Amazon Black Friday is on the way – Here’s what you can do to stay on the top?

The much-awaited period of Q4 – Amazon Black Friday Season is here finally. We have two biggest shopping events packed into a single weekend – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This online maven is set to deliver hot new deals all the time. With the Black Friday Sales on strike, this e-commerce retail giant is busy in offering new deals and new products every day. Amazon plays by its own set of rules to stay on the top during this holiday season. Despite huge discounts offered, Amazon sellers gain a large chunk of profits during this event.

A little preparation goes a long way. If you prepare ahead to nail this selling game, you can enjoy the season as you intend to, with no worries. So, here we are, to provide you with actionable insights that can help you grab more sales, this shopping season. 

A Quick Peek into Amazon Black Friday Sales Trends 2018

To be able to stay on the top in 2019, you need to understand what exactly happened during Black Friday 2018. Here are a few trends we observed during the Amazon Black Friday Sales 2018 that can prepare you for this year’s Big day.

• Electronics, especially TVs, smart home appliances, mobiles, and Alexa-enabled devices were at the forefront in the sales. Amazon offered huge discounts for these products during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• The buyers are spending less on a product, while the sales are rising steeply. 
• Mobile purchases are experiencing higher cart abandonment.
• Most of the buyers browse on the Amazon mobile app but have more tendency to buy on a computer. This implies that the product listings should be personalized for mobile too.
• Though the customers’ spending is increasing during this holiday season, they are loyal and want to save more. 

Understand How the Black Friday Promotions work in Amazon

To begin with, you need to make sure you are well aware of the terms and conditions of the promotions. This is important although you’ve run promotions before to avoid last-minute hassles. Go through the rules and regulations and make sure you explain your terms to the customers. So that, they can understand which offers are they eligible or the outcome of a discount coupon applied. Make sure you clearly mention any promotional message to leave no room for the misinterpretation which can turn into a negative review.

Coupons and Discounts – Why do you need them?

“Offer discounts and coupons appropriately, they become the most effective sales-boosters during this holiday season.”

At times, you need to cut your prices by offering Black Friday coupons or Cyber Monday discounts to put up with the competition. Why? Because, during shopping, discounts and promotions make buyers happy. People will chase such kind of happiness. 

So, why not give them the happiness they want and reap more profits? 

Offering coupons and discounts can benefit you significantly. This way, your loyal customer base increases and reflects in the long-term profits too. 

Also, for instance, if you are a new seller or brand who wants to be visible and increase your sales. Offering a promo code or coupon has more potential to encourage the customers to buy your product for the first time. 

On the other hand, if you are an established seller, offering constant discounts can harm your brand image. But, for special events or holiday seasons offering discounts and coupons sparingly can improve your sales. Such promotions you offer should be limited for the sales to be effective. For instance, you can offer more than half discount during one or two days of the year or quarter and alert your customers ahead through emails or notifications. You can increase or decrease the discount value starting from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.  

Research about the Most-Wished and Trending Products are more likely to sell

Seasonal events such as Black Friday or Christmas demand thorough research. You need to look at the past years’ records. With that, you can understand which niche is more profitable? Or how the pricing of the products listed varies during the seasonal sale? And many more.

This may not be the right time to test your listings. But make sure that you keep track of the trending items. Instead of taking a shot in the dark, based on your target audience and category you sell, make sure you are well-versed with the latest trending and most-wished products. Retail news or online sources can help you stay updated with the buying patterns and consumer sentiment as they constantly monitor and report the same. Or you can log in to our SellerApp to identify the most profitable products in your niche. 

Handle Your Inventory Efficiently

a. Stock Up Your Inventory

One of the worst nightmares of Amazon sellers is running out-of-stock during the holiday season. Make sure you have the best places for stocking up and selling them on Amazon. This way you can enjoy more profits. You need to satisfy the huge uprise in customer demand. Most of the sellers don’t deal with items that depreciate, so stock up your inventory so that the items will last until the middle of January. 

