Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here! Are you ready? Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the busiest and most profitable times for Amazon sellers, presenting a huge opportunity to drive sales and attract new customers. In 2023, Amazon kicked off its Black Friday and Cyber Monday events earlier, reporting over 1 billion sales for a record-breaking period for the largest e-commerce marketplace in the United States. With this massive amount of sales at stake, knowing how to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is essential to capitalizing on this traffic and maximizing your business during its most important time.
With heightened traffic during this period, it’s essential to have your strategy well-defined to maximize both sales and brand visibility. Drawing from our experience helping thousands of sellers successfully navigate the Amazon marketplace over nearly a decade, we’ve crafted this comprehensive guide to optimizing your Amazon listings, ads, and customer experience for the official kickoff to the holiday season.
Below, we’ll dive into preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing tips. Consider this your official holiday sales preparation guide to make this holiday season your best one yet!
FAQs
What Is Black Friday?
Black Friday is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year, falling right after Thanksgiving in the United States. It marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, with retailers offering their deepest discounts and most attractive deals of the year.
When Is Black Friday 2024?
This year, Black Friday falls on November 29, 2024. However, many retailers, including Amazon, typically start rolling out Black Friday deals earlier in the month.
What Is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the online shopping equivalent of Black Friday, created to encourage people to shop online. While Black Friday was traditionally focused on brick-and-mortar stores with signature “doorbuster” deals inciting chaos from shoppers, Cyber Monday was designed specifically for e-commerce, making it particularly important for Amazon sellers.
When Is Cyber Monday 2024?
Cyber Monday always takes place the Monday after Black Friday, which falls on December 2nd in 2024. Like Black Friday, many online retailers now extend their Cyber Monday deals across several days.
Is Black Friday or Cyber Monday better?
Generally speaking, Black Friday outperforms Cyber Monday in terms of sales. According to Engage3, Amazon offered 42.5% fewer deals on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday in 2023. However, this can vary from category to category. However, the two holidays and their proximity on the calendar serve as the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season and are when the masses crank up the volume of their holiday shopping.
Now that we’ve answered these quick questions, let’s dig into our checklist of how to get ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to crush it like never before!
How To Prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
1. Analyze Previous Sales History
As the old saying goes, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Whether this is your first time selling on Amazon or you’re a longtime seller, this saying rings true. Analyzing sales history from your own products or competitors in the market can reveal trends to help tailor your BFCM strategy. You can target efforts more precisely by identifying top-selling products, peak shopping times, and customer behavior.
- Identify High-Demand Products: Use tools like Market Intelligence to identify your competition’s sales, deals, and sales velocity from last year.
- Peak Shopping Hours: Aim promotions around top shopping times, typically evenings and weekends, to get the most bang for your marketing bucks.
- Customer Insights: Review data on cart sizes, payment methods, and popular product bundles to craft compelling deals.
Pro Tip: Our Market Intelligence tool can help you quickly gather and analyze important sales trend data, saving you hours of manual research. If you have limited selling experience in a specific market, Market Intelligence can be a great equalizer to neutralize the advantage that experienced sellers may have on you.
Understanding your sales history is crucial, as it goes hand-in-hand with forecasting your inventory in stock. Next, we’ll investigate what you can do to avoid inventory nightmares.
2. Inventory Management
Nothing can derail your BFCM success faster than running out of stock during peak shopping hours, essentially forfeiting sales and handing them to your competitors. Effective inventory management requires a proactive approach that begins months before the sales event, so the earlier you can start preparing for the holiday hysteria, the better it will be for your business.
While there are many ways you can go about handling your inventory management, the following three tips can set you up for success when it comes to inventory management:
Automate Inventory Tracking: Do your best to prevent gaps during the peak rush by setting up additional orders once your existing inventory begins to dwindle.
Forecast Demand: Use past trends and real-time tracking to ensure you’re prepared, as covered in the first section.
Supplier Coordination: Ensure that all suppliers are ready for potential surges and that you have backup options in case of emergency.
Pro Tip: For a deeper, more in-depth look at managing your inventory effectively, check out our post packed with Amazon inventory management tips.
3. Pricing Strategy
Staying competitive from a pricing perspective is the name of the game when it comes to maximizing sales during the holiday season. Use competitor price analysis tools like our Competitor Intelligence tool, which allows you to receive notifications when a selected competitor tweaks elements of their selling mix, such as price. If you take any Black Friday tips from this article, it’s that customers are looking for deals, and pricing can make or break your holiday sales.
