Holidays are a highlight of the year in so many ways.
I mean, who among us doesn’t love them? From the special foods and music you’ll encounter to the more welcoming attitudes amongst many in the public, they’re always a fun break from the normal flow. But experiencing holidays as an Amazon seller is very different from how they’re normally experienced. Rather than a time to take a break from your normal work schedule and relax, holiday seasons are an extra busy time for online sellers.
The days and weeks leading up to Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and other holidays are very unique points in the year from a business perspective.
There are people scrambling to buy presents for their loved ones. There are seasonal deals and discounts to compete with. There are last-minute shoppers looking to get their hands on things while brick-and-mortar stores are closed.
All this can add up to a pretty big challenge.
But if you know what to expect and plan carefully in advance, you can turn these potentially intimidating and hectic events into golden opportunities for your business to thrive.
Here’s a quick guide to what I feel every Amazon Seller should know going into holiday seasons.
- Offer Something Special
The first thing holiday season shoppers want to see is that you are as enthusiastic about the season as they are. I’m sure you already know as a shopper that most in-person businesses tend to deck themselves out with holiday attire and flare, and create an atmosphere that makes the holiday shopping experience extra fun and inviting.
Successful online entrepreneurs do the same thing, and apply that same strategy to their online stores.
It is very common to see special discounts, deals, coupons, or special themed products offered around this time of year. In fact, it is almost expected—to the point where if you fail to offer something unique for the holiday season, your products will probably not even be noticed by many potential customers.
Not only that, but shoppers are also generally aware that special deals and bargains are commonly offered at these times of year, so a listing with no discount will simply not be able to compete. That’s why the most important thing to remember is to offer something special and help potential customers feel like they’re winning—or at least getting as good as what they’d get elsewhere—by choosing you.
To some extent, the specifics of what you choose to offer don’t even necessarily matter a whole lot, as long as it’s clear there is some kind of holiday deal or promotion going on. Remember, that is what customers are expecting to see at this time of year and they might scroll right past your listing if it doesn’t catch their attention as what they are looking for.
So whether it’s a special coupon, a promo code, or even some kind of unique holiday-themed spin on your products, make sure you decide what you’d like to offer and have it both available and clearly visible on your listing in the weeks and days leading up to a given holiday.
- Use Holiday Keywords
I get it, SEO is not exactly the easiest thing to deal with even at the best of times—but what can we do? It’s an important part of the success of any online endeavor.
Let’s face it. If people aren’t seeing your listings, then they’re not buying your products. It is always crucial to be using the right keywords in your posts so that people are finding you in their searches. This is as true during holiday seasons as any other time of the year—but when holidays come around, some additional efforts are needed.
You have to now make sure that, in addition to your usual product-related keywords, you are adding in holiday-related keywords.
For example, if you’re offering a discount on candy products in October, it’s not enough to simply offer a promo code and add some orange and black imagery to your listing. You need to make sure the words “Halloween” and “trick or treat” are mentioned so that search engines will actually show your special deal to the people who you’ve created it for.
So remember to brush up your wordings with unique terms and phrases—not only on your product listings, but also within your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns—ahead of each holiday as it begins to approach. (And of course, you can always work with Best Seller Listers to help you with this!)
- Keep Yourself Organized
So you’ve done all the right things to attract holiday customers.
Now you have to make sure you’re prepared to actually handle all the orders that will hopefully be coming your way.
Remember, holiday seasons are some of the busiest shopping periods of the year—which means that some vendors will be facing majorly increased order volumes from what they might be used to.
You need to proactively make sure that you’ve arranged the logistics to ensure that you won’t run out of stock with the higher volume of orders that could come through in a shorter amount of time than you’re used to.
Customers looking to do their holiday shopping could be very disappointed if they are interested in your product, but see it marked “out of stock” when they visit your page. Remember, many people leave their holiday shopping to the last minute—so even running out of inventory right before the big day could mean a whole bunch of unnecessarily missed sales. Letting your stock run out during a holiday season is a big no-no.
So now that you know what not to do, one thing I’d advise making a point to do is to showcase how many units of a product you have available—especially when you’re getting close to running out.
You’ve definitely been there as a shopper and know why this is an effective sales tool. When there’s something you really want, and you can see that there’s only a limited supply available before you miss your chance, you know how tempted you are to go through with buying it sooner rather than later. This is a simple but powerful tool for converting interested browsers into actual buyers.
Last but not least, you’ll want to make sure you have a post-holiday plan in place that you have also thought through in advance. Once the holiday rush ends, some will always worry that they might have missed out on the deals. We’ve all been there.
Offering some kind of post-holiday promotion is a great way to capitalize on some of that lingering sentiment—and helps ensure that you are still actually getting all the potential sales that the unique circumstances of the season have to offer.
Conclusion
Holidays can be a great opportunity to boost your sales and get some attention for your business—but you have to approach them with the right attitude and a solid plan.
I hope these tips can help give vendors like you some extra reasons to celebrate when the next holiday season comes around!