Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, online sellers, especially newbie Amazon sellers, should see to it that important preparation checklists are taken care of during this quarter’s holiday season.                                   

Some of the highly anticipated holidays of most eCommerce platforms include but are not limited to Halloween (October 31); Thanksgiving (November 23); Black Friday (November 24); Cyber Monday (November 27); Hanukkah (December 7–15); Christmas Eve and Day (December 24–25); Boxing Day (December 26); New Year’s Eve (December 31).

The Catalyst for Increased Online Holiday Season Shopping

Despite the global economy’s fragility and the looming threat of a recession, the retail and eCommerce industry has been recovering from logistical challenges and inventory issues. As the holiday season approaches, online sellers should anticipate a surge in eCommerce activity along with the challenges it entails.

To address challenges that may arise, those selling on Amazon should pay attention to typical Amazon seller problems. In particular, newbie sellers should get their Amazon listings ready and maximize available Amazon seller tools to enhance customer satisfaction and Amazon business performance during peak consumer spending period.

As per eMarketer, global retail spending for this year is projected to reach approximately 1.3 trillion dollars. Moreover, the 2023 Holiday Shopping Trends Report by Celigo also highlighted that 75% of consumers intend to do most of their holiday gift shopping online. 

It is also worth noting that nearly 50% of holiday shoppers have indicated that they plan to start their holiday shopping no later than October, and the shopping activity will continue through Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas season.

Top Challenges Amazon Sellers Might Encounter This Peak Season

Since most consumers intend to spend more and shop early this holiday season, online shopping is expected to spike before the year ends. For that matter, Amazon sellers should take precautionary measures to immediately resolve or even avoid some of the potential challenges in retail this Q4 of 2023.

To give sellers a preview on potential shopping issues and other unprecedented concerns during the holiday shopping spree of online consumers, here are some of the challenges to anticipate this Q4 of 2023.  

Communication Overload 

Many sellers encounter communication overload during the holiday season. Communication overload often leads to poor customer service and decreased overall business performance.

Too much information can overwhelm new sellers and their teams, potentially causing them to overlook or neglect critical messages or urgent tasks. One contributing factor to this communication overload is ineffective information filtering or organization.

What To Do:

You can employ several strategies to prevent communication overload within your eCommerce business during the holiday season. Simply organizing and filtering your messages will enable you to readily access and address the most pertinent and urgent communications.

Furthermore, you can mitigate or even eliminate communication overload by effectively assigning and collaborating on tasks with your team. This approach enables the distribution of workloads and leverages team members’ expertise and skills.

Lastly, you can also consider using software tools to help you manage communications and delegate tasks. It helps ease communication overload and enhances the overall efficiency of your business operations.

Supply Chain Disruptions

During the holiday shopping rush, the supply chain can be a nightmare for online sellers, especially in the latter part of the logistic process involving inventory management, warehousing, order fulfillment, and last-mile delivery. 

Amazon sellers have to keep track of many things, and the influx of customer engagements and orders makes it more challenging to manage the business, leading to supply chain disruption. 

What To Do:

It is essential to establish suitable contingency plans to safeguard your business operations from the impact of supply chain disruptions. Prior to the fourth quarter of 2023, you should assess your supply chain and implement any required adjustments.

If you rely solely on one shipping method, such as Amazon FBA, it would be best to create a backup plan in case the Amazon warehouse or fulfillment centers get overwhelmed with customer orders. 

It would also help you secure an additional labor force to enhance your operational efficiency during the peak holiday shopping season. By doing so, you can avoid negative reviews or complaints from Amazon shoppers.

Moreover, choose the logistic method that makes more sense regarding effort, time, and financial resources. Evaluate whether an item and its destination are worth sending via Amazon FBA or FBM.

Increased Competition 

In the holiday shopping season, it is anticipated that competition will increase, making it more challenging for sellers to rank on Amazon’s organic search result page. Numerous sellers will likely venture into eCommerce to leverage the holiday season’s increased consumer demand.

What To Do:

Your primary objective this holiday season is to stand out within the competitive Amazon marketplace. Numerous methods exist to achieve this, including the use of product research tools to help you discover unique and potentially successful products.

You can also enhance your listing’s images and product descriptions to captivate shoppers’ interest. Simultaneously, this optimization can boost the visibility of your listings in organic search results.

Additionally, you can also improve your marketing campaigns. If possible, increase your budget for advertising and promotions to reach more audiences during the holiday season. 

Lastly, you can also optimize your listing price to make it more appealing to customers. Nevertheless, when making price adjustments, it is essential to do so cautiously without compromising your profit margin. Typically, Amazon sellers use an AI repricer to automate price changes while ensuring a sustainable profit margin.                                                                  

Inventory Issues                                          

The Q4 of 2023 could be extra-challenging for Amazon sellers and the rest of the retail industry. With the ever-fluctuating consumer demand and the disrupted supply chain, inventory management can become an issue during this peak season. 

