4 tips for selling on Amazon at Christmas
Tried and tested tips for selling on Amazon over the festive season. ...
Online marketplaces
In 2022, 89% of UK shoppers said they used Amazon to buy Christmas gifts. So, as the festive season fast approaches, now’s the time to optimise your Amazon product listings to maximise on the Christmas rush.
But how? Well, the good news is there are lots of things you can do and many of them are relatively quick to implement. In this blog, we’ll share four tried and tested tips for selling on Amazon over the festive season. It includes useful marketing tools, case studies and a short Amazon glossary at the end.
Four key tips for selling on Amazon
1. Optimise your Amazon product listings using SEO best practice
Amazon competition is tough, especially during Christmas. To stand out, optimise your product listings effectively so they rank higher in search results.
There are four main parts of your listing to optimise; product title, product description, bullet points and product images.
Here’s a quick image of an Amazon product listing to show you these different sections:
Three effective ways to optimise these areas of your Amazon product listings are:
Add relevant keywords
Use tools like Ahrefs to research popular Christmas keywords and add relevant ones to your listings. Don’t keyword stuff though – your listings still need to read well to get your customers interested and to increase visibility.
Upload festive photos
Upload Christmas-themed images and videos to promote your products. Remember, your image is the first thing shoppers see when they’re scrolling, so it needs to be high-quality and look the part. You could even add extra infographics or close-ups of your products to help shoppers take a closer look.
Add Christmas use cases
Explain why your products make a great Christmas purchase. If you sell candles for example, make it known that your cinnamon-scented range is the perfect fragrance for a festive living room. If you sell toys, describe the way they’ll light up a child’s face on Christmas morning. If you sell tongue-in-cheek novelty gifts, say why they’ll make the perfect present for Secret Santa.
Next, test the success. If you’re Brand Registered on Amazon, use the ‘Manage your Experiments’ tool to A/B test your description, title and images. This will help you identify which listings your customers prefer, so you can then optimise accordingly.
2. Holiday bundles and gift sets
The demographic of Amazon buyers tends to shift during the Christmas season. While the rest of the year caters to low-cost, self-purchasing customers, Christmas brings a new market seeking last-minute gifts on Amazon.
Tap into this market by creating new festive bundles and gift sets. For example, if you sell wax melts, include tealights and a wax burner in a Christmas relaxation gift set. If you sell coffee equipment, assemble a carefully curated gift box with fresh coffee samples and biscuits.
Take Dryft, an online retailer which traditionally sells ultrasonic essential oil diffusers. Dryft expected more sales over Christmas, so they gave a free essential oil with each diffuser bought. This bundle was the perfect Christmas gift for those who love scenting their homes and as a result, drove 50% more sales than usual.
3. Offer Special Promotions
Christmas is the perfect time to run special offers. After all, who doesn’t love a bargain? There are three different ways to run Amazon product promotions, including:
Lightning Deals
Lightning Deals are great for drumming up quick sales and increasing customer reviews ready for peak season. Just keep in mind that they come at a cost, with a minimum discount of 15%, and the product must remain at this price for at least 90 days.
Best Deals
Best Deals are product discounts that last for seven days. They’re great for driving shoppers to your catalogue and increasing visibility across one or multiple brands. They also help you feature your products on Amazon’s ‘Deals’ page for longer than usual.
Vouchers
Customer vouchers and coupons show up before the ‘add to basket’ button on your product pages. They’re an effective way to boost product rankings and sales because your customers get a last-minute saving before checking out. ‘Money-off’ coupons tend to work better than percentage-based discounts, simply because they’re more appealing.
4. Outsmart the Competition
Do your best to capture your competitors’ share of the market. Take a look at brands similar to yours, snoop on their product listings and tactics, and do one better!
You could even trial running sponsored ads to lure shoppers away from your competitors. You know the ones I’m talking about, right? Those little ads that appear under the ‘products related to this item’ section. Just like this:
Sponsored ads are a great way to position your brand in front of shoppers who are browsing products similar to yours. Just remember though – don’t target all of your competitors. This is far too broad and you’ll end up wasting valuable time and resources for no real benefit. Instead, narrow down your competition and focus on those with:
- Poor product imagery
- Limited or negative reviews
- Higher pricing
- Missing the Buy Box (those little “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons on product pages)
- Lack of A+ content
Finally, ensure your listing has better content and you’re on track to persuading shoppers to choose you over your competitors.
Any other tips for selling on Amazon?
Ultimately, for any of these Amazon selling tips to work, you need to price your products competitively. After all, cost is important to customers, especially during the most expensive time of the year!
Find similar products, check their prices, and if possible, sell yours for a little less. If you can’t, try to reduce your price to match, or throw in a discount voucher. Remember, cutting your prices might mean lower margins but it also means more sales and brand exposure.
Let’s look at a quick example of online retailer NordChem to demonstrate the power of competitive pricing.
NordChem started selling on Amazon to enter new markets. They created a pricing strategy by analysing NordChem’s profits, desired revenue, expected TACoS, and competition. NordChem launched on Amazon and made £1-million in revenue in the first year. Plus, most of NordChem’s products achieved ‘Amazon’s Choice’ status.
Tips for selling on Amazon summary
So there you have it, our best tips for selling on Amazon over Christmas. Researching your competitors, optimising your product listings and setting competitive prices may seem obvious. But, the reality is, many sellers simply don’t follow these tips, which is exactly why you should. Couple these with a festive touch and you’ll stand out in your market, drive Amazon sales and visibility.
Amazon sellers glossary
Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
An ASIN is a unique sequence of 10-characters assigned to every product on Amazon. ASINs make it possible for Amazon, sellers and shoppers to identify, manage, search for, and track the millions of items available.
A+ Content
A+ Content is an advanced marketing feature that allows you to improve your product listings with rich text, images, banners and videos. Amazon claims A+ content increases product sales by 20%.
A/B testing
Also known as split testing, A/B testing compares two versions of a product page or ad campaign to determine which performs better.
Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS)
A key metric that represents the ratio of ad spend to sales revenue as a percentage. ACoS = Ad spend / Ad revenue * 100.
Best Deals
Best deals are promotional product offers on Amazon that last for seven days.
Brand Registered
A program that allows brand owners to enroll with Amazon to gain benefits and control over product listings. To become “Brand Registered” a brand needs a registered and active trademark.
Bundle
A group of two or more complementary products sold together under one Amazon listing.
Buy Box
The Buy Box is the section that shows “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons on product pages. You’re eligible to ‘win’ the Buy Box as long as you have a professional account. Winning the Buy Box is crucial because it generates the majority of sales on Amazon.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)
A program where sellers send their products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres, and Amazon handles storage, packing, and shipping.
Listing Optimisation
Optimising your product listings involves enhancing your product’s title, images, description and bullet points with high-quality, relevant content.
Ranking
The position of a product in Amazon’s search results for a specific keyword. Products with higher rankings are more likely to be seen by potential customers.
Sponsored Products
You pay to be displayed more prominently in Amazon search results and on other product pages.
Total Advertising Cost of Sale (TACoS)
TACoS measures your overall ad performance and profit to your business. TACoS = Ad spend / Total sales
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