With the 29th of November less than a month away, Black Friday is almost upon us. Last year, Cyber Weekend was Amazon’s biggest sales period to date, so the opportunities to maximise sales on this platform are huge.
With that being said, in order to effectively leverage Amazon as a platform for boosting sales over this lucrative season, preparing is imperative. In this article, we’ll break down seven ways you can prepare for the Black Friday season and drive success Amazon.
1. Implementing deal widgets
Launched this year, a deal widget displays discounted items and ongoing promotions within the relevant category you’re included in.
The process of setting this up is fairly simple as you can choose the widget size and product category manually. By adding a deal widget to your account, your latest discounted products will be automatically displayed, which will really benefit you during Black Friday season.
2. Stock preparation
It is unsurprising that over the holiday season, consumers will be searching and purchasing more frequently. For this reason, as third-party Amazon sellers, it’s vital that you make sure you have enough stock to last you throughout this period, ideally until mid-January.
Many sellers often make the mistake of forgetting about the ‘last-minute shopper’ and run out of stock close to Christmas, thereby missing out on key seasonal sales.
3. Strategic campaign management
When looking at strategic campaign targeting in the run-up to Black Friday, you’ll need to review your current campaign keywords to ensure you’re hitting the right terms.
Consumers’ search behaviours will change during Cyber Weekend as they’ll most likely be looking to purchase ‘discounted items’. A move which will be reflected in their changing search terms when they try to find specific products and deals.
At Croud, we recommend setting up separate sponsored product listings highlighting ‘Black Friday’, as well as sponsored brand campaigns, ensuring that all the relevant keywords for your Black Friday promotions are covered.
4. Having the ‘right’ language
When it comes to restricted language on product listings/ads, Amazon is always changing its regulations. Therefore, prior to implementing your Black Friday strategy, ensure that all content is compliant with the current Amazon rules.
If you fail to do this, you’ll risk having your storefront page or sponsored brand advertisement being rejected at a very crucial time for your business.
In addition to this, it’s important to remember that there’ll also be a surge in the publishing of ads during Black Friday, meaning any changes made to your ad may take a number of days to be accepted. Therefore plan in advance, and ensure before you publish your ad that they are perfect the first time, to avoid missing out on valuable reach.
5. Effective pricing strategies
Customers do not want to pay RRP during Black Friday season. Unless you offer a suitable discount during this period, you will almost certainly see a decline in conversion rates across your product listings.
It’s important to look at your margin and calculate whether your pricing is set at a value for you to be able to offer favourable discounts during Black Friday season, whilst still turning a healthy profit.
6. Best performing categories during Black Friday
By analysing the statistics from Black Friday sales in 2018, we were able to identify the products and categories which performed the best on Amazon 2018. You can use this information to guide which products you choose to promote and build a presence for on your Amazon storefront, in order to maximise visitors and increase revenue.
Electronics & Photos
This is the more lucrative category on average for Amazon, and last year, two of Amazon’s Black Friday bestsellers fell into this category. Last year, two of Amazon’s Black Friday bestsellers fell into this category, so if your products fall into this category there is major scope for you to build awareness in the lead up to Black Friday.
Health & Personal Care
Viewed as the rising star within the Amazon categories, Health & Personal is beginning to establish a real presence within Amazon’s bestseller list. For example, from February 1st 2018 to January 31st 2019, Health and Personal Care attributed to 11.5% of all sales on Amazon.
Home and Kitchen
60% of items sold on Amazon fall under this category, and it is also the 4th top-selling category on Amazon. It, therefore, goes without saying that the demand is there, so by building an optimised Amazon advertising strategy, you can take advantage of the current demand.
Books
The first item ever to be sold on Amazon was a book, and with the likes of Kinde and Alexa disrupting the publishing industry, there’s growing scope for books and e-Readers, specifically during such a lucrative sales season.
7. Offer incentives
If you usually don’t offer free shipping, Black Friday is certainly the time to consider implementing this. Research suggests that the majority of consumers who shop on Black Friday are primarily looking for a ‘deal’ or some form of incentive. Therefore exploring and implementing new offerings or ‘value-adds’ for your consumers, will help you stand out from other competitors.
Incentives that encourage up-sell and/or cross-sell prove the most fruitful. Strategic bundling, therefore, is an effective way to gain authority of the buy box.
As the famous adage goes ‘by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’. This certainly applies to one of the biggest days in the retail calendar. Prepare for Black Friday far in advance and you can be sure to expect great returns.
To find out more about our Amazon services or about Croud, get in touch.
