You see, because demand for products spikes so acutely during Christmas, sellers are forced to invest heavily in advertising just to stay visible on Amazon. To avoid getting caught up in a financial whirlpool come December, there are several things you need to know about selling on Amazon during the festive season.
In this blog post we’ll talk about insider tips for successful selling on Amazon during Christmas and how you can leverage them as an e-commerce seller this holiday season.
1. Know your target audience
One of the most crucial tips for successful selling on Amazon during Christmas is to know your target audience. Amazon shoppers come from all walks of life, but there are certain groups that are more likely to buy during the festive season.
If you know who these audiences are — and how to reach them — you can tailor your listings to fit their needs. During Christmas, parents and grandparents are likely to shop for children. If you’re selling products for kids, you may wish to incorporate bright colours and fun designs in your listings.
Similarly, if you sell gift items, you should add gift wrapping to your services. Doing so will let you target gifters by giving them a quick solution to their gifting needs. For that reason, gift items should be stocked in higher quantities. This way, you’ll have enough inventory on hand to meet the demands of gift buyers.
2. Plan your advertising and merchandising budget
Advertising is a crucial aspect of successful selling on Amazon during Christmas. In fact, sellers who put little to no effort into raising brand awareness are missing out on one of the best opportunities to boost sales. You can ensure that your products are seen by shoppers by investing in Amazon’s advertising services.
You can also promote your listings through merchandising. Merchandising is how you present your products on Amazon. It’s your product’s placement on the site and includes factors such as pricing, copy, images, and more.
Good merchandising can help you increase your sales, but bad merchandising can actually hurt your sales. Amazon has a huge audience, so you want to make sure that as many people as possible see your products.
You can do this by putting your products in prime real estate on the site, like the “buy box” or product recommendations section. This will help get more people to buy your products.
3. Be judicious with FBA
While FBA might seem like a no-brainer during the Christmas season, it’s important to remember that seasonal demand is highly unpredictable. If you have sudden spikes in demand, you could be left with no choice but to buy more products.
This can be a costly decision, especially if you don’t sell those items again. As such, it’s a good idea to consider the costs of FBA during the Christmas season.
By being judicious with FBA, you can mitigate your risk of incurring significant losses if you happen to buy more inventory than you can sell. If you’re shipping your products through FBA, keep in mind that there are two ways you can approach shipping during the holiday season. First, you can plan ahead by renting additional space in your Amazon-owned warehouse.
This way, any products you purchase will be closer to being picked, packed, and shipped out. Alternatively, you can use Amazon’s expedited shipping services. These include Amazon Prime and two-day shipping. By shipping your products through these services, you can ensure that your customers receive their orders as quickly as possible.
4. Diversify your shipping strategies
Shipping is an essential part of selling on Amazon. After all, the only way your products can be delivered to customers is if they’re transported from the seller to the customer. While Amazon Shipping and FBA offer quick and cost-effective shipping solutions, there are times when an alternative method is necessary. In cases like this, you may wish to consider a more traditional shipping method.
This can help you avoid incurring significant overhead costs when demand is high. When shipping outside of Amazon and FBA, you’re responsible for the cost of postage, as well as the time it takes for your products to be delivered. Unfortunately, this means that your customers will likely encounter longer delivery times than if they’d used Amazon’s quick and efficient shipping services.
To avoid frustrating your customers, you can use a service like ShipStation to manage your shipping needs. This can help you diversify your shipping strategies while keeping costs low.
5. Don’t forget the basics – Product research and development
Just because Christmas is a time of the year where we celebrate the holidays and family, it does not mean that people stop shopping for themselves. In fact, for many people, the holidays are their single biggest shopping season of the year.
That being said, it’s important to remember that folks are shopping for themselves during this time; they aren’t shopping for someone else. One way to ensure that your products are relevant during this time, and year round, is to make sure you’re keeping up with product research and development.
Product research and development is the process through which you make sure your products are relevant and up to date. By keeping up with the latest trends and technologies, you can make sure that your products are more useful and desirable to customers.
This can help you stay competitive as an e-commerce seller and make sure that your products are in high demand during the Christmas season and throughout the rest of the year.
6. Research Is Key
It’s also important to remember that research is key during the Christmas season. Whereas many customers shop year round, there are certain groups that are more likely to buy during the holiday period.
If you know who these audiences are and where they’re coming from, you can tailor your listings to fit their needs.
For example, if you sell gift items, you should add gift wrapping to your services. Doing so will let you target gifters by giving them a quick solution to their gifting needs. For that reason, gift items should be stocked in higher quantities. This way, you’ll have enough inventory on hand to meet the demands of gift buyers.
7. Use Pricing as a Marketing Tool
Pricing is an important part of selling on Amazon, but it’s also a significant factor in successful selling on Amazon during Christmas. During the holiday season, customers are more likely to impulse buy products that are listed as “on sale”.
On the other hand, they’re less likely to buy items that are priced higher than normal. Because of this, you may wish to raise your prices slightly during the festive season. This can help you avoid turning customers away and can also help you maximize your profits.
8. Diversify Your Inventory
One way to diversify your inventory during the Christmas season is to sell products that aren’t associated with Christmas. For example, many retailers sell products that aren’t Christmas-themed during the holiday season.
This can help you mitigate risk and ensure that you have enough inventory on hand to meet demand. Similarly, you can diversify your inventory by selling a variety of products. This means that, instead of selling only gift items, you sell a variety of products. Doing so will help you mitigate risk and ensure that you have enough inventory on hand to meet demand.
9. Don’t Only Focus on Christmas Day
While the Christmas holiday can certainly boost your sales, it’s important to remember that many customers shop on Amazon year round. These are the same customers who are likely to purchase during the festive season.
As such, you should try to focus less on Christmas Day and more on the weeks leading up to Christmas. Once the Christmas holiday has passed, there are likely to be fewer shoppers on Amazon. This means that less competition can translate to higher sales for you.
10. Use seasonal best-seller lists to identify opportunities
Finally, you can use seasonal best-seller lists to identify opportunities for successful selling on Amazon during Christmas. During the holiday season, Amazon releases a list of its top-selling products. This way, you can identify what’s most in demand and use that knowledge to inform your product selection.