For dynamic pricing, utilize tools that adjust prices based on demand. Lastly, don’t forget the allure of bundle deals and limited-time discounts to captivate shoppers.
- Competitor Price Analysis: Understanding how your rivals price their products can guide you in making competitive pricing decisions.
- Dynamic Pricing: These tools automatically adjust your prices based on market demand, competitor pricing changes, and other factors. This ensures your prices are always competitive and appealing to shoppers.
- Bundle Deals and Limited-Time Discounts: You can bundle closely related products at a discounted price or offer flash sales with limited-time discounts. These tactics create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to make quick purchasing decisions.
There was one Amazon seller who ran a limited-time discount on a popular electronic gadget. They dropped the price from $199 to $149 for a few hours. This discount attracted more customers while leading to an increase in sales volume, which in turn helped them secure the best seller badge for their subcategory. Once they had the best seller badge, they rode an additional wave of sales throughout the rest of the day.
From a pricing and content perspective, our Listing Analyzer tool can help provide insights via an automated SWOT analysis comparing your product to your closest competitors, helping you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so you’re never caught off-guard and can always outmaneuver your rivals in the market. Be aware of competitors undercutting you to boost Black Friday sales or running Cyber Monday promotions, so you can maintain an advantageous selling offer within your market.
4. Optimize Product Listings for SEO and Engagement
Just like how you might clean your house before hosting guests, one of the best things a seller can do before the holidays is to clean up their listing before the throngs of shoppers arrive during the holiday sales rush.
Updating your product listing for SEO purposes can do wonders for your visibility and getting your product in front of shoppers intending to purchase. With millions of products in the Amazon marketplace competing for clicks, optimizing your product listing is the easiest way to achieve visibility, the foundation to earn purchases. It’s also vital for driving conversions as customers scan or read the copy, hoping to confirm the product has the features and benefits before purchasing.
Incorporate high-quality visuals
- Use professional-grade photography that shows your product from multiple angles.
- Include lifestyle shots demonstrating the product in use.
- Ensure images meet Amazon’s technical requirements and style guidelines.
- Add infographics or size charts when applicable.
Integrate keywords for SEO
- Utilize Listing Builder when crafting a listing for real-time feedback on keyword utilization.
- Include primary keywords in the title and bullet points without keyword spamming.
- Prioritize the title, bullet points, backend search terms, and product description.
- Use backend search terms effectively without keyword stuffing.
Write with intent
- Start with the most compelling benefits.
- Explain clearly how the product solves specific problems.
- Focus on benefits, not features.
- Include specific measurements and specifications.
- Address key customer questions to reduce returns.
Leverage A+ Content (EBC)
- Create comparison charts highlighting your product’s strengths.
- Add brand story elements to build trust.
- Incorporate video content when possible.
Pro Tip: To maximize your product’s visibility and appeal, update your listings with new keywords garnering search volume and include information based on customer feedback to keep them fresh and relevant. Check out our Amazon Keyword Guide for more.
5. Optimize Your Amazon PPC Strategy for Maximum Sales
During the holiday rush, you can get your product in front of more eyes than ever as people flock to Amazon to cross off their shopping lists. One of the best ways to ensure your products get this visibility is through PPC advertising, where your products can enjoy prime digital real estate for search terms and competing or complementary products.
Below, we’ve included a few actionable Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign tips to advertise during the peak season like a pro:
- Set up High-Converting Campaigns
- Use advertising tools like Kinetic for data-driven keyword choices to turbocharge your advertising campaigns.
- Build campaigns around top-performing keywords and competitors with low or poor reviews.
- Monitor and Adjust in Real-Time
- Watch KPIs, such as ACOS, and adjust keywords during peak periods. shopping times and adjust accordingly.
- Build campaigns around these top-performing keywords, expanding profitable campaigns and shutting down low-performing ones.
- Test Ad Variations
- Conduct A/B testing on product images and copy to find the best-converting combinations.
- Analyze ROI to adjust and refine campaigns to reduce wasteful and inefficient ad spend.
- Leverage Dynamic Bidding and Sponsored Ads
- Utilize both to broaden reach and capture more traffic.
- Try Sponsored Brand campaigns to enhance brand vis and send traffic to your listings.
- Track and Analyze Performance Metrics
- Measure KPIs like ACOS and ROAS to evaluate success.
- Monitor daily and weekly performance trends.
- Analyze competitor performance metrics.
- Use gathered insights to refine future campaign strategies.
6. Mobile Optimization
With more than half of Amazon purchases now happening on mobile devices, ensuring your listings are mobile-friendly is crucial. Test your listings on various devices to ensure images load quickly and text is easily readable on smaller screens.