What To Do: 

The best possible holiday preparation and proper inventory management could make a huge difference. Investing in a dependable inventory management software will help improve inventory management and avoid stock-out situations. 

What makes these latest inventory management tools a must are their capabilities to provide online retailers real-time stock levels and shipment locations. 

Former managing partner at Retail Systems Research, Nikki Baird, stated that such tools give retailers “more flexibility and take the pressure off because they don’t have to do as well at making the right guesses about how to allocate stock.”

Customer Complaints 

During a peak season, Amazon reviews or complaints are a normal occurrence, as there are so many avenues for something to go wrong. You should anticipate that holiday shopping may bring the worst out of an individual, which is why it is good to prepare for potential issues and customer complaints ahead of time. 

What To Do: 

Many sellers may not fully realize that the way they handle a customer complaint can significantly impact their business. If a single complaint is handled poorly, the customer may withdraw, give negative feedback, and even encourage others to withdraw from your business. 

By understanding customer rights and responsibilities, sellers can avoid customer complaints or even gain positive reviews. Each platform has its own unique set of guidelines and responsibilities for customers to observe, and these include warranties, refunds, and guarantees.

Moreover, developing your own customer complaint handling policy in consonance with Amazon’s guarantees and guidelines will also help decrease negative feedback and turn potential agitators into loyal customers. 

To know more about Amazon A-Z Guarantee, you may CLICK HERE. 

Price Wars

It is inevitable during the peak season for Amazon sellers to enter into price wars. As sellers try to outbid other sellers for a spot in the Amazon Buy Box, it is normal for sellers to change their item prices in a frequent interval. 

What To Do:

There are various ways to approach an Amazon price war. However, the most effective and efficient method would be using a reliable Amazon repricer, such as Seller Snap. 

Seller Snap is not just your ordinary automated Amazon repricing tool, it is an advanced AI repricer. With the help of an AI repricer, sellers can achieve a dynamic repricing strategy. 

The software will automatically change the price to suit the current market situation and your competitors’ repricing strategies. Since Seller Snap is based on the Game-theory principle, the repricer will attain your fair share of the Amazon Buy Box at a higher price point.

Website Downtime

For Amazon sellers promoting their Amazon store and products outside of Amazon, such as in the form of a landing page, it would be best to prepare for potential website concerns. 

Downtime can affect your sales if you run a marketing campaign via other websites. Every minute your product pages or landing page is offline, your business is losing money. In order to avoid such a scenario, sellers should first check the reliability of their hosting service or hosting plan.

Similarly, upscaling your data infrastructure and investing in uptime monitoring tools may also lessen website issues. Additionally, employing a stress-test on infrastructures also helps in identifying potential pitfalls once peak hours actually happen. 

Prepare for it Today 

Benjamin Franklin once said that “by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” For that matter, it is of great importance for Amazon sellers to prepare for the upcoming Q4 holiday season. 

In terms of preparation, you should not only prepare physically (processes & inventory), technically (tools & technology), and financially. You should also prepare your mental state for the upcoming challenges of this holiday season. 

Anticipate all potential concerns to the business, and create a mental outline on how you should respond to any issues. 

Whether you are selling on Amazon or other eCommerce platforms such as Walmart or eBay, obtaining success during Black Friday and Cyber Monday requires more than mere luck. A successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign demands sufficient preparation and a calculated approach. 

To help you boost your sales and enhance your overall Amazon business performance during Cyber Monday and Black Friday 2023, we have compiled insights and valuable tips encompassing pre-event, actual event, and post-event strategies.

Overview: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping Events

In the context of the consumer industry, Black Friday occurs the Friday after Thanksgiving. Initially, such an event was only an in-person shopping event. However, as technology evolved, Black Friday extended beyond brick-and-mortar stores and into online shopping platforms like Amazon. 

While Black Friday’s origin can be traced back as far as the 1950s, Cyber Monday, on the other hand, was introduced in 2005. Cyber Monday describes the Monday after Black Friday when consumers continue to shop online. 

The main difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is that Black Friday deals are offered online and in physical stores, whereas Cyber Monday deals are more online-focused. Nevertheless, the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is almost negligible, for both holiday shopping events offer huge discounts and great deals.

Important eCommerce and Amazon Data 

Knowing important information that drives the marketplace is crucial when preparing your Amazon Business for Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. From factors influencing shoppers buying decisions to sales reports, these data points can help you quantify your results, determine trends, identify products & categories that attract consumers, and more. 

