5 Tips to make the most of Q4 2018 on Amazon

Fourth-quarter on Amazon is the “most wonderful time of the year”. That is if you have all your ducks in a row. The biggest mistake that we have seen over the years during Q4 is without question inventory. This is NOT having available units to sell during the holiday rush. On average the Amazon platform will see an increase of 30% during the fourth quarter. This is historically the strongest quarter for Amazon. The average increase is 8 to 10 billion from the other three quarters. This is significant! Here are a few tips to help you make the most of 2018.

1. Available Inventory. In order to sell products, you must have an available inventory to sell. While “back up” merchant listings are helpful. Available FBA units are what will generate the fastest sales and help you build sales consistently during the holidays. Please keep in mind that ALL sellers on Amazon will be trying to increase inventory coverage as well. It’s smart to plan ahead for this influx of inventory and expect latency on the received end of FBA. You can expect the biggest delays with LTL shipments. It may make sense when you are getting low inventory to send out some small parcel shipments as then tend to be faster once the middle of November hits.

2. Listing Optimization. Optimization can be a blanket term that is overused. When we talk about optimization we are referring to ALL changes that will increase exposure and conversions. This is the following mandatory optimizations for the front end of Amazon: Best possible product and lifestyle images, detailed and well-articulated product descriptions and bullet points. We also highly recommend having all storefront and Enhanced Brand Content completely built out.

3. Organic Search Rankings. It has been said that “success on Amazon stands and falls with product positioning in the search results.” We completely agree! You have to be not only on the top page but in the top 3 spots for any given keyword you are targeting. Especially with the increase over the years in sales taking place on mobile devices. If your products are buried 6 pages deep for the majority of your products then sales will, at best, only trickle in. At Evolved Commerce understanding and tracking organic search rankings is imperative to increasing sales on the channel

4. Optimized Ads with increased spend. During Q4 consumer traffic on Amazon increases. With this increase in eyeballs, it only makes sense that we would want to get our products in front of as many people as possible. Amazon Sponsored Products are a great way to do that. This needs to be managed and monitored to prevent overspending.

5. Product Promotions. If the sales ranks on your products are not where you want them you will need to increase the “sales velocity”. Running product promotions can be a great way to help move the needle in terms of sales rank increases.

This is just scratching the surface to what our focus is for our clients. Now is the time to get the ball rolling for 2018! We would love to help you achieve your sales goals. If you have further questions about increasing your sales for Q4 please reach out to [email protected] and he explains the different packages that we offer.