Last-Minute Amazon Seller Central Holiday Prep

 

Q4 is Amazon’s cash cow, and every seller wants a piece of the pie. As a result, Q4 sales on Amazon have historically been 25% higher than the previous quarter, and the eCommerce giant breaks its own sales record every year during this period. In 2019, Amazon generated total net sales of $87.44 billion in Q4, which rose to $125.55 billion in Q4, 2020. 

Undoubtedly Q4 2021 is going to be another record-breaking quarter for Amazon. The ongoing pandemic has drastically changed shopping behavior, and while US retail spending is expected to drop by 10.5%, consumers are expected to spend 18% more on eCommerce purchases. 

However, success is not guaranteed. Amazon has become a highly saturated marketplace. With such a massive number of sellers, the competition is stiff, making it a challenge to stand out and earn a piece of the enormous traffic directed towards Amazon at this time of the year.

It’s crucial to plan ahead of time, but it’s still not too late to start your preparation and get ready for Q4. 

Last-Minute Holiday Check List 

• Don’t rely solely on FBA
• Promotions, promotions, promotions! 
• Holiday deals page
• Holiday budget
• Holiday specific keywords 

 

Don’t Rely Solely on FBA

Like many other accounts, yours might be subject to inventory storage limits or inventory restrictions at the ASIN level. Check whether you’re subject to such limitations, and determine how much inventory you can send to Amazon’s warehouses. Ensure you send in smaller shipments more often. With every seller sending inventory to Amazon’s warehouse, it can take a while for larger shipments to be processed, and you might risk being out of stock in the holiday season. 

But, you don’t want to rely solely on FBA. If your shipment isn’t processed in time, you didn’t manage to ship on time, or you couldn’t send enough inventory, a backup plan is crucial! 

Create FBM listings, especially for top sellers and low stock listings, so your FBM offer will be activated once the FBA offer runs out of stock. This way you don’t risk losing the buy box, canceling the promotions, or going dark on ads. 

Alert: Make sure you’re checking the delivery date for your FBM listing, so it reflects the accurate delivery date. 

ProTip: Consider a 3PL company like Ware2Go to handle your fulfillment needs. A company being able to handle Seller Fulfilled Prime will ensure your indexation isn’t affected.

 

Promotions, Promotions, Promotions! 

Everybody is shopping this time of the year because everybody expects discounts! Whether it is Cyber Monday, Black Friday, or Christmas, people want to buy their favorite items at a reduced price. If you aren’t running any promotions, you risk losing potential customers. 

You don’t want to offer discounts on products that are low in stock but strategically plan your promotional strategy. 

There are a variety of promotions to choose from, such as: 

• Social Media Promo Codes
• Percentage Off/Dollar Off 
• Buy One Get One 
• Coupons 
• Lightning Deals and 7 Day Deals (if eligible)
• Subscribe and Save

Alert: Avoid creating two or more different promotions for the same ASIN. Stick to one type of promotion for each ASIN. Even something symbolic can go a long way. 

 

Holiday Deal Page

If a customer lands at your store, they might check your page, not see a discount, and walk away without making a purchase. Create a Holiday Deal Page with a holiday theme and all your ASINs running promotions. The idea is to create a holiday feeling and have all the promotions in one place, making it easy for the customers to access and purchase. 

 

Holiday Budget

Now is the time to invest in advertising. Set a budget for November and December, and make the most of the Sponsored Brand Video; it has a strong return on Ad Spending (ROAS).  Strategically adjust bids; the competition will be fierce, so anticipate rising CPCs, and make sure to increase bids. Spending more money on advertising during this time of the year is a must. Use the traffic directed to Amazon during this period to build brand awareness and grow your business. 

Social media has an enormous impact on shopping behavior. Make sure to make the most of your social media and use off-Amazon advertising to drive traffic to your listings and brand on Amazon. 

Tip: Consider enabling the Brand Referral Bonus to reduce your fees an average of 10% from sales generated by traffic driven to Amazon pages.

 

Holiday Specific Keywords 

Everybody is looking to buy someone a gift, and many will be searching by specific holiday-related keywords. Because we’re close to the holiday season, we don’t recommend changing your listing copy to include holiday-specific keywords. Usually, the update of the copy takes around four weeks to be indexed. So instead, update the backend keywords to be more holiday-themed and gift-related. You can include such keywords in your Store and A+ as well. 

Holiday keywords aren’t applicable to every brand. For example, you don’t want to market your pet products as gifts, but if you’re selling jewelry, perfumes, and similar products, holiday keywords will be the perfect addition to your optimization for this time of the year. 

Alert: Amazon restricts specific keywords because they violate their policies. Ensure you aren’t using such keywords because it might restrict your listings. You don’t want to have your listings down close to the holidays. 

 

POST-Holiday Tips

The holidays don’t end in December, you’ll be seeing the most activity in the first weeks of January. Customers will use this time to leave reviews and return products they are not satisfied with. Make sure to use this time to request reviews, address customer complaints, and issue refunds. 

If you’re looking for a review strategy and building brand awareness, contact our team of experts to scale your business to the next level. 

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