Factors Influencing Buyer’s Decisions

Understanding the factors influencing online shoppers to purchase items can significantly enhance your strategies for the upcoming Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023. To provide you with a clearer understanding of the triggers that lead shoppers to click the “Add to Cart” button, here are some of the key factors influencing buyer decisions:

• Product Reviews

Before making purchases, most shoppers tend to navigate to the review section of the product listing to gain insights and recommendations from fellow shoppers who have previously bought the same item.

Most consumers read through reviews when shopping online, and 79% of these consumers actively seek out websites featuring product reviews. This emphasizes the essential role of product reviews for every eCommerce enterprise, including your Amazon business.

Although personal recommendations are given more weight than online reviews, a significant population of shoppers remains confident in the reviews left by other consumers concerning a product. It is estimated that 46% of eCommerce shoppers find online reviews as reliable as personal recommendations. You should take product reviews into consideration when unveiling your Amazon Black Friday deals.

• Free Shipping

When shopping online, shoppers prefer listings that have free shipping options. More than 65% of consumers expect free shipping for their online orders. 

Online businesses that do not offer free shipping often experience cart abandonment. Shipping fees often discourage shoppers from continuing their purchases, contributing to the average overall abandonment rate of 69.9%. 

Hence, when developing your Black Friday or Cyber Monday strategy, you should consider free shipping options for your product listings. Free shipping has been proven to increase sales and store engagement, which is why Amazon likewise adapted the free shipping option to its platform. 

• Discount Offers

Many shoppers anticipate discounts and promotions from eCommerce sites, like Amazon, as the holiday season draws near. With that in mind, offering price discounts to consumers can help influence their buying decisions in your favor.

When offered a discount, approximately 66% of online shoppers are likely to complete a purchase even if they did not initially plan to buy the product. Furthermore, discount promotions reduce shopping cart abandonment, with 54% of shoppers choosing to buy items in their cart after being presented with discount offers for those products.

• Website Interface

An eCommerce site’s design and functionalities also have a significant impact on the shopping behavior of consumers. Hence, online sellers and business owners should take time to optimize their websites or listings.

A mere 1-second delay in page response could lead to a 7% drop in conversions. Additionally, if a listing page or website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, around 40% of visitors are inclined to abandon it.

Furthermore, an alarming 88% of online consumers are unlikely to revisit a website after encountering a negative user experience. Hence, you should optimize your website for the upcoming holiday season, focusing mainly on its mobile responsiveness, navigation, security, search function, checkout process, and product details. 

In cases where your products are featured on an eCommerce platform like Amazon, where you lack control over the technical setup, directing your efforts toward listing optimization becomes essential. This ensures that Amazon shoppers obtain precise product details that they can use to evaluate your product better. 

Conversion by Devices

As you gear up for the holiday season, it is essential to gain insights into the conversion rates across different devices. This information holds significant value for your eCommerce business, for it enables you to fine-tune your marketing strategies based on customer device preferences.

Furthermore, this understanding can shed light on device performance trends during peak shopping periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Identifying these trends allows you to pinpoint areas of your business that may require improvements or updates, such as optimizing content presentation and enhancing user experiences.

Ultimately, comprehending device-specific conversion rates empowers you to shape a tailored approach for the upcoming holiday sales events. Below showcases last year’s conversion rates that highlight the varying performance of different devices during the critical shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022.

Consumer Spending 

Knowing what consumers have purchased previously on Black Friday and Cyber Monday gives you an idea of the possible purchases for the upcoming Cyber Monday and Black Friday 2023. Most shoppers spent their money on gift items in anticipation of the gift-giving season. Some of the popular categories consumers spent their money on include the following: 

Social Media Platforms Demographics

Social media platforms have become essential for promoting products and driving traffic to a website. Social media platforms allow you to give consumers early access or exclusive access to your listings. Understanding the user demographics of top social media platforms can help you improve the effectiveness of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.  

Instagram: Instagram is popular among younger audiences aged 18 to 34. It has become a top social media shopping destination, with 130 million monthly users engaging with shopping ad posts on the platform. 

If you offer steep discounts for your listings, you can capitalize on this younger age group, for they are the ones who tend to seek a discount code or items at bargains.

Facebook: Around 60% of individuals engage with Facebook on a daily basis. The majority of its users fall within the 25-34 age group, with video content as one of the primary drivers of engagement on the platform. Contents containing personalized recommendations or new products can help redirect FB users to your listings.

TikTok: Although relatively new in the social media landscape, TikTok has over 1 billion monthly users worldwide, contributing to the exponential growth of its online shopping ads. 

This social media platform is popular among users aged 16-24. You can create videos highlighting holiday decorations to entice audiences to your Amazon store.

Pinterest: Pinterest has become not just an avenue for ideas and inspiration but also a unique space for online sellers and business owners. Unlike the previous three social media platforms, Pinterest appeals more to older audiences. 

