Get that metaphorical till ringing on Black Friday by selling on Amazon. Lewis and Marcus explore the expert tips and tricks you need to know to sell successfully.

How to Get Black Friday Sales on Amazon

When one of the biggest dates in the retail calendar collides with the biggest shopping platform in the Western world, great things can happen. It is, however, important to get ahead of the game when it comes to selling on Amazon. With Halloween done and dusted, and sleighbells ringing in the distance, many people will be keen to get ahead with their Christmas wish lists, maximising on Black Friday Deals.

So, you’ve got the products ready. Customers are eager to digest the discounts available to them – but what can you do to drive an improvement in performance and sales on this magical Friday in November? We’re sharing the ‘must-do’s’ when it comes to gaining those all-important sales for Black Friday on Amazon.

5 Things to Consider When Preparing for Black Friday

It may seem like there are many hoops to jump through in order to successfully sell on Amazon, particularly for Black Friday. However, these five key factors could be the key to your success. Get these things right and you’ll be in a strong position to see the benefits of your actions for Black Friday itself, as well as better preparing you for other future events such as Cyber Monday and then the magical countdown to Christmas.

 1. Lightning Deals – A Bolt Which Could Change Your Black Friday 

Lightning deals do what they say on the tin – short, sharp, shocking deals. These promotions are of a limited quantity, for a short period of time, and as they are so super time-sensitive, it’s crucial for customers to complete their orders as soon as possible in order to avoid disappointment. They are available one per customer, until the promotion period expires, or until all inventory is claimed, with a timer showing customers how long they have to add the item to their Cart and claim the promotional discount (can you handle the pressure?!)

Amazon customers can sign up to watch a Lightning Deal up to 24 hours prior to its launch, something which is proving ever-popular with many high-demand products, particularly for Black Friday.

There is also the option of a 7-day Deal, another time-bound, promotional offer, which around Black Friday would be located on specific Black Friday landing pages, another method which may increase sales and reduce your inventory – ideal.

However, many retailers are hitting the stumbling blocks with gaining eligibility for Black Friday deals. Meet the following criteria and you’ll be good to go:

• Sales history in Amazon stores, and at least a 3-star rating.
• Include as many variations of the products as possible.
• Not be a restricted product or offensive, embarrassing, or inappropriate.
• Be in new condition.
• Be compliant with customer product reviews policies, pricing policies and have a valid reference price, and also with deal frequency policies.

Once approved, deals will show across the Amazon homepage and also in deals categories, which are then advertised via email, social and paid to improve growth and sales of these products.

2. Promotion to Power up Your Black Friday Products

So, you’ve gained eligibility and set up your Black Friday deals – the next thing to do is to power up and promote them. It’s key to consider what types of ads you should use to do this. Around this time, shoppers are going to be scouring for the best deals, and sponsored products are the fastest and most engaging type of advert on Amazon for conversions.

Once deals are set up for Sponsored Products, they will be highlighted with a “Deals” tag, which is shown throughout Amazon’s search results, giving you the edge over competitors as your products stand will out from non-participating products. With this in mind, your bid strategy can be increased, expanding your keyword reach and being more visible for impressions.

Sponsored Brands are located at the top of the Amazon page, and this is where you can link customers back to your brand store, using this Ad placement for Black Friday enables them to view your full product range.

When considering your target audience, you should be thinking first of mobile shoppers, as sponsored Ad placements will be the first thing they see. This, in combination with eye-catching graphics and other creatives are a key ingredient in successful Black Friday sales.

Sponsored display adverts can be costly when done wrong, which is why at peak periods such as Black Friday, it’s important to get right. Customers want to be grabbed with quick, snappy deals, so if you re-target at full price and they haven’t converted, it’s likely they have purchased from competitors, or weren’t interested.

