In the current peak season, many sellers have already begun to fantasize about the wonderful sales growth and huge profits, even though they are not there yet and their hearts are far away. However, the reality is, is your FBA inventory ready for a surge in orders? Therefore, this article will share 7 tips on how to make the most of your FBA products in Q4.
1. Adequate stock
Sellers need to pay close attention to the timely entry of FBA. This year’s cut-off date for FBA Christmas inventory is December 3rd. Right after BFCM (Black Friday and Cyber Monday). In other words, if you sell out of inventory on Cyber Monday, you won’t have time to replenish your FBA inventory before Christmas. Therefore, the real deadline is Black Friday weekend, which is less than a month away.
Most sellers set their peak season sales target at four times the normal inventory for each SKU. But remember, this year you only have 3.5 weeks during the peak season (from Black Friday to Christmas Eve) to sell your FBA inventory.
(Photo: Holiday Schedule)
What toy sellers should pay attention to in the fourth quarter is that if Amazon notifies you that you do not meet the requirements for MFN (self-fulfillment) toys due to a low IPI score, please switch to FBA. To ensure smooth sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, please make sure to ship before November 6th. To avoid having to reactivate your MFN listing on January 3rd, please sell out before Christmas.
2. Bidding budget
Many sellers’ holiday season advertising usually dies down in September, and some sellers do not plan to extend the advertising cycle because many people have spent a lot of money in the early stage and have consumed their advertising budgets too early due to bidding.
Therefore, it is recommended that FBA sellers focus on FBA products with greater potential and reduce ACoS as much as possible. Before you start bidding, optimize your top-performing keywords and extend your advertising cycle until Christmas.
3. Ad Optimization
Smart advertising could double your conversion rate during the holiday season. However, during the holiday season, the search terms that users enter when looking for products on Amazon may be very different than during the weekdays. Therefore, it is recommended that you use a reliable keyword search tool to find long-tail keywords for FBA products to ensure that the results users search for are new and relevant.
4. Promote your discounts
Although sales and "buy one get one free" offers are the norm during peak season, you can still use promotional websites to promote your products. If you plan to promote your deals on Amazon, be aware that Amazon Giveaways (where sellers can set up sweepstakes promotions with their own Amazon products as prizes) have been disabled for the US site, but are still available for the UK site.
You can also feature your products on the Bargain Finds page and Amazon Outlet, a promotional channel that showcases marked-down, clearance, and overstock products to customers. However, your eligibility to participate in Lightning Deals and Deal of the Day may be affected. It is recommended that you do not waste money on promoting products that are also available on Amazon Warehouse Deals (official second-hand market), Renewed program (second-hand/refurbished) and Woot (group buying).
5. Use software tools
You can try using the Amazon Seller App to track your shipments, sales, and balances, as well as manage your sponsored product ads. It also sends you low-stock alerts to filter out products that are likely to sell out, so you have time to restock before December 3 (the deadline for Christmas stock).
If you use the Amazon Seller app with Sellery, the repricing tool, you can also go directly to Sellery to make real-time price adjustments when you receive price alerts on the app.
6. Be prepared for package theft and loss
Not only is the return rate relatively high during the peak season, but so are the non-delivery complaints. Even if your product uses a tracking service it can still be easily stolen. To minimise risk, consider sizing your package to fit a delivery locker or letterbox. However, before you throw away your excess packaging, it is recommended that you check FBA’s packaging and preparation requirements.
If your FBA products are expensive, review the FBA lost and damaged inventory reimbursement policy or click on the “FBA Customer Return and Refund Request Information” graphic, shown below.
You will be required to pay a refund administration fee of 20% of the product price. However, if a customer damages your product, you will need to dispose of the damaged item. Please note that customers must return items before the end of January.
If your initial IPI assessment result is low, additional charges may apply. To avoid this charge in the first quarter of the year, you need to improve your IPI score by December 23rd. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay to remove the inventory from the fulfillment center.
7. Accelerate the preparation of inventory for the first quarter of the year
The Spring Festival of this year is on January 25th. If your suppliers are from China, your product development, orders and first quarter inventory should be ready 2-3 weeks before the Spring Festival to prevent business interruptions, because the Spring Festival comes too early and the ports face greater pressure.