A significant 38% of its users are aged 50-64, and 34% are aged 30-49. You can create pins showcasing an interesting Amazon product category to keep customers coming to your online store.

Each social media platform has its own distinct users, behaviors, and features. Based on the data highlighted above, you can tailor your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns to intensify their reach. Thus, helping your business thrive in the competitive landscape of eCommerce.

The Amazon Holiday Shopping Weekend

To further refine your approach for the forthcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events, delving into Amazon’s statistics can be a game-changer. These crucial data insights will be instrumental in shaping your strategies for Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023.

Key Insights from Amazon Black Friday and Amazon Cyber Monday

Amazon announced that the holiday shopping event of the previous year, encompassing Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, was a huge success. Notably, Black Friday witnessed a sales growth of 2.3% compared to its 2021 figures, while Cyber Monday sales also surged by 5.8%.

“This was a record-breaking holiday shopping weekend for Amazon. Customers shopped millions of deals this weekend and we have many more amazing deals to come,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.

As per Amazon report, the top-selling Amazon categories during the holiday shopping weekend include:

• Home Category
• Fashion Category
• Toys Category
• Beauty Category
• Amazon Devices

Moreover, popular Amazon products purchased during Black Friday and Cyber Monday include:

• Nintendo Switch
• Amazon smart plug
• Hasbro Gaming CONNECT 4
• Amazon Echo Dot
• Fire TV Stick
• Apple AirPods

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns of small and medium-sized businesses were highly successful, generating $1 billion in sales. Also, 60% of the units sold in the Amazon store come from third-party sellers. Some of the trending categories for small businesses include:

• Home Category
• Beauty Category
• Kitchen Category
• Toys Category
• Apparel Category

Amazon Cyber Monday and Black Friday Selling Tips

In order to increase your success this holiday season, you need to optimize your strategies, especially your Cyber Monday and Black Friday marketing strategies. Here are some strategies you can apply to help you prepare your Amazon business for the upcoming holiday weekend to improve Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales.

Determine Priority Items

Since not all products will be in demand for the season, you must identify products or categories that will likely generate sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can check product ranking and sales history for reference. 

You can further narrow down your search by checking items under best-selling categories such as Home, Fashion, Toys, Beauty, and Kitchen. You can likewise review previous years’ Amazon Black Friday deals to help you find deals that new customers will be interested in. By doing so, you can focus your resources to support any strategic marketing campaigns for the said products. 

Ship Inventory Before Your Amazon Deadline

Once you have identified priority inventory items, ship them before the deadline. Amazon’s deadline for receiving Black Friday and Cyber Monday inventory is November 1. To avoid delays or fulfillment congestion, ship at least a week before the deadline. 

Consider Your Fulfillment Service

Amazon sellers can choose between independently fulfilling customer orders (FBM) or leveraging Amazon’s proprietary fulfillment service (FBA). Nonetheless, if you opt for FBA, having an alternative plan involving third-party logistics is highly beneficial. This contingency proves invaluable should FBA facilities become inundated with customer orders and fulfillment tasks.

Conduct Promotions Ahead of Time 

Similar to your Prime Day deals, you should also drive traffic to your listings ahead of Black Friday and Amazon Cyber Week. Driving organic traffic to your listings can help increase your listings’ organic ranking.

To market your product or listing before the holidays, consider introducing early bird discounts to pique customer interest and build anticipation.

Furthermore, you can employ another popular Black Friday marketing strategy involving newsletters or sharing compelling content on your social media channels to attract shoppers to your store’s Black Friday sale.

Manage Your Reviews

As you prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023, overseeing the feedback and customer reviews featured on your listings is crucial. If possible, aim to address any negative feedback associated with your listings. The presence of negative feedback can dissuade potential shoppers from making purchases.

It is estimated that more than 85% of shoppers are hesitant to buy products with negative reviews. Similarly, this negative customer feedback can also damage the reputation of your business, as 50% of shoppers are more likely to share this feedback to other potential customers. 

Perform Listing Optimization

Optimizing your listings on Amazon before Black Friday and Cyber Monday can drastically improve the overall performance of your Amazon business. In particular, listing optimization leads to better product visibility, improved click-through rates, and enhanced conversion rates. 

To optimize your listings, you should conduct keyword research to guide you when making engaging titles, persuasive bullet points, and compelling product descriptions. 

Additionally, listing optimization also includes the use of high-quality images for your products. A well-optimized image should accurately represent your product. Accordingly, 60% of consumers tend to buy items from websites using high-quality product photos.

