Get Your Amazon Business Ready for the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season With This Step-By-Step Guide The holiday shopping drive will be here in a blink of an eye. Is your Amazon business all set? Use this guide to decide.
By Ihor Dubovetskyi Edited by Chelsea Brown
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The holiday shopping drive is upon us. Is your Amazon business all set? Keep in mind that Q4 differs from any other time of the year — for consumers and eCommerce sellers alike. Between the holidays, shoppers will be online, purchasing gifts and splashing out more than during any other time of the year. As an Amazon seller, it's important to make sure you are ready for a wave of buyers looking for gifts on Amazon this holiday season. Here are six tips to help you succeed:
1. Estimate Q4 sales to order inventory
Sales estimation is essential to run a profitable Amazon business, especially this time of the year. However, you will incur extra storage costs when experiencing inventory abundance. That is why you should try to be exact in your calculations. Here are some ways you can come up with an accurate estimate:
Use data from the previous year
If you sold the same goods last holiday season, leverage this experience as a compass to determine how many items you should order this year. In addition, pay attention to your sales: Have they increased or decreased over the past year compared to last year's sales? For example, suppose your sales are going up by 25% annually — you would need to order at least 25% more items for this holiday season. You can check your past sales data using multiple Amazon seller's reports to assess the number of products you need in the upcoming months.
Check your competitors' sales history
If you are selling a new item and it is the first time you're offering it during the holiday season, how can you determine its possible demand? Check your competitors' sales history and their keyword volume. It will help you understand the monthly sales of a particular item. Also, it will show you when buyers are searching for a specific product the most.
Check Google Trends to predict the demand
Explore current trends to find new items that you can add to your inventory. Then give yourself the room to A/B test your listings before D-Day. These trends are constantly changing, so keep an eye on them. A sure way to find out what is in demand in the upcoming holiday season is by simply browsing Google Trends.
Related: 3 Predictions and Tips for Attracting Customers This Holiday Season
2. Optimize your listings
A paramount step to drive more Amazon traffic is optimizing all your listings for search and conversions, especially with holiday-themed terms. Follow the steps below:
Test the first photo for the highest CTR with PickFu
By launching a PickFu service, you can determine what demographics can participate in your survey. Therefore, your pool of respondents will be as close as possible to your genuine buyers. After you run some tests and get valuable data from PickFu, it is time you made changes to your Amazon listing to see how it performs. First, upload the poll's winning image to your listing. Then record the date and current metrics in a spreadsheet to determine your baseline.
Optimize your photos with holiday pictures
Add some holiday-related images to your listing (e.g., photos of your goods with a festive background or lifestyle shots in an extraordinary setting). Do new keyword research to make sure you do not miss critical search terms. Also, add visuals or videos that showcase your items as great holiday gifts to increase conversions.
Work on your holiday pricing strategy
Due to the usual surge in sales over the holidays, merchants worldwide are strongly encouraged to devise more advanced strategies to navigate this busy time of year. Ensuring enough inventory and creating the right promotions and discounts are all keys to winning this season.
Use holiday-themed keywords and backend search terms in your listings
Add holiday-related keywords to your listings to make sure you benefit from increased search volume and gift shoppers. Consider working on this step as soon as possible. The best time to add seasonal search terms is the end of September as we approach various holidays. Add such search terms as "gift," "last-minute gift," "___ gifts" and others.
Include high-frequency keywords for a better ranking
When it comes to product titles, keywords are essential. Your product title should contain as many relevant and high-frequency keywords you have identified via your research as possible. It will tell your target customers that your product is what they are looking for, support Amazon SEO and rank your product as well.
3. Increase your Amazon PPC budgets
It would be best to adjust your PPC campaign budgets and keyword bids to consider the massive increase in traffic that Amazon will experience over the next couple of months. This way, you can make sure your ads are always being shown. The increase in client traffic also makes pay-per-click advertising more competitive, which means you should raise your keyword bids.
Holiday traffic is more likely to result in more clicks, which means you will use up your daily budget faster than usual. If your ads are currently generating revenue, you should consider increasing your daily budget to account for extra clicks your ads receive. If you run out of your daily budget for the rest of the day, increase it gradually until you find the correct number to keep your ads running.
Increase your bids
Since more and more sellers start to advertise goods during this time, your current keyword bids will most likely not cut it. Therefore, depending on your products, you might want to expand your keyword bids to get as many impressions as possible.
Instead of manually changing your bids for every keyword you target, you can change your bidding strategy in Seller Central Campaign Manager. By selecting "Dynamic bids — up and down," you let Amazon automatically adjust keyword bids up to 100% when your ads are more likely to convert. Conversely, if the platform thinks your ad is not converting, it will lower your bid.
