7 Strategies to Boost Your Amazon Black Friday Sales

Close out your 2024 Amazon selling season with a bang! If you are looking for the best ways to get shoppers to your product listings and complete more sales you have come to the right place! Whether you have been preparing all year or procrastinated until the last minute, we have tips to help you optimize your Amazon shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday success.

Amazon + Black Friday

Black Friday is one of the most important sales events for Amazon sellers during the year. Amazon's 2023 Black Friday promotion ran for 10 days, starting Friday, November 17, and continuing through Cyber Monday on Monday, November 27. In years prior to this, the event only lasted 48 hours but we anticipate that 2024 will look similar to 2023. 

Amazon sellers should plan to run promotional deals throughout the holiday season while focusing their efforts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While we wait for Amazon to announce the official Black Friday 2024 promotion dates, let’s jump into our top 7 strategies we recommend FBA sellers do to maximize their success this holiday season! 

Black Friday Tips to Rack in Sales on Amazon

Tip 1: Optimize Your Store with Relevant Holiday Search Terms

One of the best ways for shoppers to find your products is to have relevant keywords and search terms in your product listings. Your product listing titles should include words related to the product and search terms that will help shoppers find the product. 

Here is a great example of a product listing from Wolf Tactical that combines elements of product information and keywords. They start off the title with their brand name, followed by what the product is, and then relevant keywords. Shoppers who are looking for something specific, as well as just browsing fitness gear can find their product.

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We recommend updating your product titles for the holidays a month or so in advance of the holiday rush. Another thing to keep in mind when updating your titles are Amazon’s rules and tips for effective search terms that apply year-round. Some things to note are 

• Refrain from using the terms "new" or "on sale now,"
• Avoid subjective claims such as "best," "cheapest," or "amazing."

While you need to stick to the rules to avoid an ASIN being suppressed or your account being suspended, you can still optimize for popular keywords for the holiday season. 

Remember to keep your terms relevant to your actual products and be specific in your product listings. Beyond using keywords, you can further optimize your holiday listings by highlighting ways a product makes sense as a holiday gift.

Tip 2: Ensure your Black Friday Deals are Prime-Eligible

To ensure your products are included Amazon Black Friday deals, your product needs to meet the eligibility requirements for Prime Exclusive Discounts. 

These criteria include product condition, rating, and type:

• The listed product must be in new condition.
• Items cannot be restricted, or anything Amazon considers offensive, embarrassing, or inappropriate.
• Your listing needs to have a product rating of at least 3 stars, or have no rating. 
• The product must be eligible for Prime shipping in all regions of the country.

Pricing:

• Prime Exclusive Discount prices must be 5% lower than the reference price.
• The promotional price must be at least 10% off the non-member, non-promotional price.
• The discount has to be lower than any price the ASIN has been sold at to a customer in the previous 30 days.
• The product must comply with Amazon's customer product reviews policies, as well as Amazon's pricing policies.

Seller-fulfilled Requirements:

• Free shipping.
• An account late dispatch rate below 4% for the previous month.
• An order defect rate below 1% for the previous month.
• A pre-fulfillment cancelation rate below 0.5% for the previous month.
• A disbursement reserve policy set to seven days or more after delivery.

Tip 3: Sprinkle Black Friday Deals Throughout November

While Amazon sellers cannot afford to miss out on the added promotional strength of Amazon's Black Friday event, seller-exclusive deals can and should span the entire holiday season. Promote your products to shoppers throughout Q4, and keep targeting those shoppers through the end of the year with customized holiday deals.

Get the attention of early-bird shoppers with promotional offers, discounts, and item descriptions that call attention to your products as holiday buys. Getting their attention early can also help to bring them back during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Even after the main promotional events are over, keep refreshing your special offers and descriptions, particularly for items with next-day delivery options or those that make great last-minute gift ideas. By keeping the changing needs of shoppers in mind, you can create promotions and deals that will help your products stand out from the competition.

Tip 4: Use Social Media to Promote Your Discounts

Planning to have a strong social media presence throughout the holidays will help bring additional traffic to your listings. Promote your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on your social media accounts and your business website. Use appropriate hashtags to promote your deals and help shoppers find your products.

Here are some of the top hashtags shoppers will utilize to find gifts during Black Friday.

• BlackFridayGiveaway
• BlackFridaySpecials
• BlackFridayAmazon
• BlackFridayOffers
• BlackFridayDiscount
• BlackFridayMadness. 

However, remember that generic Black Friday and Cyber Monday hashtags will be very popular, so spend time researching unique hashtags with 10,000 or fewer posts that fit your specific products.Tip 5: Add Holiday Images to Your Amazon StorefrontPeople wait all year for the magic of the holidays and to enjoy the Christmas spirit. While you won’t be able to have a vanilla candle burning in your Amazon store to help set the mood, there are a few tricks you can use to get shoppers in the buying spirit.Create images throughout your product listings and Amazon storefront that are holiday-specific. That could mean your product in a staged holiday background, using colors like red or green in photography, or having holiday props in photos. While it's not realistic to completely revamp your entire Amazon store appearance, little tweaks here and there will help set you apart. This is true regardless of the promotions or events you are participating in, and can also help make your non-discounted products more attractive to holiday shoppers.

Tip 6: Use Analytics to Target the Best Days to Offer Black Friday Deals

Utilize the tools that Amazon provides to you like Amazon Brand Analytics. This is a powerful tool that will help you analyze and look at product trends. We recommend looking at your sales from the holiday season over the past two years or more if you have the data available. This will give you valuable insight into what products sold most, and on what days. You should then tailor your discount strategy and focus your discounts and promotions on those days.

If you want to step up your game beyond the basic tools Amazon provides to brands, our team at Mayan can offer even more assistance with optimizing how you use data to grow your sales.

Tip 7: Free Returns and Same-day Delivery for November and December Holiday Deals

The holidays are a chaotic time for everyone. I’m sure most of us can relate to waiting until the last minute to find the perfect gift for someone. Having options on your product like free returns and fast delivery can help ease any doubts and help your customers decide to click the buy button.

That extra peace of mind will continue to be helpful as the final days of holiday shopping close in, and consumers worry more about whether a gift will arrive on time. Remember, the holidays are also a big travel season. Many customers are not just under pressure to meet the holiday deadlines but also to have purchases arrive before they leave to visit relatives.

There is no magic plan for the perfect holiday sales strategy. As with any other aspect of effectively running your Amazon FBA business, success is built with constant effort and comprehensive strategies.

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