Prior to uploading your listing photos, ensure that the photos adhere to Amazon’s photo guidelines and requirements. For guidance, you may follow the specifications below:

Tips During the Holiday Events 

Managing your Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign does not end during the actual sales events. There are still important things to do to achieve a successful Cyber Monday and Black Friday campaign, and these include the following:

Monitor Your Amazon Business

During the holiday weekend, monitoring your conversion, stocks, and cart abandonment is necessary. It gives you an insight into how your business performs during the holiday event and likewise allows you to make adjustments required for favorable results.

Handle Customer Queries and Support

Be sure to promptly respond to customer queries or concerns during the holiday weekends. This is especially true for Amazon FBM sellers who are primarily in charge of their business’ shipping and customer support.

If you run an ad campaign outside the Amazon website, promptly reply to customer queries, including questions about promos and coupon codes.

Boost Social Media Campaign

During the ongoing holiday weekends, you can further improve your Amazon store engagement and conversion by boosting your social presence. Be active and create engaging posts by showcasing attractive product videos and images.

You can also delve into influencer marketing as part of your social media campaign. You can offer a free gift to influencers so that they will promote your brand and products during the holiday season. However, any connection between you and the influencer receiving the gift should be disclosed as per Amazon guidelines, 

Influencer marketing leans significantly on the principles of psychology. Given that our brain is inherently receptive to influencer marketing, this approach can bring substantial advantages to your Amazon business.

Digital media influencers, including Amazon influencers, can help influence consumers’ purchasing behavior. In fact, almost 70% of consumers reported that influencers often influence their purchasing decisions, while more than 60% also shared that social media influencers helped them discover new brands. 

Post-Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tasks

Your responsibilities do not end along with the conclusion of the holiday shopping events. Some tasks demand continued careful attention, and some might even require immediate action. Following Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events, here are some essential things you should do. 

Deal with Customer Returns

Along with your Amazon sales comes Amazon returns. Deal with product returns professionally, as this influences your performance. Since customers might already be frustrated, it is best to make the returns process more convenient for them by extending the return window or offering different return channels. 

Depending on the situation, you may also offer a full or partial refund. If possible, make instant refunds to clients you consider VIPs or those loyal to your brand. If you wish to learn more about product returns, we prepared a separate article concerning Amazon Returns and How to Deal With Them. 

Check Analytics

It is crucial not to overlook the necessity of comprehensive data analysis for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns. Delving into the numbers is instrumental in identifying potential mistakes and gaining insights into enhancing your business strategy for Amazon Black Friday and Amazon Cyber Monday events next year.

Ask for Customer Feedback

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon sellers should ask for customer feedback. Obtaining favorable customer reviews can help you improve your seller metrics and credibility. 

Although Amazon does not require sellers to request reviews, they may still do so, especially for specific orders. Instead of requesting via email or Buyer-Seller Messaging, you could request an appraisal from a customer using Amazon Seller Central’s “Request a review” feature on the Order Details page. 

Amazon allows you to request a review from a customer once per order between 5 and 30 days after the delivery date. Alternatively, if you want a more convenient way to request customer reviews, you may also use a feedback management tool to automate requests for Amazon reviews. 

Effective Amazon Seller Tools Approved By Amazon 

Below are some of the essential Amazon seller tools crucial for optimizing your Amazon venture. These seller tools are Amazon third-party software partners, which means Amazon approves using these software tools. Using these software tools can help sellers automate, manage, and grow their businesses. 

Seller Snap: An AI-powered repricing software that helps you automatically adjust your listing prices based on essential factors such as market trends and competitor prices. Thus ensuring that your products are competitively priced for maximum sales and profits.

Jungle Scout: This is a comprehensive tool for product research and competition analysis. It helps you identify profitable niches and products to sell on Amazon, especially for the coming Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

FeedbackWhiz: A feedback management software that helps you monitor and manage customer feedback or reviews. This Amazon software tool is important for building credibility and driving sales.

InventoryLab: As its name would suggest, this Amazon seller tool can help you manage your Amazon inventory. It can help you track your inventory levels, sales, and expenses. Thus, preventing instances of stockouts and overstock.

Helium 10: This Amazon seller software offers a wide array of functionality, including but not limited to advertising, analytics & reporting, order management, product research & scouting, and more. 

Preparing Your Amazon Business for Success

Amazon Cyber Monday and Black Friday 2023 mark the start of the holiday shopping season. These pivotal eCommerce events are accompanied by significant consumer engagement, increased order volume, and challenges.

In order to preempt or mitigate potential issues within your Amazon business during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, proactive preparation is essential. The insights provided above serve as a guide to preparing your Amazon business, ensuring customer satisfaction and optimal overall business performance. By embracing these strategies, you position your business for success amidst the holiday shopping rush.

By now, Amazon FBA products should have already been shipped to fulfillment centers, especially since Amazon has already provided sellers with a deadline – November 15. With just a few days before Amazon Black Friday and Amazon Cyber Monday, your attention should be centered on optimizing your Amazon campaign.  

