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Christmas Ready!
The holiday season is right around the corner! Q4 in 2019 is here and you better be ready. The more prepared you are for it, the better your e-commerce business will perform during the critical holiday season. Make sure to review below so you are prepared to sell on Amazon. Remember, if you need assistance, feel free to reach out to EHP Consulting Group, LLC for free tips and tricks during the holiday season.
For most e-commerce retailers, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year. Selling on Amazon can get downright crazy, even when it’s not your first go around. There is a lot of advice out there about how much inventory to have on hand for the holidays and more. The main thing you will want to focus on during the holiday season is your top selling products. You must be ready to send more than necessary into Amazon FBA or have more inventory on hand – the holiday season I bout’ to get crazy.
1. Optimize your product listings.📦👍
August and September are great months to check the information on your Amazon listings for accuracy, before the mad dash to the end of the year. Make sure you keep an eye on your listings during the holiday season. Check them twice a week during October, November, and December. Make sure your employees or Amazon Management team is consistently optimizing product details and search terms!
Add Christmas style to your listing.
Ready to spice things up? Add a little bit of zest to your Amazon listings. Add a Christmas hat or snowflakes in your listing during the holiday season to stand out against your competition. Do this nearing mid-November to really get a kick up in sales! Don’t forget to do this before you run Amazon Ads this season. You’ll thank me later.
There are also a couple Amazon reports that can help:
Listings Quality and Suppressed Listings Report.
This report will tell you if there are any data omissions or errors on your listings. While many errors on this report are not critical, it is still important to make sure none of your listings are suppressed.
Category Listing Report.
Most Amazon sellers don’t look at this report because it must be “turned on” for your viewing by Amazon seller support. But the information that is contained in the report is worth you to contact seller support to see it. The report details of all the data you have entered in your listings, including tax collection codes. It allows you to see every detail so you can adjust or correct as needed.
2. Review FBA inventory levels. 🕵️
This tip is extremely important for new and intermediate Amazon FBA sellers. Amazon usually stops accepting new FBA sellers in early-October. So, if you are planning to use Amazon FBA as your fulfillment option this holiday season, send your first shipment of merchandise to Amazon before the second week of October.
Late September or early October is a good time to make sure that you have a plan in place for inventory replenishment. If you use an Amazon Inventory management solution to run your business, you should check your inventory alerts and forecasting reports to accurately estimate inventory needs. We use Fetcher.com for this.
If you don’t have a software solution, you can use Amazon’s “Set Replenishment Alerts” option in the Inventory section. Adjusting these settings before the holiday rush will save you a lot of time and help prevent overselling.
3. Clear Non-Selling Inventory. 💲💲
If you have slow-moving stock taking up room on the shelves at Amazon, clearing it out in the beginning of October will give you more room to stock your best-sellers during the holiday season. Also, this will help you to avoid unnecessary fees. Now is the time to cut prices, bundle old inventory with top-sellers, or decide to remove your slow-movers from your FBA inventory. That way, by October, you will have plenty of room for your quick-moving products.
4. Review all your pricing. 💰
Not only should you reduce prices on your slow-moving items, but you should also review your pricing strategy. Amazon has strict rules on pricing, make sure you optimize your pricing based on your competition. If you are charging more than 10% to 15% over the stated list price, they may prevent you from capitalizing on the Featured Merchant status for those products – even if you are using FBA. Make sure to test pricing ahead of time
5. Prepare for returns and Customer Service. 🙂
The unpredictability of customer demand may leave you with extra inventory after the holidays. Make sure you have your 24/7 Customer Service team ready for answering all questions. This will help keep your sales running, returns mitigated, and positive reviews flowing! Contact an Amazon Management team when needed. When you are ordering more inventory throughout the holidays, make sure you review the suppliers’ return policies. Hopefully, you won’t need to return any, but it’s better to be prepared if you do.
It’s tempting to take it easy during these hot summer months. But, if you take the time to get ready for the holiday season early, you will be prepared for a successful Black Friday.
Have more questions or concerns?
Contact EHP Consulting Group today!
(800) 285-3586
Happy Amazon Holidays!