Prepare holiday creatives for your SB and SD campaigns
Registration in the Brand Registry allows you to access multiple types of advertising that other sellers do not have. Test different ads this time of year — the ones you do not typically launch might do well now.
Sponsored brand ads enable you to personalize your Amazon shopping experience and avoid the plethora of competitor ads. Once a shopper clicks on your ad, the platform will take them to your Amazon Storefront or custom landing page, where they can learn more about your inventory and company.
Sponsored display ads allow you to target competitors' goods by placing your ad on their listings. In addition, sellers can retarget shoppers who had already visited their listings before but did not make a purchase. It gives you a massive advantage over competitors not enrolled as a brand.
Figure out your target ACOS
Find out what your break-even RoAS and ACoS are to monitor the performance of your shopping season campaigns. You will likely spend more per click this time of year, so get your numbers in before your ads become unprofitable.
Related: 3 Essentials for Taking Your Amazon Sales to the Next Level
4. Launch external ads
In addition to promoting your products on Amazon, you should also know how to promote your products outside of Amazon. Even though there are multiple ways to do this, launching ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is efficient and legitimate. Here's how to do it effectively:
Start partnering with influencers
Amazon influencers are bloggers, YouTubers and social media influencers who promote third-party Amazon brands to their followers and earn a commission as Amazon Affiliates. To do this, they must be members of the Amazon Associates program. Simply put, Amazon influencers earn profit by recommending products to purchase on Amazon to their audience across various platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Amazon influencer marketing is nothing more than driving sales on Amazon through off-page promotion, thereby driving organic traffic to Amazon from other channels.
Copy your best-performing TikToks to your listings
Building your brand awareness with TikTok is a strategic part of your overall marketing effort. A critical factor is to create quality content that resonates with your target audience, which will gradually help your Amazon business scale. Therefore, make sure you highlight your best-performing TikTok creatives and copy them to your Amazon listings. It will help you boost your conversions.
Launch Instagram ads
Ever since Instagram entered the market, it has gained immense popularity. It has taken the social world by storm and seized the sweet spot for online shopping. Instagram is a great platform to attract millions of customers. You can use Instagram feed or story ads to scale your business. Promote your products on a large scale, and bring them to the right audience.
Launch Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can do wonders if you are already a part of a Facebook group or community. Your Facebook page is a great platform to efficiently showcase your goods to the right audience. When you advertise your Amazon products on Facebook, you shorten the time it takes to launch or introduce a new brand. Plus, it boosts sales — and when your item's sales increase, your organic ranking in Amazon's SERPs also goes up.
5. Create holiday deals with Amazon coupons
Whether the brand is registered or not, you can create deals and coupons in Seller Central. Running deals can be an attractive way to increase sales on Amazon when you offer shoppers a discount on their purchases, especially during major events like Prime Day or Black Friday. To create a deal in Seller Central, go to the Advertising tab and select "Deals." Then click "Create a new deal."
Create coupons
Sellers can also create a "clippable" coupon that buyers can see on your listing. If you make a coupon for your item, shoppers will see it on the search results page to immediately notice they will receive a discount when they buy your product. To create a coupon, go to the "Advertising" tab and select "Coupons." Then click "Create a new coupon."
6. Offer your product to affiliates
Affiliate marketing is considered the most efficient way to drive external traffic to your Amazon product listings. Apart from sellers, affiliate programs greatly advantage bloggers, influencers and internet marketers. Affiliates can influence people to purchase goods through the product links they provide, helping them earn money.
Amazon Affiliate Program
The Amazon Affiliate Program is designed solely for similar purposes. Once affiliate links are created, they can take visitors directly to your product listing page, boosting your sales and offering a small commission in return.
Undoubtedly, Amazon has become very competitive. There are thousands of sellers contending there. Selling your items largely depends on what type of audience sees your listings. As a result, it's not easy to achieve organically, forcing you to spend more on ads and email campaigns. While the money spent on them is also great, the affiliate program works even better since it lets you reach prospects from places you may not have been able to otherwise.
Related: 4 Ways to Sell (a Lot) More on Amazon
Q4 is the most exciting season for an Amazon seller. However, with over 120 million products on Amazon, trying to stand out can be stressful. So, as you prepare for this holiday season, do not forget to flare the holiday spirit. If you stay active and sufficiently prepare for the coming months, you have a great chance of success. Use this step-by-step guide to predict accurate sales for the upcoming shopping season.
