In the eCommerce world, Q4 is the most important season of the year, and it always seems to come up fast! Are you prepared for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Here’s a last-minute checklist to make sure you’re ready…
2021 Dates
This year Black Friday takes place on November 26th. Sales usually continue to run through the weekend, and Cyber Monday takes place on November 29th. At Envision Horizons we typically start to see sales ramp up the evening of Thanksgiving (November 25th) at around 6pm.
This is an extremely important series of days for Amazon sellers, so make sure you’re fully prepared. Take a look at our Black Friday checklist to ensure you are setting yourself up for success…
Black Friday / Cyber Monday Checklist
Have a Q4 media plan in place
- Drive traffic from your social channels to Amazon.
- Utilize Amazon Posts to promote your deals.
Confirm your Q4 advertising budget
- It is important to fine-tune your budget and bids for peak events. Amazon recommends a budget that is about 2-4x your typical budget for high traffic days.
Confirm your account health
- Look at shipping performance and Voice of the Consumer
Confirm no listings are suppressed or suspended
- During the event be prepared to monitor your account and address fire drills. Every hour a listing is down immediately translates to lost revenue. Read about how Envision Horizons handles suppressions.
Optimize your PPC campaigns
- Make sure your ads are optimized for conversions and that you’re not wasting money on keywords that generate little to no sales.
- Have advertising automation setup on all campaigns.
Conduct a PDP audit and act on the findings by updating your listings
- Review your product titles, bullet points, product descriptions, images, and A+ content/EBC
- Optimize your images and utilize AB testing, especially the hero image, for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Make sure everything is optimized for mobile.
- Add festive details for the holidays – add a ribbon/bow or a graphic on why your product is giftable.
Conduct a Keyword Audit
- Review how many keywords your products index for compared to competitors, and discover what top keywords you are not indexing for.
- Act on the findings by updating your copy and keyword strategy.
Optimize your Storefront
- Create a page in your Brand Store dedicated to highlighting deals available during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Add a holiday gift guide to your Store.
Create Sponsored Brand Ads Driving to Storefront
- Send traffic to your Holiday deals page or gift guide.
Get Your Coupons Ready / Organize your Promotions
- The submission window for most Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals is closed. However, you can still set up Prime-exclusive deals and coupons or even just discount your prices during the day.
- Coupons can go live in as little as 6 hours, submit them for BF/CM by November 24th.
- Prime-exclusive deals differentiate your product from those with coupons and are featured on a separate page for Prime-exclusive only deals.
Get in Touch with Influencers / Drive External Traffic to Amazon
- Driving external traffic to Amazon is key.
- Check out our white paper on how to use TikTok to drive Amazon sales.
Track your Sales and Performance with a Tool Like myHorizons
- Black Friday through Cyber Monday is an important time to be closely monitoring your performance. Make changes to your ads or PPC campaigns as needed.
- If your inventory runs out at a faster rate than expected, plan to send more inventory to FBA or plan to ship the products yourself using third-party fulfillment or your own warehouse.
- If your sales are slow consider reviewing your PPC campaigns and increasing bids for certain keywords.
- Monitor the status and overall performance of your account with a tool like myHorizons. Take care of any problems that arise immediately so that there is no downtime for your listings. At Envision Horizons we offer 24/7 coverage.
Watch Your IPI Score
- Q4 stock limits were enforced on Oct. 1 and they’ll last until Dec. 31.
- Maintain an IPI score above 450 and avoid stock limits and overage fees this holiday season. Check out our blog on how to increase restock limits for more information.
Ship your Inventory in Time:
- By now, you should have sent in your holiday inventory. Envision Horizons clients send inventory in before these critical dates…
- Send in all Black Friday inventory (no later than October 31)
- Send in December inventory (no later than November 5th)
Download the checklist PDF here…Envision Horizons Black Friday Checklist
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