Pay special attention to how your A+ content displays on mobile devices, as complex layouts can sometimes break down on smaller screens. Focus on creating clear, scannable content that works well across all devices.
- Mobile-Responsive Listings: Ensure that your product listings are mobile-responsive. Mobile users should have a seamless and visually appealing experience when viewing products. Test listings on various devices to identify any issues related to formatting, images, and text, so that you can resolve them.
- Fast Loading Times: Mobile users have less patience for slow-loading pages. Speed up your site’s loading times by optimizing images, reducing unnecessary scripts, and employing caching techniques. This will all diminish bounce rates.
- Simplified Mobile Checkout: Implement one-click purchasing options and straightforward payment methods. The fewer steps and data entry touchpoints required for mobile transactions, the more likely users are to complete their purchases.
7. Leverage Social Media and Email Campaigns
The power of email campaigns and social media should never be underestimated. Craft truly compelling subject lines for emails to achieve higher open rates. Segment your email list to offer tailored offers. Utilize retargeting ads on social media to “win back” customers who abandoned their carts.
- Compelling Email Subject Lines: Craft email subject lines that evoke a sense of FOMO. Use intriguing phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Exclusive Black Friday Deals” to encourage higher open and click-through rates.
- Segmented Email Lists: Segment your email list for customized offers to different groups. Consider creating segments based on past purchase behavior, customer preferences, or demographics. Tailored ads based on effective segmentation have proven to boost conversion rates.
- Retargeting Ads on Social Media: Implement retargeting ads on social media platforms to re-engage users who abandoned their shopping carts. Use dynamic ads that display the products users viewed but didn’t purchase. These reminders can bring hesitant buyers back to complete the transactions.
8. Prepare Customer Service
Customer service is always critical, but it takes on heightened importance during the frenzied rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you’re enrolled in the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, Amazon’s customer care professionals take this responsibility off your plate, allowing you to focus on the other elements of your operation. However, if you are selling the Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) route, be sure to carve out room for customer service excellence in your Black Friday and Cyber Monday planning.
Consider developing response templates to streamline answers to frequently asked questions. While these templates provide a structured approach, they can be customized when necessary, saving time and maintaining a professional tone in all customer interactions.
Quick response times are also crucial; timely replies reflect your team’s commitment to customer satisfaction and can help mitigate the risk of cart abandonment caused by unanswered questions. A well-trained and responsive customer service team can be a pivotal asset during these high-pressure shopping events.
Although the goal of the holiday season is obviously to sell as many products as possible and maximize profits, remember that it’s a long-term game. A slew of negative reviews about the product or customer service can spell disaster for an Amazon business and can often mitigate the gains of smart and successful holiday season marketing tactics.
9. Post-Sale Success: Turn Insights Into Growth Opportunities
After Black Friday and Cyber Monday end, the work isn’t over. This is the perfect time to review and analyze the data from your campaigns and sales. Take a deep dive into performance metrics, including sales trends, peak shopping hours, and ad effectiveness. These insights can reveal valuable patterns that will inform your strategy for future shopping events.
Staying engaged with customers post-sale can build loyalty and credibility. Follow up with a thank-you email, survey, or review request, which not only encourages positive feedback but also serves as social proof for potential buyers. Additionally, be prepared for post-sale queries and possible returns. A clear, hassle-free return policy, communicated upfront, leaves customers with a positive impression—even after the sale.
Pro Tip: Using Viral Launch’s tools for in-depth data analysis and inventory management can help refine your approach for long-term growth and ensure you’re even better prepared for next year’s peak season.
Final Thoughts: Preparing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Beyond
Success during BFCM requires careful planning and attention to detail. By following this comprehensive preparation strategy packed with Black Friday and Cyber Monday tips, you’ll be well-positioned to capitalize on the increased traffic these shopping events present.
Pro Tip: Learning how to prepare for Black Friday starts with the right tools. Visit our Solutions page to discover how our comprehensive suite can help you maximize your success during BFCM.
Remember, preparation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday isn’t just about increasing profits for a few key dates; it’s about building a foundation for long-term success on Amazon. When integrating these strategies for your seasonal sales optimization, you can achieve a holiday season to remember and also use it to slingshot your business to success well after the holiday blitz has ended.
Start implementing these Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales strategies today, and you’ll be ready to make the most of the biggest shopping events of the year, enjoy a heavy influx of sales during the busiest season, and ride that wave of sales into long-term success for 2025 and beyond.
