For Amazon sellers, the fourth quarter, which is from October to December, is a pretty lucrative time of the year. Though, there is a lot of work that has to be done. The reason behind considering Q4 as the most important time for Amazon sellers is that this is the time websites and other online platforms get huge traffic. Amazon sellers make most of their annual sales during this time from traffic on the holiday season like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. If you want to make a huge number of sales, you have to prepare in advance for Amazon Q4.
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Things for Amazon Q4 Sales in 2019
Make a strategy and follow through
During Q4, there will be many changes, so make sure you schedule everything. This is the time when Amazon sellers make most of their annual sales. Whether you’re engaging with your customers or simply customizing your EBC content with a holiday-themed layout, work with a consistent plan that focuses on tactics you can apply to improve the visibility of your product listing. For example, in the festive season, you have to make sure that you have done everything for higher sales and use FBA or SFP instead of FBM, up till January. There is no problem with FBM, but it could result in lower sales during Q4.
Optimize your product listing
Q4 is a time when you and your team have to focus only on sales so make sure your Amazon product listings are fully optimized. During Q4, you will not get time for A/B testing so invest the rest of the year in your learning. There are different priorities that you and your team will have to take care of. Make sure your team is focusing on customer orders, product reviews, seller feedback, and the two most important areas such as sponsored ads and maintaining the Buy Box which can bring more sales.
Stock up
Make sure you have enough stock for Q4. Many Amazon sellers run out of stock during Q4 and because of that, they end up with lower sales. So, to avoid this, you have to ensure that your inventory is available for shipment to Amazon by October. On the other hand, there are many sellers who end up with too much in stock because of the late arrival of inventory, and that also results in lower sales. It’s important for Amazon sellers to forecast their inventory in advance to ensure proper availability of stock. This is tough, especially if this is your first Q4, or if you have recently launched a new product. The previous demand for category-based products, sales uplift, and your marketing initiatives, are factors you can consider for older products.
Make a pricing strategy
Amazon product pricing can decide your success or failure in Q4 so make sure you have a clear pricing strategy to increase sales, and not the stock for January. As an Amazon Seller, if you don’t have a pricing strategy, you will have to sit with overstocks in January when sales dramatically go down. Decide your timeline when you want to drop the price. For example, you can drop your price if a certain percentage of inventory is not cleared. Now, you might think, “why should I drop my price?” But is far better and more profitable than having too much inventory for January. Also, you have to incur those long-term storage fees, or have your products removed, because of overstock.
Promotions & Sponsored Ads
During Q4, as an Amazon seller, you can take advantage of ads, as this is the time when you’re going to get more visibility compared to all year. So you need to have a strategy for ad campaigns. Make sure that you don’t overspend on ads, because organically, you will get visibility. Ad campaigns have the potential to reach more people though. You also have to plan for product promotion in advance so that you can raise the prices when there is high demand but less supply. Make a Social Media Marketing strategy for product promotion and also make sure you start early to increase product sales rank to be competitive.
Backup plan
What if you run out of stock on a big day in Q4? Don’t worry, we have a backup plan for you. If you are an Amazon seller and selling through the FBA program, for any missed shipment, you can shift over to Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN), where you can send in another shipment. This way you can take full advantage of Q4 sales. There is another program by Amazon, Seller Fulfilled Prime, which you can apply to if you are eligible. Once you get the approval, you can sell your lowest-selling products through this program so that you and your team can become familiar with the requirements. Yes, it is a lot of work, but to avoid panic, you have to do this. Even after all this work, if any item goes completely out of stock, you can move on with a similar or equivalent product. To make the most profit, you do need to work hard and plan smartly.
Final thoughts
As an Amazon Seller, the final four months will be crucial for you, and for survival, you need to have a great strategy. But along with a good marketing plan, solid ad campaigns, optimized product listings, and a detailed forecast, you will have to be prepared for the unexpected. You can spend months planning for Q4, but once it pools in, there isn’t enough time to test and review strategies. This is a time when you have to take action. Imagine driving a super-fast car during Q4 and getting ready to shift gears anytime. If you can’t, your competitors will.
There is a lot of work and there isn’t a whole lot of time, so how do you manage this? BIE have experienced and highly skilled amazon human resources who enhance brand presence and improve sales during the holiday season while providing analytical feedback of your conversions.
