Distribution centres report ready for Black Friday

Friday 23 November is Black Friday – a day that for the last years has meant record turnover and extra pressure on the distribution centres.

When this year’s Black Friday campaign begins soon, it is crucial that the distribution centres are ready. It requires a huge effort to solve the logistical puzzle on the largest sales day of the year.

One of the distribution centres that knows all about this is the distribution centre in Radomsko (DCR) in Poland, where Damian Koszur works as Operational Shift Manager.

“We can really feel the extra pressure on Black Friday and we start the preparations early to be ready. We call in additional employees for the entire weekend and make sure that everyone knows what to do,” says Damian.

Lessons learned from previous years

JYSK introduced Black Friday for the first time in 2013, and since then, the event has grown tremendously. To keep up with the increasing interest, the preparations have also become more extensive at the distribution centres in Uldum, Nässjö and Radomsko, which have all experienced Black Friday.   

“We analyse the processes and results from last year’s Black Friday campaign to find out what we can optimise. By learning from our experiences year after year, we can prepare much better and initiate activities that ensure that the next campaign will run smoothly,” says Damian. 

One of the new initiatives this year is to pack some of the products before the actual campaign and send selected campaign articles to the stores before the Black Friday weekend.

Preparations on all fronts

Allan K. Kjærgaard is EVP Logistics in JYSK and he is overall responsible for ensuring that the logistical puzzle adds up.

“We focus on filling up the stores with products well in advance before the Black Friday campaign begins, in order to secure that there are enough products for the customers. In terms of online orders, we call in extra staff at the distribution centres that make sure to pack the customers’ products so they can be shipped off,” explains Allan.

One of the biggest challenges on Black Friday is the transportation of products from the distribution centre to the store or the customer’s home address.

“It can be a problem having the products picked up in trucks from the distribution centres, because Black Friday has become so strong in the last couple of years. Therefore we may experience delays on delivery and it is important that we inform customers if that happens,” says Allan and continues:

“It is a clear advantage for us that we know the exact day for Black Friday. We know when the pressure will come and therefore we can prepare well.”