Maximizing Q4 Sales on Amazon

Q4 is officially upon us along with increasing traffic and the annual scramble of last minute preparations. By now sellers should have sales forecasted and inventory ordered to meet Q4 demand. The remaining challenge is to meet those revenue goals and expectations. Competition on Amazon has increased every year and there is a lot sellers should be doing to maximize Amazon’s busiest quarter of the year.

Amazon Product Page Optimization

You have a warehouse full of products to sell. Don’t forget to make sure those product pages are doing their job of communicating your value and converting shoppers into customers. Q4 brings a lot of additional traffic, so don’t miss the opportunity to convert that traffic into sales for your products and brand. There are three primary areas to look at:

1. Images - Quality images have become absolutely critical for selling on Amazon. With mobile shopping on the rise, images are more effective in communicating your products features and benefits than copy alone. In addition to your primary image of the product on a white background, you should have a mix of infographics and lifestyle images and even video if you are brand registered.
2. Copy - If it’s been a while since you reviewed and refreshed your copy, now would be a good time to do so. Review what keywords are working for you in advertising and check whether you are using those same keywords in copy so that you rank organically.
3. A+ Content - EBC is now A+ content and over the last year Amazon has added more features including comparison charts and more options for layout. If it’s been more than a year since you refreshed your EBC or A+ content I strongly recommend you use an experienced designer to bring your page up to date.

Offering Promotions

Remember that customers are expecting discounts during the holiday season, especially during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Much like Prime Day, sellers who run deals during this time period are more likely to see increased sales. The window has passed to submit 7-day and Lightning Deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but you can still run coupons or Prime Exclusive deals. Look at what worked or didn’t work for you during Prime Day and apply that knowledge to your Q4 promotional strategy.

Advertising

Don’t wait until just before Black Friday to get your advertising launched. It takes time for campaigns to become fully optimized and you will miss out on peak traffic and/or spend a lot of money with little return if you launch campaigns last minute. If you are not already running campaigns for your products, get those launched now and start optimizing. If you are running campaigns, do some fresh keyword research and continue to optimize as traffic increases. Be sure that you are running and testing all ad types that are available in your account. In addition to the traditional keyword based Sponsored Product campaigns, you should be running and testing ASIN and category targeting, Sponsored Brand and Sponsored Display if you have it.

When it comes to budgets and bids, especially for the time between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, be sure they are prepared for the extra traffic, competition and spend that comes with it. That said, don’t just increase budget and bids because Amazon told you to. By running and optimizing your ads in the lead up to Black Friday, you’ll have a good idea of what keywords and products convert and will be able to selectively apply budget and bid increases for tentpole events like Black Friday.

Solid product page optimization, smart promotions and optimized advertising will be critical to maximizing your Q4 sales on Amazon. 2019 should be another record breaking year for sales on Amazon and sellers can have their slice of the pie with some planning and preparation.