Are you ready for Amazon Black Friday 2020 and Cyber Monday 2020! Here are some quick tips to save you money!
With Amazon Prime Day 2020 behind us, it is now time to get ready for the next biggest online shopping event of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With COVID-19 hindering traditional shopping experiences and more brick and mortar stores opting to close for Thanksgiving, consumers are turning to online retailers, like Amazon, to find the best deals and get a jump start on holiday shopping. Here’s how to insure you are the Amazon seller consumers choose during the big shopping bonanza.
Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.
Unfortunately, you can’t just wake up on Black Friday and hope consumers are drawn to your products. You have to do a little bit of preparation to maximize your profit ahead of time. The first thing you should do is review your inventory storage limits. To combat the clogging of inventory at Amazon warehouses, the retail giant set inventory limits earlier this summer in preparation for the holiday shopping season.
According to Cnet.com sellers will be able to store over three months of inventory for their items — with limits set on a product by product basis–and can replenish this inventory as items go out the door. If you’re worried about inventory limits, now is a good time to investigate alternatives to Amazon fulfillment and third-party logistics companies (3PLs).
While you want to avoid having a surplus of inventory, you also need to be sure you don’t fall short of your inventory demand and make sure your inventory reaches Amazon FBA on time. Last year, Amazon Seller Central recommended inventory for Black Friday and Cyber Monday should arrive at Amazon fulfillment centers by November 5. Inventory for Christmas shopping should arrive by December 5. You can bet that the dates for 2020 will be around the same time as last year.
Scope the Competition
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are going to be highly competitive selling events. You’ll want to pay close attention to your competition, monitoring their inventory and tracking price points and projections. You can do this with a Product Profit Tracker. Keeping tabs on your competitors will give you a sellers advantage to make sure your prices and products are attractive to customers.
Listing Optimization
They say “never judge a book by it’s cover,” but let’s face it, we all judge Amazon products by their images. Right? You will want to maximize the profitability of your listing by optimizing the listing for your customers. This means:
- Providing a nice, clear, inviting image of the product (or product in action in a lifestyle setting)
- Keywords are like spotlights for your product. High-volume keywords within your listing will increase your product rank in organic search. To determine the best keywords for your product, imagine you are a consumer. If you were searching for that product, what would you type in the search bar? A few variations of this exercise will yield you your keywords.
- Your product description should be thorough and tell the product story in an engaging manner. Include highlights and features of the product, frequently asked questions, and anything you think consumers would be interested in knowing. The more questions you answer for the consumer right there in the listing, the more likely they are willing to purchase your product.
Consider Deals and Coupons
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all about saving money. Customers are on the hunt for the best price, the biggest discount, the most bang for their buck. That doesn’t mean you want to lowball your prices to the point you’re practically giving products away for free. No, instead, you can take advantage of Amazon’s lightning deals and coupons.
To schedule a deal go into your Seller Center Account. Click on Advertising. Click on Deals. Create a new deal. The sooner you can lock in your deals for your products, the better, as the deal space gets very competitive. Note…Amazon’s Black Friday tends to run an entire week instead of a single chunk of hours like a brick and mortar Black Friday. Be prepared to pay a higher fee to run deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This can absolutely be worth it if you have high performing products and plenty of inventory.
Track Your Products Leading Up to the Big Day
To be successful on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you want to monitor your product’s product story and pinpoint the best time to start selling your product. This will increase efficiency in your fulfillment pipeline. An Amazon Product Tracker allows you to keep tabs of your products over time and visualize the results. You can track reviews to gain real-time insights leading up to the big day.
Bottom Line
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are huge retail events for Amazon sellers and consumers alike. You can unlock your profitability at new heights by planning ahead, optimizing your listings, tracking your products, and using all the tools available to ensure you put your best Amazon seller foot forward. Good luck!