If you are not yet fully prepared for the upcoming Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales, we have you covered. Here are some last minute preparation tips to get your Amazon store ready for Amazon Black Friday on November 26 and the Amazon Cyber Monday on November 29.  

Improve Your Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday Campaign

Ensure That Your Product Descriptions Sells

The product description is often an undervalued and underutilized section of the product detail page. Most of the time, sellers simply input unappealing and completely copy-pasted information to make things easier. 

If you have not yet optimized your product descriptions through proper use of keywords, you are depriving your Amazon store of showcasing the value of your products. Similarly, you are also missing out on better Amazon search result rankings for your listings. 

Just like Google, proper use of keywords should be observed for your listings. The keywords and phrases for your product description must reflect the interests of Amazon shoppers.

It is imperative to use research-based Amazon keywords to improve ranking potential. This is especially important when only 30% of shoppers reach the second page of the Amazon search result page. 

Aside from using relevant Amazon keywords, you should also write product descriptions that appeal to your target audience. If your item is categorized under the home kitchen category, you should use keywords appealing to users searching for products under such an Amazon category. 

Let’s say that you are selling cookware; your product description must therefore include relevant and appealing terms like easy to clean, durable, and non-stick. In a sense, you highlight the product’s features and the benefits buyers may obtain from purchasing your item. 

Other significant changes you need to implement with your product descriptions include using bullet points and limiting your product title length to no more than 200 characters, including spaces. 

Finally, to avoid issues during Amazon Black Friday or Amazon Cyber Monday, you should follow the product detail page rules set by Amazon. 

Optimize Product Image to Entice Shoppers 

Apart from the product description, the product image you use is the closest Amazon shoppers will get in scrutinizing your product. In order to determine the suitability of the product, most of the time, shoppers will zoom into the images. 

Since the brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text, it is critical to have a quality image for your listing. You can optimize your product images by uploading high-quality photos.

When taking a product photo, keep in mind the angles. Try to imagine which angles shoppers normally check when examining an actual product and present as many product angles as possible to customers. 

Instead of only uploading 2 or 3 product images for your Amazon Cyber Monday or Black Friday sales, upload at least six alternative photos to maximize the limit set by Amazon. 

Additionally, once you have chosen your main image, try to arrange the subsequent images in a logical manner. This means mimicking how a shopper will typically examine an actual product. 

To illustrate, most shoe brands upload a main image showcasing the principal front of the shoe. Then subsequent photos would either be the toe or back portion of the shoe, followed by the photos showing the bottom or top view of the shoe.

Amazon.com: A screenshot (cropped) product page; Retrieved: Nov 19, 2021, From https://amzn.to/3nr1oOf

Furthermore, to avoid product image issues for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, you should also observe these guidelines for listing photos on Amazon.  

Be More Active on Social Media 

With the entrance of social media into the digital landscape, sellers are given more opportunities to market their brand or product. With the Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales approaching, it would be very helpful to be more active on social media to increase brand awareness. 

From deals to bundles, you can start sharing what awaits customers when they visit your Amazon store. Take time to showcase a curated collection of your products to elevate brand awareness by harnessing the power of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter. 

Reading our separate article concerning the power of social media for improved store engagement can help you widen your horizon about Amazon social media campaigns. 

Deal With Negative Feedback 

Customer feedback is one of the factors considered by shoppers when purchasing an item online. Today’s shoppers are keen enough to check sellers’ service performance via customer comments and reviews.

For that matter, it would be best that recent negative reviews have been dealt with before Amazon Black Friday and Amazon Cyber Monday. 

To remove negative feedback, Amazon encourages sellers to contact the buyer and resolve their concerns. Afterward, you can ask the buyer to either remove or update the negative review. However, you should avoid pressuring a buyer to remove the negative review, as it is against Amazon regulations. 

Additionally, dealing with negative feedback likewise affects your chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box. The higher your feedback rating, the better the chances of winning the Buy Box. 

To access customer feedback, you need to login into your Amazon Seller Central account. Once logged in, look for Feedback under the Performance tab. 

Amazon Seller Central: A screenshot (cropped) Amazon Dashboard Tabs; Retrieved: Nov 19, 2021, From https://amzn.to/3HJ9I47

Consider Offering Free Shipping

Although not mandatory for all Amazon sellers, it would be very beneficial to offer free shipping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases. This will not only invite more Amazon shoppers to check your brand, but this will also decrease instances of cart abandonment during the holiday period. 

One of the reasons for eCommerce cart abandonment in the U.S. is the shipping cost. Implementing free shipping on some of the items you plan to include in your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales can help decrease cart abandonment. 

