How to Create Your Best Amazon Holiday Selling Strategy

Holiday season 2021 is upon us! This means increases in customer spending and lots more clicks on the Amazon Marketplace as buyers search for the perfect gift items.

This is also an unmistakable period in your fiscal year that can bring lots of opportunity for growth for your company. So, it’s time to shift your Amazon selling strategy to go with the flow of online sales, thereby boosting your sales for the December holidays.

Why a holiday selling strategy is important ‍

Here are some of key takeaways:

1. Depending on the type of product you sell, you can see a 50% increase in sales during this time (according to Andrew Laird, Senior Account Manager at Mayan)
2. Black Friday 2020 stats have revealed that online sales reached over 9 billion, which was an increase of 22% from just the previous year (according to TRTWorld). 
3. The boost that Ecommerce gets during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend typically extends into the December holiday period.
4. If you want to take advantage of the holiday season on Amazon, it's very important to get all of your selling strategies in line leading up to this date.

Last year, Amazon estimated it to be the “biggest holiday season ever” for the platform and they were right: Reports state that in a record-breaking season, worldwide sales increased by 50% compared to 2019. This means that small- and medium-sized online businesses like yours on Amazon sold almost 1 billion products over the holiday season in 2020.

But how can you, as an Amazon seller, plan for this holiday rush? Our experts at Mayan share their top Amazon selling strategy tips to help you prep for the busy (that’s an understatement!) holiday season this year.

Tip #1: Use Prime Exclusive discounts & coupons to help your products stand out

With a few adjustments to your Amazon store, you can keep the sales vibe going from Black Friday and Cyber Monday into the month of December.

One way you can do this is by offering coupons for Prime customers following the Black Friday weekend rush, helping your products stand out for a fraction of the cost.

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“A good selling strategy tip is to use Amazon Prime Exclusive discounts, coupons, and lightning deals. I personally like to offer Prime Exclusive discounts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, then have a coupon running for the rest of December. Coupons help your products stand out and generally only about 50% of customers use the coupon, so your effective discount is about 1/2 of what you offer on the coupon.”

- Andrew Laird, Senior Account Manager and founder of ProShot‍

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Coupons, discounts, lightning deals, analytics and more! Our blog post on Black Friday tips for Amazon sellers highlights some extra holiday selling strategies that you can implement to help boost sales this season.

Tip #2: Add holiday-themed keywords to increase your organic rank

Keywords are an important aspect of your Amazon business, and the December sales period is no different. Show up this holiday season and adjust your keywords appropriately to be in line with the right search terms that shoppers will be using this month.

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“If it applies to your product, add relevant holiday-themed keywords - you can do it in the titles, bullet points, as well as your advertising strategy on Amazon. This will help you increase your organic rank for those specific keywords over the holiday season.”

- Tania Reza, Account Executive at Mayan

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Some keyword tips to help boost holiday sales: Add things like “perfect stocking stuffers”, “gifts for Dads”, “gifts for Moms”, “best Christmas gifts”, in the appropriate places in your Amazon store. You can do this via the titles or bullet points in the product descriptions.

See our blog post for more ways to up your keyword strategy and other tips for maximizing your Amazon marketing spend.

Tip #3: Gather reports to help stay on top of your traffic & sales trends

If you want to really grow as an Amazon seller, you have to routinely keep up with your reports. Every month or so (at least), take some time to look at your sales history. Looking at past trends will help you better prepare for the future.

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“Gather reports about your Amazon store going into and during the holiday season, so you can have a full picture of how traffic changed. This will help you prepare for future seasons.”

- Collin Kokotas, Sr Software Engineer at Mayan

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Tip #4: Set your prices back to normal for December holiday sales

For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, everybody is expecting a deal, which is why they’re going on Amazon. But how do you participate without hurting your business? Another seller tip we have for you is to consider increasing some of your product prices in order to compete with offering the minimum of a 20% discount during the Black Friday weekend. 

If you did this, don’t forget to decrease your prices after Cyber Monday so you can increase your Amazon sales throughout the month of December.

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“Adjust the prices of your products in the weeks leading to Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals opening up, so that your discounts don’t eat into your margins. And then set your prices back to normal to increase demand in December."

- Ernesto Reza-Garduño, CEO and Co-founder of Mayan

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Tip #5: Insert holiday themed images and video in your store

Get festive and your shoppers will, too!  Another selling strategy we have for you is to replace a few of your usual product pictures and videos with ones that are more holiday-themed and relevant to your brand. Media has the power to show and not just tell, so connect with our Amazon holiday shoppers by decorating your store with visuals that tell a story.

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“Make sure to include pictures and video content that is holiday themed. For example, if it's a kid's toy, show pictures of kids opening presents around a tree or show kids using the toy.”

- Julia Gall, Product Marketing Manager at Mayan‍

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Thinking of new Amazon selling strategies to change things up for the new year? Get inspired with our list of Top Trending Products on Amazon for Fall 2021.

What will your Amazon selling strategy be this quarter?

Close out this calendar year with extra sales and lots of success! Our selling strategies have proven results, and can help your business experience higher sales, higher click-through rate, and higher conversion rates on those clicks. Check out our most recent case studies and see what's up.

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