For most brands on Amazon, there are a few well-known times throughout the year when traffic spikes and sales soar. From Prime Day to holiday promotional events, these peak seasons can be critical to a brand’s long-term success. But, high increases in traffic and sales can also take their toll, leaving brands with out-of-stock products and overextended advertising budgets.
So, how can you make the most out of your seasonality on Amazon — without damaging your brand in the process?
Rising sales are amazing for a brand — until they leave you out of stock on Amazon. According to Bhupinder Singh, the Associate Director of Sales at Media.Monks (formerly Orca Pacific), your main goal should be to stay in stock 100% of the time. That’s because running out of stock can cause Amazon’s search algorithm to lower your product search relevancy.
The solution? Stock up on inventory well before the peak season begins.
If you’re utilizing Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon), it’s best practice to have your products packaged and ready to ship to Amazon’s warehouses with plenty of time to spare before your peak seasons.
Give yourself two to four weeks of a head start, as this will help you account for any unexpected variables. Bhupinder also recommends setting your products up as FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant), just in case there are any delays with Amazon — especially during chaotic periods like Q4.
Similar to preparing your inventory, it’s always best to optimize your advertising in advance.
As Jackie Andreetta, the Associate Director of Advertising for Media.Monks (formerly Orca Pacific), says, you should be building momentum and relevancy throughout the year in order to stay competitive within your category during high-traffic seasons. She suggests leveraging historical data and sales trends from your product categories so you know when to be aggressive and how to create effective evergreen strategies.
To boost your success without breaking the bank, it’s best to strive for long-term growth. Identify the most important and highest opportunity keywords for your brand, then optimize for those throughout the year.
This way, the heavy leg work is already done. You’ll have a high organic ranking in place and paid ads can simply help you ride the wave during peak seasons.
To make the most out of high-traffic seasons and events like Prime Day and Cyber Monday, it’s important to set specific budgets and sales goals for these periods.
During these times, you should invest a higher percentage of your revenue and COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) into your advertising than you usually would for your evergreen strategy. But, how can you generate the most ROI from your daily budgets?
The key is to stay visible during peak shopping hours on Amazon.
You don’t want to run out of your allocated budget by 9 a.m. EST — by then, some shoppers haven’t even started their shopping sprees. To extend your budget as far as possible, enable dayparting for important days and leverage third-party tools that allow you to set your ads as active during specific hours.
