Table of Contents
The holiday season is the most exciting time of the year for online sellers to recuperate from any losses and increase their revenue. As expected, online retailers are gearing up to make the most of this season by offering great deals, discounts, and promotions to attract a large audience and increase their profits. It’s an exciting time for both sellers and customers, and everyone is eager to see what this year’s holiday shopping season has in store.
So, if you want to make the most of the Amazon holidays in 2023 despite the fiercely competitive environment, you must start now!
It is never more critical than before Amazon Christmas sales when clients look at how to make a Christmas list on Amazon. In this blog post, we will outline the main steps you must take to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table.
Why Prepare for Amazon Christmas Sales in Advance?
Amazon Christmas sales are one of the most significant opportunities for online sellers to boost their profits and reach a wider audience. Therefore, it is crucial for sellers to prepare for the holiday season in advance. Here are some reasons why:
- Increased competition: As the holiday time approaches, the competition among sellers becomes more intense. To stand out and attract customers, sellers must have a solid plan.
- High sales volume: Holidays see a significant increase in sales volume on Amazon. Preparing in advance ensures sellers have enough inventory and resources to handle the increased demand.
- Shipping and delivery: During the holiday season, shipping and delivery times can be longer due to the high volume of orders. Sellers who prepare in advance can avoid delays and ensure timely deliveries.
- Marketing and promotions: To attract customers and boost sales, sellers need to have effective marketing and promotion strategies in place. Preparing in advance allows sellers to create and implement these strategies in a timely manner.
Some best-selling categories sold by AMZ during holiday time are:
- Home goods
- Clothes and apparel
- Toys and games
- Books
- Electronics
- Camera and photo
- Electronic devices
What to Check for Holiday Sales?
Below are the main important fields that need your attention two or three months before the holiday rush.
Adjust your stock
Effective inventory management plays a crucial role in determining the profits and losses of sellers. Fortunately, there are now better-understood principles that can save time and prevent headaches in inventory preparation. To ensure an efficient process, follow these simple steps:
- Choose the products you will actively sell during the upcoming season: Identify the key products you want to sell during each holiday. You can use shopping trends from previous and current years to determine which products to sell.
- Organize your data and be prepared to monitor orders: Before inserting your data into your inventory forecasting software, double-check your product and forecasting data to avoid errors.
- Develop a plan that ensures you have enough inventory without overstocking: It is crucial to order enough items to generate a profit while avoiding ordering too many goods. Accurate calculations are necessary, or you can seek the assistance of professionals.
- Determine the timing of your order and shipping to Amazon: The timing of shipping inventory and when you require products at Amazon depends on the origin (country) of your stock and Amazon’s business model (private label or wholesale).
Remember, each product has its own time and place. To prepare your holiday inventory efficiently, use seasonal insights and select appropriate products for the holiday.
Optimize your listings
To make the most of the holiday season, ensuring that your listings are optimized for conversions and search is crucial. While you want to attract customers to your products, you also want them to purchase.
Here are some effective steps to prepare your listings:
- Update your images: Give your listings a festive touch by adding holiday-themed pictures. You could include photos of your products with a beautiful background or lifestyle shots in a unique setting. To determine which type of images attract more customers, conduct market research and try out A/B testing. If you’re a Brand Registered seller, you can use AMZ’s “Manage Your Experiments” tool to test the main image, description, bullet points, and title.
- Add a product video: Adding a video to your listing is an excellent way to engage customers and showcase your products. Even if you’re not brand-registered, you can add a video to your listing for free. You can create and edit a simple video using your phone or hire a professional videographer/editor from platforms like Fiverr.com.
- Use holiday-related keywords: Add holiday-related keywords throughout your listing and backend search terms. Consider keywords like “gift,” “last-minute gift,” “gifts for ___,” “Christmas,” “Hanukkah,” and so on. Using these keywords can improve the visibility of your products on Amazon’s search engine.
Provide comprehensive information: To reduce customer queries and improve conversions, ensure your listings are filled with as much information as possible. For instance, provide proper sizing details and measurements to avoid confusion if you’re selling clothing.
Finally, do not forget that listing optimization and tracking should be ongoing. Why not use a third-party tool to simplify this task? SellerSonar tracks your product listings 24/7 and alerts you on critical changes. It allows you to protect your Amazon business and handle all the issues before they become harmful.
