With the approaching holidays and the usual increase in shopping activity, there is a lot of key information vendors and sellers will want to be aware of as they prepare to fulfill customer needs.
Key Takeaways
- With the unique shopping environment of 2020, online sales are more important than ever
- Get started posting Ads early to generate traffic and build audience
- Price matching by Amazon can affect the sales and profitability of your product (near and long term)
- More tips on how to best use advertising through the holiday season
2020 Shopping Environment – Most Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are expected to be primarily offered online, to reduce crowding in stores during pandemic restrictions. A survey from Sykes found that over 75% of shoppers would be deterred from shopping in crowded malls, and 41% plan to purchase more online. Because of this increase in online shopping, the research and consideration phase of the customer journey can be done easier and earlier. With concerns for increased delivery delays because of the increased online shopping, shoppers want to get their shopping done early, making early advertising even more essential. Due to the early shopping window, Amazon has also extended its returns window, so that most items shipped now through December 31 can be returned until January 31, 2021.
Early Posted Ads – The holiday season is here, and the Amazon sales have already begun. Capitalizing on the heels of Prime Day, vendors and sellers are driving attention and traffic to their products early to reach a greater boost in sales through the holiday shopping season, and especially on the approaching Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Many ads and deals can already be seen on Amazon’s Black Friday 2020 Ads so customers can beat the hectic holiday shopping. From previous years, Amazon has seen products up to get 5.3x higher conversion rate if ads are run before and during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
Price Matching – When an online competitor like Walmart has a great deal on a product, Amazon may decide to price match even if means that they will lose money. However, while this is great for customers and short-term sales, doing that may drop the product’s profitability for Amazon and impact future negotiations. Another possibility is that when Amazon sees a deal on a product, it may ask for funding to ensure that they have comparable offers for shoppers.
Advertising Tips –
- Use your Amazon Store page to highlight your holiday deals along with your branding. Together, they can increase customer conversion rates beyond what they could on their own.
- Start testing your ads through all channels now. Before the biggest sales days, you’ll want to figure out which callouts, images, keywords, and more bring the most traffic to your pages and convert the most shoppers. That way, your advertising can be optimized for the most essential days.
- Coordinate marketing on and off Amazon’s platform to help boost the visibility of your products. For eligible clients we suggest running Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Display ads alongside your Sponsored Product ads. This can increase the effectiveness of each campaign as they reach your audience.
- Edit budgets to ensure you maximize your marketing impact during the holidays. Amazon suggests increasing daily budget 200% during this peak shopping time. With higher budgets, you can avoid the risk of your ads being paused while shoppers are shopping in the middle of the day and miss possible sales in the afternoon or evening. Amazon also suggests doubling current bidding to retain top search spot for your most relevant keywords.
These are just a few of the things that vendors and sellers will want to keep in mind as they prepare for increased holiday sales through Q4. For more thorough guidance on how to boost sales and increase overall brand growth on the Amazon marketplace, contact a Navazon representative to day to discover how we can help.