Amazon Holiday Calendar for Sellers | 2018
It’s pretty straight forward – when the busy holiday shopping days arrive, there won’t be any time to test strategies or theories. Sellers who don’t have a clear Amazon ad strategy for Q4 won’t maximize their ROI.
To help sellers prepare, we gathered the top performing Amazon advertisers together for an exclusive panel at AdDiego 2018.
If you missed the conference, here’s a recap (straight from our LIVE panel) on how you can capitalize on the channel throughout the holiday shopping season.
The 2018 Amazon Holiday Calendar for Sellers
In the following post, we’re also providing sellers with a BONUS to up their game this Q4: CPC Strategy’s Amazon Holiday Calendar is full of important deadlines and helpful tips to keep on hand during the peak shopping season.
Let’s dive in!
OCTOBER TO-DO’S:
Inventory Readiness Starting in October: Take the time to formulate a Q4 strategy that incorporates promotional strategies and forecasts sales projections. Ensure you have proper inventory coverage for all of Q4 and January of Q1. This is more for Third Party Sellers that aren’t beholden to POs.
Finalize Your Q4 Advertising Strategy: This is a good time to ask yourself – what are my sales targets on Amazon for Q4 2018 and what is my holiday budget?
Review Last Year’s Sales Performance: Leveraging this data will give you an idea of how aggressive you can be with your bids and budgets this quarter.
Finalize all Creative & Content Updates: A+ Content & Enhanced Brand Content should be completed and approved before November so you are not playing catch up. Amazon Stores with “holiday” themes or a “deals” tab should also be uploaded and approved before November. Here’s a list of the 5 successful Amazon Store examples.
NOVEMBER TO-DO’S:
Holiday-specific ad copy in Sponsored Brands & Product Display Ads: November is when you will start to run “Deal-Specific” ads (think holiday specials & discount “Deals” during this time).
Increase Bids & Budgets: During the week of November 14 – 18 be prepared to raise bids for heavy traffic from shoppers doing comparison shopping / scouting Black Friday deals.
DECEMBER TO DO’s:
December 10th: This is known as Green Monday or Sales Day coined by eBay. Although Amazon sellers can also take advantage of shoppers looking for last minute deals before Christmas.
December 22nd: This is a big one. The last day for Amazon shoppers to order a package that will be delivered by Christmas.
The Week of Christmas: Keep in mind, historically there is large dip in traffic on Amazon the week of Christmas. Be prepared to decrease bids / budget during this time.
Last Week of December & Q1: The beginning of January can mean a slower sales period based on the vertical. Leverage data from this time last year to assess where bids and budgets were and how much you should pull back.
For other sellers, it is time to get even more aggressive to take advantage of “New Year, New You” shoppers (think Health & Fitness Category) as well as customers who received Amazon gift cards or are making returns.
Amazon Experts: “Tips To Succeed This Holiday Season”
“The two things that stand out the most to me the most this year are timelines and budget. For example, how much of your budget do you save for Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Discussions about timeline and budget need to be happening NOW so you can iron out those details ahead of time.”
– Stuart Dooley, Sr. Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy
“Building off of what Stuart said, another big concern is – How do I allocate my Q4 budget towards my holiday specific brands or product launches? Or, how much do I dedicate to my existing catalog? How you decide to allocate your budget is definitely going to be depended on the goals that you have set out for each of your products.”
– Jen Acosta, Sr. Amazon Marketplace Channel Analyst
“Another concern we hear is – which promotions should I run? I work with clients to make these decisions and we usually base it off of prior experience. For example, what was the traffic like for a Lightning Deal, or promotion from last year (and did it work)? It’s also an opportunity to decide if it’s time to incentivize a better promotion than last year.”
– Tanya Zadoorian, Sr. Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy
For more information on the Amazon holiday calendar & other important promotional dates in 2018, email [email protected].
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