Ideally, you should be aiming to maximise the use of your badging, so looking to target your competitors' products and look to take placements in that category. Sponsored Display placements have similar placements on Amazon to Sponsored Products when it comes to the product detail page – exactly where you want to be in order to catch the eye of the customer.

3. Manage Deals to Maximise Success

When it comes to managing your deals, your seller central account is where you’ll create and collate all your deals and promotions for your selected products.

Setting up Lightning and 7-day Deals is very easy, however, promotional deals can be slightly trickier, however, when done right, they can still be used to promote your entire catalogue with discounts – a must for Black Friday.

Don’t allow your competitors to pip you to the post when it comes to pricing - ensuring that your product pricing aligns with your competitors is vital in order to compete, and is the perfect option for products that aren’t eligible for Black Friday deals. This method would generally be advertised through Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. Promotions allow you to add product multipliers, for instance, buy one get one free, which can assist with cross-selling and introducing customers to your wider product range.

We find the best percentages that work are 15% off for smaller items, 25% off for larger items with higher RRP, and then 30-35% off maximum for anything else, but it’s worth bearing in mind that going high with a discount can imply you’re desperate to sell your product, which can be perceived negatively by customers.

The 30-day pricing rule is in place in order to protect from manipulation, in order to prevent this from happening, you will have to have a 30-day lookback period, where Amazon can force the price to what it has previously been in the last 30 days.

Vouchers are a great way to provide a discount. You can schedule discounts, set budgets, and discount percentages whenever you want – this is a great alternative for Black Friday, as voucher messaging in search and Ad placements is bold and eye-catching. This is also a useful method if you can’t get any Black Friday placements.

4. Boost, Boost, Boost

As Black Friday approaches, you should be thinking about revising your keyword strategy. It’s time to find high search volume keywords and begin integrating them into your product pages, something which you may not normally do. So, why do it now?

It’s all about the strategy as a whole; paid + organic, which increases sales velocity and therefore increases your organic rankings. Once your organic rank has increased, you should be aiming to keep it there with conversions, which is where pricing discount is a large factor. As an overall message, keyword research prior to Black Friday is critical in order to achieve better organic rankings.

Keyword placement is also important in letting Amazon know which keywords you want to rank for, as well as adding benefits and features of your products to increase your click-through rate. Adding primary keywords with high search volume into titles can help with boosting rankings.

Getting creative with your gallery images so that they align with the event can capture the audience who are specifically shopping for Black Friday. These changes needn’t be huge but can help you to stand out from competitor listings, who may still be using generic imagery.

Everyone knows that first impressions can be make or break. Make sure you get off on a positive footing with an impressive storefront - a great place to optimise. Creating Black Friday-specific graphics can help with linking up your Sponsored Brands campaigns to the Black Friday landing pages.

5. Channels to Supercharge Your Performance 

When it comes to external marketing on to Amazon, social media channels are a great avenue. Black Friday is a fantastic opportunity to use other channels to promote your Amazon products, giving the ability to easily drive paid traffic to your Amazon product detail page or Amazon store.

By doing so, you can capture new audiences, allowing them to shop safely on a recognisable and trusted platform. There is also the opportunity to create promotional discount codes which can be used via social media channels, customised to your exact requirements. These can be tracked via product sales reports and are an extremely useful tool to track performance if using social influencers.

Black Friday Selling Success on Amazon

Planning a refresh into your campaign in advance of an event such as Black Friday can be hugely helpful in the overall success. Careful consideration of factors such as keyword placement, ensuring the eligibility of products and use of external marketing can all help maximise sales. It’s not to say that all of the above must be completed in order to have a successful Black Friday, but simple tweaks and strategic planning can make a significant difference.

Great strategy matters, and can hugely impact overall profit which can be made from one of the largest shopping events within the retail calendar.

If you’re interested in discussing more about selling on Amazon or would like to know more about how to get the most out of Black Friday, book in a call with one of our experts today. Our full webinar is available to listen to here – enjoy and happy selling!