Holiday prep for Amazon sellers

Are you ready for the shopping season?

Amazon Sellers

Is your Amazon store ready to welcome thousands of Black Friday shoppers?

Both online and brick-and-mortar stores see their sales skyrocket during the holiday shopping season, and this is especially true for Amazon sellers. 


The time to start preparing is now, so when Black Friday rolls around, you’ll be ready to face the flood of consumers.

Use these tips to cater to your holiday shoppers and leave them feeling satisfied.

Be prepared to deliver exceptional customer service

Many of your Black Friday shoppers may be first-time customers. This is the perfect opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service to entice them to come back and shop with you again.


Good customer service can be as simple as providing quick (if not instant) responses to their questions. You could also go one step further by sending out personalized "thank you" notes with every shipment. To really go the extra mile, try offering gift services and expedited shipping.


Remember: If you're not prepared, a massive spike in holiday sales can come at the cost of good customer service and damage your reputation. So be prepared to allocate additional resources there if necessary. You could even utilize an Amazon virtual assistant to help you handle your increased customer service needs throughout the holiday shopping season.

Increase your inventory for increased demand

Businesses often see a spike in sales on Black Friday. For Amazon sellers, more shoppers means more inventory to stock. Make a list of your most popular products and anticipate even higher demand for those items to ensure there's enough stock available for Black Friday.


Also, don't forget to keep your product quantities up to date in Amazon Seller Central. The last thing you want to do is list items as "available" when they're not, which can leave you with disappointed customers.


To stock up your inventory for Black Friday, you could even consider working with supply chain experts who can help with everything from procurement and vendor management.

Offer an irresistible discount

What would Black Friday be without a discount? If you want to attract holiday shoppers to your Amazon store, give them a good reason to buy from you. Offer enticing discounts and limited-time deals that they simply can't resist.


If possible, opt into the Discounts Provided by Amazon program so your customers can get the best deal while still allowing you to make a profit. You can also create coupons to target specific segments of customers — such as people who subscribe to Amazon Prime, the premium membership plan that comes with faster delivery and exclusive deals.


Or you could target members of Amazon Mom, the program that offers deep discounts on baby essentials. Amazon will even let you target customers who have viewed or purchased certain products, allowing you to get your coupons in front of highly relevant shoppers.

Use social media to your advantage

Social media is one of the best channels to attract excited holiday shoppers. In fact, the majority of shoppers use social media to help make purchase decisions. So you're missing out if you're still not using social media to promote your Amazon store, especially during Black Friday.


If you're running a Black Friday sale, make sure your social media followers know about it. Share the news through your posts and stories. And don't forget to create attractive graphics that will make your followers stop scrolling. Refine your social media design by creating professional and eye-catching images for your Black Friday promotions.


To ramp up your Black Friday marketing, you need to get creative. Create witty and enticing social media copy that will drive users to your Amazon store. You could even run giveaway contests to spread the news beyond your immediate network.


It's important to focus on your social media marketing strategy now so you can create and run powerful Black Friday marketing campaigns on social.

Give your storefront a makeover

Just as you'd display banners and posters to promote a sale inside a physical store, consider updating the look and feel of your Amazon storefront for Black Friday. Use attractive graphics to update the hero image and tiles on your Amazon store page.


These graphics could highlight the most enticing offers you have for Black Friday. You could even consider working with professional editors to help refine your images and make sure they instantly draw in your audience.


Also, don't forget to give your product images a fresh look if you haven't updated them in a while. The quality of your product photography is important, so make sure you give your listings a makeover in time for the peak shopping season.

Use paid ads to draw in more shoppers

If you want to grow your sales for Black Friday, you have to go beyond organic reach. Invest in Amazon Advertising so your products show up prominently in relevant search results. You can also run paid ads on Google and social media to draw in even more shoppers.


To make sure you're reaching the right people with your ads, focus on perfecting your ad targeting, whether through social media advertising or search engine marketing. Also, don't forget your ad copy is important, too! Before investing in paid ads, you want to ensure all of your promotional assets are ready to shine.


Social media ads are a great way to boost sales, and they can also get more people into your store. 

Use ads to promote special in-store shopping events, like a "12 Days of Christmas" or "8 Nights of Hanukkah" sale. Create an event ad to drive traffic to your event and encourage shoppers to attend.

Later, you can even retarget attendees with a different ad to encourage them to shop online.

Ready to cover more of your holiday bases? Visit the full Smart Season hub.