4 Ways Amazon Sellers Need to Prepare for the Holiday Season Right Now

The holiday season is a golden opportunity for brands on Amazon. Learn how to optimize your brand’s inventory, listings, ads, and promotions to maximize your sales this holiday season. Watch the Right Side Up webinar for more on this topic.

Walk into your local convenience or grocery store, and you’ll notice it’s already here: the holiday season. Retailers are decorating for the festivities online and in physical stores. You may roll your eyes that summer has barely left, but the truth is that it’s never too early to take advantage of a season when consumers are happier than ever—and more willing to spend money.

Brands, you’re officially welcomed to the countdown to holiday profits. But the question is: As an Amazon seller or Amazon vendor, is your brand prepared?

Consumers spent around $975 on gifts during the holidays in 2023, and that was with inflation at increased levels. Inflation is down, wages are up, and consumer sentiment data suggests a willingness to spend as the holiday season nears. As a result, there’s an opportunity for brands like yours to drive higher sales on Amazon than in recent years. Remember that people are still shopping for household staples along with self-gifting through the Holiday Season.

How to Prepare Your Business for the Holiday Season on Amazon

Today’s consumers love online shopping. With just a few clicks or taps, consumers research and make a buying decision with an order on their doorsteps within a few days (or hours in some cases).

Many shoppers will do all or a significant portion of their holiday shopping online, and much of the sales generated go through Amazon. By not preparing for the holiday season, brands leave a massive amount of potential revenue up for grabs—and trust me, your competitors will grab it.

Here’s what Amazon sellers and vendors need to do to prepare for the holiday season.

Be proactive with Amazon stock and shipping

Timing is everything when preparing for the holiday rush, so be aware of key dates that approach quickly. You already know about the importance of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday to an ecommerce brand; however, remember that Amazon typically hosts its own promotional events throughout the year, such as Prime Day in mid-July.

In 2024, a new promotional event will precede the typical start of holiday shopping. Amazon is introducing Prime Big Deal Days, a two-day event on October 8th and 9th.

Knowing the dates on which more shoppers will flock to Amazon, you’ll need to have your stock ready. It’s also important to remember that Amazon transitions from inbound to outbound shipments in November.

Making strategic inventory decisions is key, too. Not all products will perform the same. Identify your top items and focus on stocking those items, but be careful not to rely on a single product line. Diversifying your inventory helps handle any shifts in consumer demand.

To avoid any hiccups, optimize box sizes, manage storage limits, and use Amazon’s ‘5 Identical Shipments’ feature to keep placement fees under control.

Finally, contingency planning is a must. Be ready for unexpected challenges like listing removals or inventory shortages. Set up merchant-fulfilled capabilities ahead of time to manage demand and direct customers to your own website if necessary. With backup strategies, your brand keeps sales flowing even if something goes wrong with your listings on Amazon.

Optimize Amazon listings to be search-friendly

Familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) for a website? It’s all about optimizing a website so potential customers browsing the internet can find the information they’re seeking.

Brands can do the same for their listings within Amazon’s platform. Listing optimization increases the likelihood that the products you sell appear in Amazon’s search results as consumers shop.

To improve organic rankings on Amazon, tools like DataDive and Helium10 are valuable for discovering the right front-end and back-end keywords to target. Use these tools to identify high-traffic terms relevant to your products, especially those related to holiday shopping.

Incorporating holiday-specific keywords can also boost visibility, optimizing click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR)—meaning that shoppers are more likely to engage with your listings and complete a purchase.

In addition to keywords, a listing’s content and imagery must shine through. High-quality images and well-written descriptions should reflect seasonal themes. Regularly test and update product titles, descriptions, and images based on customer feedback, such as reviews, to keep your listings fresh with relevant information for the holiday season.

Plan out season-relevant Amazon ads and refresh keywords

Structure your advertising campaigns on Amazon into portfolios to easily target different segments.

One key area to focus on is brand defense, which protects your brand visibility by bidding on your own keywords and preventing competitors from swooping in to grab customers who had intended to buy your products. Additionally, you’ll want to consider category-specific keywords to target shoppers searching for general terms rather than brands. You could also do competitor brand targeting, which helps attract shoppers considering rival products.

When it comes to targeting and bidding strategies on Amazon, avoid high CTR but low CVR keywords like “gifts for men,” which might bring traffic but not nearly as many conversions unless your product is highly giftable. Instead, optimize for days with heavy traffic—such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday—by adjusting your bids and budget to compete during peak shopping periods.

And don’t forget seasonal variations in content. Refresh your ads’ creative assets for the holiday season—with new visuals and updated messaging—to resonate in the moment with shoppers.

Run holiday promotions and discounts on Amazon

Consumers expect to see deals during the holiday season, and many will keep shopping until they find what they’re looking for with some sort of savings or bonus attached. And with inflation still applying pressure to consumers, it’s more important than ever to embrace promotions and discounts—in moderation.

Participating in promotional events like Prime Big Deal Days, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday is a surefire method to gain visibility and generate sales on Amazon. But avoid common mistakes like relying on coupons instead of using red-banner deals, which tend to attract more attention. Official deals offer greater exposure and don’t reduce the perceived value of your products like a coupon might.

Consider running brand-tailored promotions and offering secondary items in the lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It can create excitement and drive sales ahead of the big shopping days throughout the holiday season. It also sets up your brand for success during peak periods.

For last-chance deals in late December, be flexible. Monitor performance closely and adjust based on what’s working (or not). If certain products exceed expectations or fall short, tailor your offers accordingly. Avoid over-discounting but remain competitive to capture those last-minute shoppers before the holiday season ends.

Get Ready for the Holiday Season on Amazon

Though the holidays are just around the corner, it’s not too late to prepare —at least not yet. November and December always deliver a surge in sales, but Amazon’s new Prime Big Deal Days mean October has emerged as another significant money-maker month to end the year. As the clock continues ticking, look at your strategy for the holiday season.

Brands on Amazon need to be proactive when it comes to stock and shipping, staying on top of demand and hitting doorsteps with fast delivery. But that doesn’t matter if you’re unable to appear in search results. Brands should treat Amazon’s search functionality like Google Search, optimizing product listings to be search-friendly. And since it’s the holiday season, refresh listings and ads to be relevant while mixing in promotions and discounts.

Put everything together, and you’ll look back at the holiday season in January and realize your brand just had itself the most wonderful time of the year on Amazon.

‍Is your brand on Amazon? Get in touch with Right Side Up—we’ll connect you with an Amazon expert like Tom Kluis to guide you through a holiday season strategy.