For Amazon sellers, it may seem like the holidays are always just around the corner. They typically start with the big Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping weekends(and often earlier), and they’re one of the most important times of year for Amazon sellers to boost sales and profits. And with more customers shopping online – and on Amazon – than ever before, Amazon sellers need Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales tips to make the most of them.
Read on for our full guide on how Amazon sellers can prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024.
When is Black Friday 2024?
Black Friday always takes place the day after Thanksgiving – this year, the event will take place on November 29, 2024. Cyber Monday will take place a few days later – December 2, 2024.
Online and in-store retailers typically start Black Friday sales a week or so before these two major shopping days, but consumers will still expect significant discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Why do you need a Black Friday marketing strategy in 2024?
To help you prepare for one of the biggest events of the year for Amazon sellers, we’ve outlined a few reasons why you need a comprehensive Black Friday marketing strategy.
It’s a critical season for sellers every year
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the rest of the holiday season are known to be huge sales events for Amazon sellers. About half of Amazon sellers said Black Friday and Cyber Monday are critical to their profits, and 64% of sellers said December is too.
Key shipping dates will sneak up on you unnoticed
Smart Amazon sellers like you have already gotten ahead of the curve and started shipping new items in time for the holiday season. At this point, in early September 2024, you still have a little time, but don’t let it slip away from you.
If you don’t have time to ship items in time for FBA, you also have the option to create an FBM offer in your listings and fulfill orders yourself or with a third-party fulfillment center.
We’ll cover the dates Amazon wants your items in the next section.
Shoppers come to Amazon looking for great deals
With inflation and economic uncertainty, shoppers are looking for great deals on products they like. According to our recent Consumer Trends Report, 53% of consumers are compelled to make a purchase by getting a great deal, and 63% of consumers do research to find deals on the products they want.
The right inventory combined with enticing discounts or offers is the key to a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024
What do you need to do to prepare for the 2024 holiday season? Here are seven steps to help you prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Review your FBA opportunity limits
- Order enough merchandise to meet seasonal demand
- Ship merchandise by critical dates
- Optimize your product lists
- Optimize your PPC campaigns
- Plan promotions
- Monitor sales and performance
1. Check replenishment limits
First of all, you need to determine the FBA capacity limits for each type of warehouse. Warehouse types include standard size warehouses, oversized warehouses, garment warehouses, etc.
This is an important step because it determines how many items you can ship to Amazon warehouses (you can learn more about this here, as well as Amazon alternatives).
To find out what your FBA warehouse capacity limits are, go to Inventory > FBA Panel in Seller Central.
If you are subject to FBA warehouse capacity limitations, you should already be looking at third-party logistics (3PL) companies.
2. Order enough merchandise to meet seasonal demand
Start working with suppliers as early as possible so that you have enough time between production and delivery of goods. If you do this well in advance, you will have enough time in case unexpected problems arise.
This should be done 7-9 weeks before each selling event. Amazon states that for Black Friday, you must deliver your FBA item by October 19. 3. Ship your FBA merchandise by important dates
To ensure that you have items in stock during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas, you need to make sure your items arrive at Amazon’s fulfillment centers by these key dates:
- Prime Fall Deal Event: Sept. 13
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Oct. 19
- Christmas Day: December 1
4. optimize product listings
Make sure your listing is the best it can be. Two key factors to focus on are keyword/text optimization and visual optimization/photography.
Keyword optimization
Keywords are how your customers will find your products. By adding relevant and succinct keywords to your ads, you help your product rank and appear in organic search. Think about how you would search for this type of product.
Use tools like Jungle Scout’s Keyword Scout to find the best keywords to add to your listing. The advantage of Keyword Scout is that you can search by your product or do a reverse AISIN search among similar or competing products to see exactly what they rank for.
Keyword Scout will show you relevant keywords with high usage rates, as well as approximate ad spend for each keyword. Click the link below to learn more about Jungle Scout, Amazon’s all-in-one seller research tool.
Photo Optimization
Product photography is one of the most important aspects of a strong Amazon listing. It is your images that will draw people to your listing, as well as keep them on it.
Adding unique and high-quality visuals to your photos will better explain your product without forcing the buyer to read a bunch of text. Using infographics is a great way to do this. Adding text and other important product attributes to your images will help provide the buyer with all the information they need.
Additionally, over 50% of Amazon shoppers shop from their phones using the Amazon app. The first thing shoppers will see in the app is your images. Can you add a comparison chart, a size chart, a list of ingredients? Think of everything your buyer will want to know and add it to the images.
Bottom line: great photography and lifestyle will help sell your product.
Additionally, Amazon now allows non-branded sellers to add videos to their listings. Work on creating a 30-60 second video that you can add to your listing.
Conduct new keyword research to see if there are keywords you are missing. You should also run ad reports to see which keywords are converting well in your PPC campaigns and add them to your ads.
Make sure your product information is clear, accurate and detailed. The key is to keep the buyer from leaving your ad. Provide them with as much information about your product as possible.
5. Optimize your PPC campaigns
Make sure your ads are optimized for conversions and that you’re not wasting money on keywords that generate little to no sales. In other words, remove keywords that spend above the ACoS (cost-per-sale advertising) threshold and those that don’t convert to sales.
Make sure your ads are consistently performing before, during, and after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. During these weeks, you’ll notice a large influx of shoppers shopping at any given time, so you need to make sure your products show up at the top of search results!
6. Plan promotions
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great deals and save money on your favorite products. To succeed during these massive sales, you need to offer some sort of discount or deal that will help increase conversions.
Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
Luckily, Amazon offers different types of deals that you can run during these events.
And since Amazon is known for running deals throughout the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s important to try to schedule these deals now. That way, you’ll be able to lock in a date.
To schedule a deal, go to your Seller Central > Ads > Deals account.
From the Deals page, select Create New Deal
You can choose the 7-Day Deal, which will promote your deal for seven days in a row, or the Lightning Deal, a 4-hour flash sale. However, keep in mind that running a deal during the week of Black Friday or Cyber Monday may cost you more than a regular deal, as sales are very competitive during these times.
For example, let’s look at Lightning Deals (these are deals advertised on Amazon’s deals page).
Choose “Select” to choose a date and you’ll be given several weeks to choose from. Your Lightning Deal will be scheduled for one day during the selected week.
In addition to lightning deals, you can create coupons as well as exclusive Prime discounts. Try running a percentage off coupon to make shoppers feel like they’re getting a great deal on your product.
7. Track sales and performance
Finally, always remember that you can’t leave your products to their own devices or you risk losing sales (or money). Keep an eye on how well your products are performing and make adjustments to your ads or PPC campaigns if necessary.
If your products are selling out faster than expected, plan to ship more products to FBA or use an alternate FBA warehouse to ship FBM orders if your FBA warehouse is overstocked.
If sales are slower than expected, look at your PPC campaigns to see if you can increase bids on certain keywords.
Also, experiment with different advertising strategies to promote inventory faster.
You should also keep an eye on the overall health and performance of your account. Address any issues that arise immediately so that you don’t have any downtime with your ads. We recommend using Jungle Scout Alerts to inform you of important changes to Amazon products so you can take action quickly – even if you’re not logged into Jungle Scout.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024: is your business FBA ready?
The 2024 holiday season will be busier than ever before. So to be fully prepared for the frenzied demand, be sure to follow the steps above. And if you have any other questions or tips about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, let us know in the comments below.