Keep your prices competitive
In addition to optimizing your product images and content, pricing is another crucial factor affecting your sales and profits. To increase your sales volume during the holiday season, you should pay close attention to your pricing strategy.
One effective way to attract more customers and boost sales is to keep your prices lower than your competitors, as long as it doesn’t affect your profit margins. It can significantly affect the number of sales you generate during the holiday season.
To keep your listings competitively priced, you can use a manual or algorithmic pricing strategy. As an expert in Amazon, we recommend using the latter, particularly if you have hundreds of SKUs. This approach can help you adjust your pricing dynamically and react quickly to market changes.
Check product reviews and rankings
Reviews and ratings can significantly impact your Amazon holiday sales, which is why paying attention to them is crucial. Ensuring positive reviews and ratings for your eStore and listings can help increase your chances of converting potential buyers into customers.
A high rating of 4 or 5 stars demonstrates that your product is of superior quality, making it more appealing to potential buyers. Conversely, negative ratings can make convincing customers to purchase your products challenging. It’s important to address negative reviews and reach out to customers to turn their experience positive.
By prioritizing positive reviews and ratings, you can establish a strong reputation for your brand and boost your holiday sales on Amazon.
Pro tip: Use the SageMailer feedback management tool with all the firepower required to shoot up your reviews and sales. You can proactively request product reviews and seller feedback from your customers by utilizing automated email campaigns. This method has been shown to increase the likelihood of receiving reviews, improving your Amazon rating, and reducing the risk of negative feedback.
Build a strong PPC campaign
Crafting a successful PPC campaign that drives leads and sales can be a trial-and-error process, but the payoff is worth the effort. Numerous factors should be considered when designing a PPC campaign, including your niche and industry, the location of your target audience, the keywords you wish to target, the type of impact you want, and your budget.
Here are some useful tips to keep in mind:
- Start at the bottom and work your way up with keywords.
- Track the top keywords for your listing and their rankings.
- Optimize your bids based on ad placements.
- Bundle individual variations into a single package.
- Launch PPC campaigns for your best-performing ASIN.
- Implement alternative keyword targeting.
- List products with the same price in the same campaigns.
- Structure campaigns based on product performance.
- Target your products to increase visibility.
- Target products that appear on Google Ads.
- Analyze your audience’s purchasing behavior.
Plan your Amazon holiday deals
Offering deals and discounts is a must to maximize your sales during the holiday season. Amazon provides several holiday deals and promotions that have proven successful for sellers. Here are some of the top options:
- Lightning deals: This type of promotion creates urgency by providing a short deadline for customers to purchase. This tactic leverages the psychological trick of making people buy products quickly without much thought.
- Best deals: Running for up to two weeks, Best Deals are perfect for any product category. These deals offer customers a chance to save money on their favorite products, from electronics to household items.
- Coupons: Sellers on Amazon can place coupons on a single ASIN or a group of ASINs, allowing customers to discover them through various channels such as the coupon homepage, search results, product detail page, and offer listings page in their carts. Additionally, Amazon provides performance tracking and audience targeting tools to help sellers optimize the effectiveness of their coupon campaigns.
- Prime-exclusive discounts: Prime members get unique and exclusive opportunities to purchase products that may run out within minutes. To be eligible, products must have at least a 3.5-star rating (or no rating), adhere to other pricing requirements, and be Prime shipping-eligible FBA products.
Prepare for Long-Term Success on AMZ with SageMailer
Always remember that selling on Amazon is a long-term process that requires continuous effort and adaptation. As you progress on your journey, staying flexible and adjusting your strategies based on new challenges and opportunities is important. For instance, if you’re in a niche that experiences a surge in demand during the Q4 holiday season, you need to optimize your products and listings to take advantage of this lucrative time. Success on Amazon is a marathon, not a sprint; you need to plan and execute accordingly to achieve your goals.
We hope you find our guide on boosting Amazon sales during the holiday season helpful. Want to learn more about Amazon holiday deals? Or you are a merchant who wants to launch, run, and grow our business. Check out our blog!
Remember that you can use SageMailer to manage your client relations, generate feedback, and grow sales! Register for a free 30-day trial to learn how to benefit from the service.