Seven Tips To Sell on Amazon During The Holiday Season

The holidays are on the horizon, which means massive opportunity for e-commerce sellers. In 2019, retail e-commerce sales totaled $135.35 billion. With the current state of the world, that number can only increase.

Amazon alone saw $87.4 billion in net sales during Q4 of 2019, much of which likely happened during the holiday season. As an Amazon seller, a healthy cut of that number could be yours. Such a large market means a lot of competition, though; so, how do you get consumers to see and buy your products during the holiday rush?

Below are the seven holiday sales tips to showcase and sell your goods this holiday season.

1. Stock Up On Inventory

Buying up inventory means more potential holiday sales—but that’s not the only reason to stock up. Did you know that your inventory levels affect your Amazon search optimization? Products with one to five units available are less likely to show on the first page than items with significant stock. Similarly, users trust a product and company more if they don’t see that only a small quantity is available. That is unless you sell a luxury item—in which case low stock creates scarcity and increases a customer’s desire to purchase the product.

Thus, if you aren’t selling luxury items, focus on increasing your stock levels to:

1) Optimize your location on Amazon

2) Appear as more professional to consumers, and

3) Have more inventory available during the busy holiday season.

2. Optimize Your Listings

Optimize your listings so your products are as close to the top of the search results as possible. Amazon ranks items by search terms, price, inventory, selection, and sales history. The more information you complete, the more visible your product will be.

Customers often search using filters, too. So by the same logic, filling out more fields increases the likelihood of your product appearing in a filtered search. Offering more information will also instill trust in consumers and ensure they’re happy when they receive the product. With that in mind, make sure all of your information is comprehensive and accurate to best appear in search results.

In addition, we recommend using relevant search terms and tags. Your page view count can increase exponentially with just one additional, relevant search term. When determining the appropriate tags, imagine what the customer would type into the search bar to find your product.

For example, consumers looking to buy dryer sheets will often search “dryer sheets.” However, they may also search “static-free” or “dryer products.” Adding these search terms (if your dryer sheets had these qualities) would both differentiate your product and help you rank for more search terms. You don’t want to miss out on sales just because some customers type different terms into the search bar!

3. Create Sponsored Product Ads

Consider running some sponsored product ad campaigns on your hottest products. These ads will bring you an influx of sales if you do them right. Plus, you only pay when customers click your ad. Because of this, running ads to your hottest products could be quite lucrative if the rest of the listing is optimized and persuasive.

Additionally, since more people will click on and buy your product (if you do sponsored advertising right) when it’s at the top of the front page, that product’s organic ranking will benefit. Once you end your campaign, you will still enjoy more sales through a better organic ranking.

Experiment with keywords particular to the holidays when you create sponsored ads. For example, if you sell notebooks, you might try “Christmas notebook” or “holiday notebook”.

4. Implement Lightning Deals

The holidays bring out the discount-hunters—consequently, running a Lightning Deal on one of your eligible products could gain your entire brand exposure to new customers.

Lightning Deals are those fast sales where certain products pop up on the Amazon Deals page for only a few hours. Each one is marked down at least 20% from its lowest price within the last 30 days. For a small fee, you could sell a lot more of one product while getting more people to see your other inventory.

5. Make Your Return Policy Known

If you fill out your fields correctly, consumers shouldn’t need to return the product—but it still happens. Consumers demand 100% satisfaction with their purchases and want the option to send it back if they’re not pleased. Make sure they understand your return policy so they feel comfortable buying your product. Address your A-to-Z Guarantee claims promptly by checking your claim pages daily.

Reach out to consumers after the holidays to get feedback on why they returned products if applicable. Don’t be accusatory—be genuine about your desire to discover what’s wrong with the product so you can gain helpful information to better your product and grow your business.

6. Offer Expedited Shipping Options

People won’t buy a product for the holidays if they aren’t sure if they’ll receive it in time. Thus, offering expedited shipping can increase your volume. Last-minute shoppers are often the most profitable—expedited shipping lets them order from you even days before Christmas.

You can find Amazon’s shipping rates here.

7. Provide Quality Customer Service

Holiday shopping is stressful for consumers. “Wow” them with service, and they’ll likely tell their friends about you and come back to your company for future purchases. They will also give you a better Amazon review, possibly leading to better search optimization. All of this means more sales for you without having to spend as much on advertising.

To provide excellent service...

• Respond to all inquiries within 24 hours
• Add personal touches and thank you notes inside the packages, and
• Be courteous and professional.

It’s go-time at Amazon this holiday season, so make sure you are prepared to sell. Stock up, optimize your listings, offer great return policies and shipping options, and provide unbeatable customer service. You’ll be on your way to taking a slice of the holiday retail pie, and you’ll set yourself up for future business after the holidays have passed.