With the busiest season on the go, it is hard to manage your inventory and take care of the order processing simultaneously. Don’t worry, SellerApp is with you to monitor and send alerts to track the orders that help you monitor your inventory.

b. Pack Your Inventory Ahead

Before the rush hits, keep your inventory ready to ship. Make sure only labeling the item is pending. In case, if you listed product bundles, put them all in individual boxes or store them next to each other at one place in your warehouse. This way you can reduce product mishandlings or delays. 

Offer Bundle Deals

If you have multiple product listings on Amazon which are related, you can strategically bundle them. It means you are offering an attractive combo deal to your customers. If you have some complimentary or low-cost products, bundle them with your main products for a discount percentage. Products or deals as such encourage purchases by grabbing customers’ attention which in turn increases your sales.

Note: Offering Bundle sales can reap more profits and simultaneously win the chances to grab the Buy Box which is crucial during the Amazon Black Friday Sale. 

Reviews and Feedbacks

Do you know over 90% of the buyers on Amazon say that they trust verified reviews almost as they trust personal recommendations?

Yes, that is true! Reviews are very crucial for this selling season. One bad review can affect your sales drastically. Having a good product review helps to enhance your visibility and search rankings. To attain more customer reviews, one of the best ways is to send an automated email to your buyer a few days after they purchased the product. During this period, when the customer is happy with your product. Overall, you need to make sure that your systems work in coordination with your customers to provide them with the best customer experience. 

Improve Your Listings for the Black Friday

As you know the competition is pretty steep, make sure you follow certain measures to stay ahead of the competition. Here are a few of them to ensure your product listings stay ahead of your competitors.

Competitive Pricing and SEO is the Key

Offering competitive pricing is one of the important strategies of the holiday season. Keep a track on your competitor prices with our SellerApp tool and boost your Buy Box winning chances by leveling up your SEO and pricing game. But make sure you sell the items with a sufficient margin that ensures you a good ROI at a competitive price. Use the best competitive pricing tools to track your competitors and their pricing strategies.

During this holiday season, you need to ensure that your product listings are visible to your customers. As you know, Amazon considers your product listings to rank for the keywords you listed. Therefore, you need to use the trending keywords that are popular with your shoppers to bag most of the sales. Furthermore, don’t forget to add holiday-related search terms such as ‘Black Friday’ or ‘Cyber Monday’ to your listings. Including such terms help you gain ground and the impact is visible too. Sprinkle 1-2 keywords in the product description too and include the rest in the search items. But make sure you are not adding these words to your non-holiday listings.

Also, remember to exclude terms such as ‘sale’ and ‘deal’ if you want to abide by Amazon’s service rules. However, do not optimize the entire listings for the Black Friday sale and do not overstuff the keywords. Take it slow and keep a track of the impact you created.

Use our SellerApp pro to identify potential keywords and drive more traffic.

Last-Minute Tips to Slay the Amazon Black Friday Sale

Now, you are all set to face the biggest holiday season of the year. There might be a few things that you left out or want to re-check the list. Here are a few last-minute tips and strategies that help you slay the Amazon Black Friday Sale.

• Optimize your product pages to increase your conversion rates. Use high-quality images, product titles with long keywords, and bullet points to highlight the USPs. 
• Get the right pricing strategy. This is important. Adjust prices according to the product demand and competitors, manufacturing costs, and as per the customers’ expectations.
• Test your optimization strategies. Constantly monitor them, improve further, and adjust the listings based on their performance. 
• Extend the Black Friday Sale if possible. Most of the retailers run the Black Friday offers for a weekend or an entire week. But if your inventory is well stocked up, try running the sale for a longer duration of 10-15 days. This way you can achieve higher yields.
• When promoting a deal of the day or hour, use graphics or images on social media. Try to automate these posts to avoid unnecessary hassles.

Conclusion: 

With its stringent regulations and technical coordination, Amazon ensures that the Black Friday Sale will be a success for the deal-hunting customers and retailers. While the buyers are inclined towards competitive pricing and deals, the retailers can ace this selling game by offering personalization, with well-stocked inventory, fulfillment options, and enhancing the search visibility. Usually, sellers who incorporate AI and Analytics for product recommendations can visibly see a proliferation in their revenue and conversion improvement as well as easily monitor their metrics for further uplift of sales.