2019 8 Week Gameplan to Black Friday and Cyber Monday Weekend!

The holiday season is fast approaching, and that means the world’s largest online retail platform is already gearing up for the billions of dollars consumers will spend with their Prime membership.

Now the big question is, how do we take advantage of what will more than likely be the largest sales season ever on Amazon?

Before we answer that, here are a few important dates to remember:

• Black Friday (which really starts Thanksgiving Night) is November 28th.
• Cyber Monday Week is December 2nd – 6th.
• Peak holiday sales will be between Dec. 16th – 23rd.
• Inventory Cutoff for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is November 6th!!
• Inventory Cutoff for Peak Sales is Dec 3rd.

Don’t let the inventory cutoff dates slip away!

Now, these are the dates Amazon themselves are giving us, not just some random dates we are guessing at. With that in mind, here are some key components to ensuring a successful holiday sales season.

1. Plan your inventory NOW – If you have inventory data from last year, use it and compare it against where you’ve been trending over the last few months. Look at the jump in month-over-month sales from last year during the holiday season to get a good idea of the potential increase for this year. Make sure you have all of your inventory sent in early and before the dates above, and send in a little bit more then you think. The last thing you want to do is run out of inventory in mid-December!
2. Clean up your listing – Like any good party host, you want your listing to look its best when the droves of traffic start coming. Reviews, Title, and Images are the first three things any buyer is going to look at.

   – Make sure your titles are clean, concise, and effective with good information and within the character limits that Amazon has set for your category. Don’t overstuff with keywords or irrelevant information.

   – Images need to be high quality and a mix of product shots, infographics, and lifestyle images. Make sure the images are clean and crisp and show the key features of your product and what sets it apart from the competition. Using all of the available image slots not only gives your potential customers more quality information but adds to your products’ perceived value and overall quality of your brand.

   -Reviews are still king. If you have a low review number or low average, talk with your Account Manager about running special review campaigns over the next two months. Your review average must be over 4 Star and the number of reviews you need will be relative to your competition, but the more reviews the better!

3. Start Promotions and Sales early (Like right now) – The main reason we run promotions and sales of any type shouldn’t be to increase sales but to increase exposure! With good exposure comes good traffic. With good traffic comes conversions into sales and with conversions comes an increase in keyword rankings. High, relevant keyword rankings are the ultimate goal for any serious seller. As you start running relevant promotions and sales right now, be mindful of the effect they have on your keyword rankings. The higher your keyword rankings are heading into the sales season, the more organic, “free” traffic you’ll get during the most important time of year.
4. Dial-in your Ad campaigns – With more than a million searches per second, there’s no shortage of Amazon customers who have never bought from you before. Sponsored Products are the simplest way to expose your products to new customers and the best campaigns usually are refined over time. Adding in extra focus on relevant long-tail terms will help you dial in a lower ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) and help you find hidden gems to help ramp up sales before the holidays arrive.

The potential for holiday sales is massive. A lot of our customers see their monthly sales increase by 50-100% with a few that see as much as 30% of their yearly sales happen during this magical time of year. Making sure that you have a game plan now will help you take advantage of what is shaping up to be another stellar sales season on Amazon.