores that bring Zen to our life. Have you used any of these tools? What tools would you add to this list? We would love to hear from you.