How to sell more on Amazon at Christmas
Senior Amazon official Dharmesh Mehta has outlined three key elements that Sellers should focus on to boost sales ahead of Christmas.
Amazon’s Vice President of Customer Trust and Partner Support has written a post on Seller Central identifying planning ahead, paying attention to quality, and focusing on three integral selling issues as the key to success.
Mehta’s post read:
1. Every holiday puts additional pressure on each country’s transportation networks – this is an industry-wide occurrence. However, the pandemic crisis has the potential to increase the strain. As a result, we will encourage customers to do their holiday shopping earlier. We also encourage you to send inventory to our fulfilment centres, schedule product launches, and run deals and promotions earlier.
2. Pay close attention to the quality of your products, shipments, and labelling to ensure efficient processing during the busy peak season. Monitor your Restock Inventory page, where you can find Amazon’s recommendations for sufficient inventory levels.
3. Even though much has changed in the world around us this year, one thing that has not changed is that customers continue to be delighted by great selection, low prices, and fast, convenient delivery. It is always critical to focus on these elements. Stay on top of these through the Manage Pricing, Manage Orders, and Account Health Dashboard sections of Seller Central.
Mehta also highlighted three investments that Amazon has made to help Sellers this Christmas. He wrote:
1. We increased peak fulfilment centre standard-sized product storage capacity worldwide by nearly 60 million cubic feet compared to last year. We did this while ensuring we continue to keep our fulfilment centre employees safe.
2. Amazon will invest an additional $100 million to spotlight and connect customers with small businesses during Prime Day and the holiday season. Small businesses are critical to delighting customers, and we’re excited to invest even more in their success.
3. As we all experienced earlier in the year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a great deal can change quickly requiring us to make significant changes to our operations. We’ve made multiple investments to ensure that we are able to react and communicate even more quickly – through email, News in Seller Central, and our forums.
Mehta then signed off: “We realise that this has been a challenging year – both in terms of running a business and in your personal lives. At the same time, we continue to be inspired by how so many of you have risen to these challenges and continue to delight customers, grow your businesses, and give back to your communities.
“Collectively, Amazon sellers have not only continued to grow fast this year, but they are growing even faster than Amazon Retail, and that’s such a powerful testament to your resilience, creativity, and of course, your terrific customer satisfaction. As always, we appreciate your continued partnership as we work to accelerate through the holiday season.”
Thompson and Holt managing partner Craig Gedey has welcomed Amazon’s investment and says their holiday period advice is sound.
“A lot of that is common sense but it certainly doesn’t hurt to reinforce those messages,” Gedey said. “With all the uncertainty of 2020, putting your shipping and storage plans in place early is certainly crucial. And bringing forward any promotions or product launches that you have planned also makes sense to maximise sales.
“Paying attention to the quality of your products, your labelling and shopping are all good practises that should be maintained throughout the year, but are now more important than ever. And the same applies to the basics of ensuring your delivery process is as effective as possible and prices as low as they can be.
“It was also interesting to note that Mehta referred to the fact that over 10,000 Sellers recently attended the Amazon Accelerate virtual conference. It’s appears clear that they are making more of an effort to listen to Sellers and their issues, and although further strides undoubtedly need to be made, that is definitely a positive.”
Thompson and Holt are also offering a free months trial of their Monitor and Protect service to help sellers prevent a suspension of ASINs or an their account during the COVID pandemic, more information on how to protect your Amazon seller account from a suspension can be found here.