Amazon Seller 2023 Holiday Checklist

Amazon Seller 2023 Holiday Checklist

Amazon Seller Checklist For A Successful Holiday Season

The most wonderful time of the year is almost upon us. The pumpkin spice has returned and the Christmas decorations are popping up in stores again. For many, it’s a key sign to start prepping your business for the holiday shopping season–particularly the Amazon Holiday season. With July’s Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days in early October, consumers are already expecting– and receiving– those preliminary deals leading up to T5. That means a smart strategy is required for strong performances in 2023.

This Holiday Selling Guide will inform your Q4 Amazon strategy and prepare you for any potential issues that will inevitably arise during the highest-trafficked time of year. Think of it as your roadmap to achieving holiday readiness on Amazon and making the most of the Amazon Holiday rush.

The Significance of the Amazon Holiday Season in 2023

In 2022, Amazon reported record-breaking sales during the holiday period, with millions of customers flocking to the platform to find gifts, deals, and holiday essentials. As businesses gear up for 2023, the Amazon Holiday season is expected to be just as significant, so your readiness is key and Amazon holiday ad campaigns will be more critical than ever. With increased competition, it’s essential to create targeted and compelling ads that resonate with your specific audience.

☑️ Operations

Catalog Management

Whether you’ve added a new color option to a bestselling jacket, updated your keyword strategy, or need to update product ASINs, managing your catalog and ensuring all of your products have the most up-to-date information is paramount.

  • Review your listing variation structure. As other sellers make changes, they could revert to old versions or Amazon can change them. Verify that the identifying data is correct (such as size and color names) and that all of the correct child ASINs are showing in their appropriate variations. This can be fixed with a quick file feed upload or by contacting seller support if a file feed does not resolve the issue.
  • Check your listings for new category-specific fields. Filling these in can help with search performance and categorization.

Inventory Management

The largest shopping events of the year are Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday – all of which require similar operational preparations. When planning and managing your inventory this holiday season, be sure and review our 2023 Ultimate Guide to Prime Day and follow the steps below:

  • Review the amount of available replenishable inventory by ASIN twice a day.
  • Use a mix of Small Parcel and LTL. This will help you stay nimble to the constantly changing thresholds per ASIN and increasing inbound order processing lead times at Amazon.
  • Check “Manage Inventory” to make sure none of your listings are suppressed or inactive. If you have suppressed listings, identify and edit your listing to fill in any missing information or images, and correct any content that does not meet requirements.

☑️ Advertising

Paid Search

Navigating the basics of keyword optimization can feel like a chore, but gaining a better understanding of the Amazon algorithm can jumpstart your holiday strategy, while also paying dividends throughout the year too!

  • Keep your campaign budgets high to prevent them from running out before, during, or after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A high budget will help establish relevancy so you remain competitive in saturated ad auctions.
  • Add new converting search terms as keywords to your campaigns to ensure you’re targeting relevant shoppers. Using keyword data from the last 30-60 days will provide valuable, more recent search terms that will be beneficial to leverage for Q4 events.
  • Use Sponsored Brands Video Ads and add lifestyle images to your Sponsored Brand Ads. These creative opportunities will help you cut through the clutter of search results and improve your overall brand messaging.

DSP

Serving the right ad at the right moment — that’s the power of DSP. Learn how this ad platform uses customer tracking to understand shopping behavior and purchase journeys so you can incorporate it in your Amazon holiday strategy and increase sales (and don’t miss these other powerful features)!

  • Keep your budget high to stay live during peak days or times. With higher-than-average site traffic, you can expect expanded audience pools and increased competition.
  • Aim to reach people as they enter the consideration phase in the weeks leading up to holiday sales events. Introducing your brand and staying top of mind can lead to conversions during and post-event.
  • Round out your investment by driving further conversions through a customized remarketing segment delivered in the weeks following. 
  • To really stand out, Amazon has exclusive video opportunities that can be powerful drivers to close the buying cycle.

OTT

OTT advertising has exploded in the past year, growing by 100 million users and reaching viewers on streaming devices like FireTV and Roku, plus sites like Twitch. If you plan on doing any type of video advertising, then OTT needs to be a part of your Amazon holiday strategy.

  • With Prime streaming Thursday Night Football, you’ll have direct access to millions of consumers tuning in to watch the game in the weeks leading up to the holidays.

☑️ Creative

Brand Store

Show off your brand’s personality, improve the customer experience, and drive conversions — optimizing a visually appealing and shoppable brand store is key to maximizing increased holiday traffic and driving sales this holiday season.

  • Refresh your brand store according to the sales event and/or holiday. If you don’t have a full-scale holiday brand store strategy, repurpose existing creatives from your site or socials to create a holiday gifting destination, or simply refresh the imagery on your store to feel more “festive.” Make sure your top sellers are front and center and that the shopping experience is as streamlined and consumer-friendly as possible.
  • Product Collections are a great new tool for grouping together like-minded products, or for making relevant gift guides for the holiday season!

Brand Story

Below the copy and just above the A+, product detail pages got a little more interesting thanks to the new Brand Story feature. It’s a scrollable carousel made up of customizable modules where brands are able to tell their story, engage shoppers, and ultimately drive sales.

  • Even if your listing already has strong A+ content, the Amazon Brand Story provides additional placement for complementary information. Simple to create and worth testing, Brand Stories can build positive associations with your brand that will outlive the holidays by portraying your mission, values, people, and processes behind your products. 

A+ Content

Leveraging quality A+ content is a surefire way to level up your virtual storefront on Amazon and incorporate creative visuals that evoke emotion, highlight key product details, and communicate lifestyle marketing, which all ultimately lead to more sales.

  • Check that your best-selling and seasonal products have quality A+ content. Add strong lifestyle images for a quick, eye-catching solution, and include any information that you did not highlight in the PDP images and copy above the fold.

Amazon Posts

Are you aware that Amazon has its own social media feed baked into the buying experience for customers? With Posts, you have nearly limitless opportunities to engage shoppers on a new level and boost your brand awareness.

  • Use holiday and winter assets for Amazon Posts. Build an arsenal of posts using imagery and copy targeting holiday and gifting, and schedule them ahead of time to be posted consistently in the weeks leading up to and following peak shopping events. If you’re short on holiday creatives, focus on increasing your posting frequency with content that promotes both the product and brand.

Amazon Live

Narrowing the gap between information and purchase, Amazon Live uses live streaming content as a way to engage with shoppers and answer their most pressing questions. 

Reoptimize Copy

Serving multiple roles as a conduit for Amazon SEO, conveying product information to potential consumers, and communicating brand values, updating customer-facing copy is yet another strong move Sellers can make to stand out in this year’s tight market.

  • Review your Amazon SEO knowledge so you can learn how to find the right keywords that will drive traffic (and sales) to your listings.
  • Updating your listings with fresh copy is fraught with possible dangers (such as accidentally purging all your listing copy!). That’s why we made easy, step-by-step guides for navigating listing updates in both Vendor Central and Seller Central.

It’s not too late to secure a successful holiday season. By starting early, optimizing your product listings, leveraging Amazon advertising, and implementing strategic Amazon holiday ad campaigns, you can position your brand for success. Use our expert advice to your advantage, and re-examine your Amazon strategy within these next few weeks to be fully prepared to meet the unprecedented demand expected from this holiday season. 

Need further help with your Amazon strategy? We can help! Macarta is a full-service marketplace agency specializing in retail media to drive growth and sustained success for its brand partners. Reach out to us here, and let’s get started.

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