Q4: Just in Time Or Too Late?
The Q4: fourth quarter of the year has arrived, and like the majority of Amazon businesses, you are rushing to finish all of your preparations. Don’t give up if you weren’t able to finish everything before the quarter began. There may still be time for some minor housekeeping to enhance your customers’ Amazon experience.
We’ve put together a helpful guide to help you navigate the best practices you still have time to complete and the things you can no longer complete.
Let’s investigate it!
1. Generating General FBA Inventory
on Time!
Go ahead and send in more inventory for current product listings if you want to! It’s always a good idea to make sure you have enough inventory to meet customer demand, particularly in Q4.
And let me explain why.
Your sales and ranking could suffer from low inventory. This not only means you won’t sell any more goods over the course of that weekend, but it also raises the possibility that your listing will begin to lose popularity and rank lower in Amazon search results. Therefore, keep a close eye on your inventory levels to avoid having an increasing number of orders come in during the busiest shopping weekend of the year suddenly fail.
2. Adding Fresh Items to Stock
Too Late.
It’s a good idea to send in current products to replenish inventory, but it’s not a good idea to introduce brand-new products! Of course, you can add items to your Amazon inventory at almost any time. However, if you launch right away, you won’t have enough time to build up organic traffic, foster customer reviews, or even justify a risky advertising campaign.
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get it to 100% before Black Friday/Cyber Monday, although there may be a few exceptions (you must have the utmost faith in your product).
It’s typically preferable to launch a new product in either Q1 or Q2, as this will give you some traction before Summer Prime Day and plenty of time to refine it before the following Q4. Use your time wisely by cultivating favorable reviews on social media or through Buyer-Seller Messaging.
You might also spend some time utilizing some of Amazon’s initiatives, such as Vine, FBA New Selection, or Referral Bonuses, which can aid in accelerating the development of your product. Of course, you shouldn’t overlook the straightforward improvement of your advertising strategy. In relation to advertising…
3. Revised Advertising Plan
Perfect Timing
You probably already know that AMZ Inventor will advise you to step up your advertising efforts (and that we can assist you in doing so), but it’s not just us. It’s almost always the right time to advertise a product effectively if you’ve been working on it for a few months or even a few weeks.
This will be particularly true during the fourth quarter when more people than ever will be browsing Amazon in search of gifts or discounts to use their money on. For you to increase your revenue during this busy season, it’s essential to keep your advertising strategy fresh. By choosing the right keywords, you can also reduce returns and avoid the hassle of having to spend too much time on customer service.
Remember that while Q4 will give you the highest foot traffic of any time of year on Amazon, it also typically means higher advertising costs. To get their products in front of as many people as possible, everyone else in the market will be doing the same thing—pushing harder (and hopefully more intelligently) with their advertising.
Remember, it’s not shameful to need assistance with that advertising, and it just so happens that we are able to do so. Get a free evaluation of your current advertising strategy if you’d like, and we’ll let you know what we think we can do to help.
4. Promotions
Too Late… kind of
This one is therefore intriguing. To run a promotion specifically for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, it is undoubtedly too late. However, you can still run a general promotion for additional dates in Q4 or lower your product’s price in advance of these shopping days. By visiting the Deals dashboard in Amazon Seller Central, make sure to look for Deals that Amazon believes you are a good fit for. You can view eligibility, dates, units, discount level, and other information there.
Does that imply you don’t have any other options to present a more reasonable price? No, you can still use promotions and coupons. These are entirely up to you, the seller. Additionally, you could use a percentage or flat-rate discount to achieve strike-through pricing in search. Simply make sure that you qualify by having a strong seller and item rating.
5. Amazon Listing Updates & Optimizations
Perfect timing
You’re not only right on schedule for Q4, but it’s almost always a good idea to update your product listing and make it as appealing as possible to customers. By keeping your listing current and optimized, you increase the likelihood that the user will make a purchase rather than leave your product page.
It’s frequently best to have someone else look over your listing and make changes and recommendations. If you are working with a coworker, have them review your most recent listing updates to ensure that they make sense and adhere to Amazon’s Terms of Service (ToS).
Feel free to speak with our team if you don’t have access to another person or if you want more knowledgeable guidance. We can relieve you of this task because we’ve worked on hundreds of listings for Amazon online businesses in different niches. Along with making pertinent changes to the bullet points and descriptions of your products, we also research and examine the larger category in which your products fall to see if there are any other gaps that need to be filled.
Main Points
And, lest I forget, a second Amazon Prime Day will take place in the fall of 2022! On October 11 and 12, 2022, this Prime Day event will take place, with “Early Access” activities already underway. Although they won’t be as noticeable, the traffic peaks you experience now will probably be similar to those you experience on Black Friday and other peak holiday shopping days. There simply isn’t enough time given how close the Fall Prime Day event is already, to create as much buzz among consumers.
With all of this knowledge at your disposal, you are prepared to face the upcoming quarter with poise and come out on the other side with more money in your pocket and a strategy for the first quarter of the following year. Make sure you get it prepared for future shopping seasons if one item on your list cannot be completed in time. If you’re running short on time, work hard to finish everything as soon as you can! These pointers will assist you in converting browsers into buyers as more traffic is on its way.
