We here at UNEX hope that you and your family had a safe, happy, and wonderful Thanksgiving last week. Now that the holiday has passed and we’re back to reality this week, it’s officially shopping season. Over the years, we’ve seen “Black Friday” extended from one door-busting day to a full weekend of chaos. Now “Black Friday” is actually starting on Thursday afternoon. As the tradition has exploded, so have sales. The statistics behind Black Friday are staggering. In 2013, online sales for Thanksgiving and Black Friday totaled $1.964 BILLION (with a B). 1 in 3 Americans plan to shop on Black Friday and 140 million U.S. Consumers said they plan to shop at some point in the weekend.
While companies may have dollar signs in their eyes, they are often associated with severe headaches.
Because while the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas can often comprise 30 percent of a company’s annual sales, it is also often a logistical nightmare. To accommodate those additional orders, companies must first accommodate that additional volume.
The three most impacted areas of a company’s warehouse are loading and unloading of trucks, staging and sorting, and accumulation. One way to ease the stress and accommodate that extra volume is to use a gravity conveyor system. A UNEX gravity conveyor is ideal for the holiday surge because it can be set up as a temporary ship line. It’s portable and can be easily set up, torn down or moved around as necessary, and because it is gravity there are no moving parts or power restrictions. The gravity conveyor is ideal for small packages that are shipped individually rather than in palletized loads. According to entrepreneur.com, the most popular Black Friday items were electronics, clothing and toys, which are all ideal fits for gravity conveyor.
The holiday shopping season can be an incredibly lucrative time for retail companies. It can also be an incredibly stressful time if you aren’t properly prepared. Don’t be caught off guard. Contact a UNEX Pickologist today.