Reexamine Products to Bundle

If you are planning to offer your usual product bundles during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you should see that those products are still in demand as frequently bought together items.

Review past sales performance of item bundles so that you can make changes to your bundle offers appropriately. Consider consumer trends and demands when reexamining product bundles. 

Always Observe Competitive Pricing

On top of optimization, promotional offers, and customer service, you should always maintain a competitive product price. Whether it is Amazon Black Friday, Amazon Cyber Monday, or the Christmas season, consumers will always be attracted to a highly competitive price.

To establish and maintain competitive pricing, you can utilize Amazon repricing software to help you with your pricing strategy. Remember that pricing will always be one of the top buying factors Amazon shoppers consider, whether it is the holiday season or not. 

Since 2005, Black Friday has become one of the most active days for retailers in the United States. The spike of shopping activity during Black Friday sales has been attributed mainly to consumers having a “four-day weekend”.

Reasons Behind Early Black Friday Deals 

With Thanksgiving on Thursday and Black Friday the following day, plus the additional weekends, consumers have ample time to stroll and shop in their favorite outlet malls and retail stores. 

In order to minimize human traffic during the Black Friday sales, major retailers decided to drop their doorbuster deals as early as October. Aside from decongesting in-store traffic during Black Friday, this early unveiling of deals and discounts also aims to taper down shopping activities for the remaining holidays. This will help minimize the impact of supply chain, logistics, warehouse, and staffing issues during the holidays.

Early Amazon Black Friday Deals

Amazon Deals – What Awaits Shoppers? 

The advance Amazon Black Friday deals started earlier this month, with the launching of “Epic Daily Deals.” Amazon intends to offer Black Friday-worthy discounts on various categories.  

Amazon’s early Black Friday discounts start from 10%, up to more than 70% on selected items. Items showcased come from more than 50 categories and subcategories combined, including Electronics, Fashion, Books, Home Improvement, Major Appliances, Software, and so much more. 

As a precursor to Amazon Black Friday, Epic Daily Deals is participated by major brands. You can buy products from top brands such as Samsung, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger, Bosch, Toshiba, Levoit, Netgear, and other iconic consumer brands. 

Amazon Prime members in the United States can take advantage of these deals via Amazon.com or the recently updated Amazon Mobile Shopping app. Using the app, you get to enjoy the new app feature that lets you send gifts to someone even without a physical address. This app feature makes it more convenient to send, receive, and even exchange presents for a gift card simply by using either the recipient’s phone number or email address. 

Amazon Deals – How Can Sellers Participate? 

Amazon’s early Black Friday event is a great avenue to increase engagement and generate more revenue. The early Black Friday, the Black Friday sales, and the remaining holidays can help you close the year with significant profit.   

It is not too late for you to participate in these early Amazon Deals and other event deals for the remaining days of the year. To participate, you need to first ensure your Amazon seller eligibility. 

If you are a Professional Seller with an overall rating of at least 3.5-stars and at least 5 Seller Feedback Ratings per month, you can participate in Amazon Deals. 

You also need to secure product eligibility. Your inventory item must meet certain criteria to be an eligible ASIN. Important considerations for product eligibility include the following: 

• product variations
• product restrictions
• product appropriateness
• product condition
• product compliance with pricing, a valid reference price
• product compliance with product reviews policies
• product compliance with deal frequency policies

To create deals for events, log in to your Seller Central account and look for Deals under the Advertising tab in the Amazon Dashboard. To submit a deal for event consideration, you can follow these steps:

Amazon Seller University: A screenshot (cropped) on How to Create Deals on Amazon, ; Retrieved Date: Oct. 20, 2021  from https://youtu.be/balRKseFEvM

Step 1: Once redirected to the Deals dashboard, click Create a new deal.

Step 2: Choose a product in your inventory and click Select.

Step 3: For event deals, check for Upcoming Events.

Step 4: Select the event you wish to participate in.

Step 5: Click Continue for the next step.

Step 6: Click Submit Deal.

For newbie sellers navigating through, the Amazon Dashboard can be confusing. To help you create other Amazon Deals, here is a detailed video presentation for your guidance. 

Worth noting that not all submitted products for Amazon Deals will be automatically considered to run on Amazon event deals. Amazon will still review the deals after submission. 

Other Retailers’ Early Black Friday Deals

It is not just Amazon that started offering early Black Friday sales to consumers. Other reputable retailers likewise joined the discount and deals bonanza for Q4 2021. 

• Walmart

Just this October 17, Walmart also began offering Black Friday-worthy discounts on various categories. Walmart’s early Black Friday sales will run until November 26. The first wave of discounts leading to Black Friday will start on November 3 (in-store Nov. 5), followed by the next wave of deals on November 10 (in-store Nov. 12). 

