Amazon Holiday Season Hacks | Marknology

With the holiday shopping rush knocking at the door, as an Amazon seller, you need to prepare for the surge of gift-hunting customers on Amazon in the coming months.

Insights from Andrew Morgans and the Marknology team in Kansas City.

Q4 is unlike any other season of the year. Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s, more customers are diving into Amazon looking for gifts and are willing to spend hundreds of dollars. 

The holiday season is your perfect chance to grow sales, score profitable deals, increase brand awareness and attract new customers.

Therefore, you need an advanced plan to make the most of this peak season!

We’ve compiled a list of the best practices to help you prepare and successfully run your Amazon business during the holiday season.

1. Manage your Inventory According to Seasonality 

Accurate inventory forecasting is the key to a successful holiday season. That’s why you need to have enough inventory to cover the upcoming demand and keep up with your current momentum. Otherwise, your listing ranking will drop along with your sales velocity and BSR.

However, don’t stock too much inventory. You’ll just end up racking up storage fees! Learn more in our 3PL warehouse services.

Estimate the inventory you need using your past sales data with Amazon’s seller reports. If you’re selling the same products as the past holiday season, estimate your inventory needs for this year based on that product's past sales performance. If you don’t have the time to analyze all the data, there is plenty of software that will do it for you, such as Jungle Scout. 

If you’re selling a new product for this holiday season, look at your competitor’s sales history and keyword volume to learn your product’s potential demand.

Also:

• Keep quantities up to date in Seller Central and check them daily.
• Set an achievable handling time (lead time-to-ship). Unrealistic handling times lead to a poor customer shopping experience.
• Match your products to the correct ASIN in the catalog to avoid guarantee claims or credit card chargebacks. 

2. Create Compelling Listings

If you want customers to find you on Amazon’s Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) and convert, you need to polish your listings and optimize them.

First, you should go through all your listings, making sure you’re targeting the right keywords without missing any search terms.  If you’re brand-registered on Amazon, use the Brand Analytics tool to identify those keywords that helped your product to rank high during the last shopping season.  But also,  don’t forget to try other high-performing keywords on your listings.

Next, check that your product photography is as professional as possible.  Good imagery demonstrates the quality of your product and your brand. Try running A/B tests with different images and titles to find the best ways to drive clicks and conversions before Q4. And if you’re brand registered, don’t forget to work on your A+ content and update it with relevant information.

Finally, double-check that your listing delivers all the information about your product and you’re telling customers exactly why they need to buy from you.

3. Take Advantage of Amazon PPC to Gain Visibility

Having your product ads show up on Amazon’s first page of results could be the difference between a successful holiday season and one that’s not. 

If you are brand registered, these are the different ad types you can implement to reach out to hundreds of potential buyers. 

Sponsored Brands Ads

This ad promotes specific products in Amazon SERPs and relevant product pages. Once customers click on the ad, they’re redirected to the product’s page,  allowing them to find out more about your brand and products. You can also manage costs by setting a budget and choosing your bid per click.

What’s truly great is that impressions are free, and you only pay when a shopper clicks on your ad and visits your product’s detail page. 

Sponsored Display 

Sponsored ads allow you to reach out to customers browsing specific detail pages, Amazon home pages, and third-party apps and websites. It’s excellent advertising to target a competitor’s products- it places your ad on their listings- or retargets customers who have visited your listings but didn’t make a purchase. 

Sponsored Brands Video 

Help customers discover your brand and products as they shop on Amazon with eye-catching videos. Video ads are keyword targeted, cost-per-click, and link customers directly to the product detail page where they can learn more about your product and purchase.

No matter what ad type you choose, be aware that, as customer traffic increases, PPC ads become more competitive. You’ll have to increase your keyword bids and daily budget to account for the extra clicks. 

Remember, before spending too much money, know your numbers -target ACoS and RoAS- and check on your campaigns daily to ensure they’re profitable.

4. Offer Holiday  Promotions 

There is nothing else shoppers love more than deals. That’s why you need to create deals and coupons within Seller Central to boost your sales on Amazon. But always consider your margins when creating promotions.

• To create a deal in Seller Central,  go to the Advertising tab and click on “Deals.” Then click on “Create a new deal.” Amazon will list the deals your products are eligible for along with the deal price, discount per unit, and corresponding fee.
• To create a coupon, go to the Advertising tab and click on “Coupons.” Then click on “Create a new coupon” and choose between offering a percentage discount or a price discount. Your coupon will be visible on the search results page.

Also, if you’re new to Amazon, don’t offer promotions as an incentive for customer reviews, either explicitly or implicitly. It’s against Amazon Policies!

The pressure of managing Amazon advertising without the stress is real. Drew Morgans dives into it on Business Therapy -- honest conversations about the challenges sellers actually face.

See how Marknology helps brands grow on Amazon in our brand overview video.

5. Offer Expedited Shipping and Gift Services

Offering one-day or two-day shipping can increase your order volume because customers highly appreciate speed shipping during the holidays. Set your shipping rates for all product lines and non-BMVD Products.

And if you’re trying to increase your order volume, why not offer gift wrap options too? After all, the majority of the purchases are gifts. Customers would appreciate that special touch. You can include a gift message or have the product wrapped. 

Final Thoughts

Setting up for a successful holiday season requires a lot of effort and time to plan every area of your Amazon business. But, with the hacks we provided you in this article, you’ll be more than ready to go through this holiday season!

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