• Best Buy

Best Buy is another retailer kicking off their early Black Friday deals from October  19 to October 22. Ahead of the actual Black Friday event, shoppers can get huge deals for tech products, including these hottest deals:

• Samsung 70-inch 4K Smart TV – for $599 
• Beats Studio 3 headphones – for $169 
• Windows laptops – as low as $189.99

• Target

Target already had their early Black Friday deals with their “Target Deal Days.” For three days, October 10-12, Target offered discounts on their brands and other commercial brands.

Deals and Pricing

If you wish to close the year with a bang, start participating in Amazon Deals and event sales if you have not participated yet. It would also help to feature in one of Amazon’s Gift Guides or sponsored ads.

And of course, it goes without saying that implementing an effective pricing strategy with the help of a repricing software for the rest of your listings will likewise aid in improving your sales this year.

Black Friday in Brief

When it comes to the origin of “Black Friday,” there are many theories as to how it started. The most common theory behind Black Friday is related to the shopping events and practices wherein accounting records denoted losses in red and profits in black. Many shops were in the red throughout the year, but after Thanksgiving, shops went into the black. Thus, being dubbed the Black Friday. Beyond the historical value of the event, Amazon sellers should try to maximize Black Friday 2020 to recoup any loss from preceding months. This is especially relevant since the holiday season amounts to about 20% of annual sales for retailers.    

From an online seller perspective, particularly Amazon sellers, Black Friday is an opportunity to profit. Just last year, a staggering 93.2 million consumers opted to shop online on Black Friday. Therefore, making Black Friday 2020 worth the effort and preparation. 

Preparing for Black Friday Amidst COVID-19 

Properly preparing for Black Friday 2020 is critical for Amazon sellers. As well as the standard competitiveness of Black Friday, shopper exhaustion may occur due to the preceding sale events like Amazon Prime Day (October 13-14), Walmart Big Save Sale (October 11-15), Best Buy Early Black Friday Sale (October 13-14), and Target Deal Days (October 13-14). 

To help you maximize your Amazon Black Friday 2020 marketplace venture, here are some helpful Amazon selling tips coming from industry experts.

• StartupNation Says Dive Into Your Inventory 

The premier source of information and resources for small business owners, StartupNation, highlighted on their website the importance of inventory checks for the upcoming Black Friday 2020. 

In order to increase Amazon Black Friday success rate, it is essential to check inventory reports. This means delving into past and current inventory reports.

It is recommended to check previous Black Friday products and brands that were highly saleable in the preceding years. Similarly, Amazon sellers should also take into account the current consumer patterns in relation to the current socio-economic situation shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• PayPal Suggests Focusing on Promotion

The leading international online payments system, PayPal, is a firm believer in good promotion in order to accelerate sales and business growth. Running a promotional offer this Black Friday 2020 will be helpful in attracting shoppers and increasing sales conversion rates.  

Within Amazon, sellers may take advantage of their own promotional system in the form of Amazon Deals and Coupons. These promotional offerings include percentage discounts, dollar discounts, and the buy and save up to offer. 

Incorporating these deals and coupons as part of promotional offers for the upcoming Black Friday event will help entice more audiences and increase profit in the process. 

• Seller Snap Advocates AI Algorithmic and Automated Repricing  

When it comes to huge eCommerce sale events, price is one of the dominant factors for sales conversion. In a highly competitive event such as Black Friday 2020, it is vital for Amazon sellers to have a dynamic pricing strategy.                       

For that matter, an automated AI Amazon repricer is a must-use tool for improved efficiency and performance. Although manual repricing has its own advantages, it would be less effective during sale events where inventory is voluminous and price changes at frequent intervals.

With the help of an AI repricer, repricing can be done automatically while considering crucial factors such as price notifications, competitors’ behavior, and overall marketplace comportment. 

• Enventys Advises Listing Optimization

To improve the visibility of your product listing or brand during the Black Friday sale event, Enventys advises looking into optimization. By optimization, it would mean looking into keyword research and other Amazon SEO best practices.            

Amazon has its own algorithm that influences and filters search results and the awarding of the Amazon Buy Box. For your inventory to frequently appear in natural search results and to increase the Buy Box winning rate, be sure to properly optimize your product listings.         

Important aspects of listing optimization that sellers should look into include the title, product images, keywords, product reviews, and pricing. 

Focusing on the Essentials 

Since the pandemic has been rewriting the rules of the eCommerce and the retail industry, it is a must for Amazon sellers to comply with the new rules of the game. 

Apart from the usual electronics and gadget items, you should look into essential goods including health, personal care, and home essential items. Since we know that a big chunk of consumers are in their homes, focus on relatable items.

If you wish to be successful in your Amazon venture throughout the holiday season, being able to adapt to current consumer needs is important.