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A Complete Guide to Amazon Marketplace Marketing for the BFCM and Holiday Season

04th Oct 2024
8 mins

BFCM and the holiday season are the most busy times for shoppers. Everyone’s in a hurry to shop for the best deals.

However, customers also want to ensure their purchases are delivered in time for the festivities. For that reason, many consumers choose to buy from Amazon for quick and reliable delivery.

Amazon marketplace can be a lucrative opportunity for eCommerce retailers. But only if they know how to beat competition and leverage the BFCM and holiday rush.

That’s what this guide is all about — Amazon marketplace marketing strategies for BFCM and holiday season.

But why Amazon marketplace?

Most brands tend to focus only on their eCommerce websites during the BFCM and holiday season sales and offers.

But think about it, a lot of consumers also choose to buy from Amazon during this period. The reasons could be many — more options, ease of use, reliability and trust, among others.

To understand why Amazon marketplace could be a game changer for business during this shopping rush time, consider these statistics that emphasize activities around Amazon marketplace during BFCM:

  • 64% of Amazon sellers say “BFCM and the December holiday season are crucial for their profits”

  • Sponsored products saw 45% more sales on BFCM compared to average daily sales in the first half of November 2021

  • Advertisers found that 76% of sales came from new customers or customers who had not shopped for a while

These statistics clearly indicate Amazon is a key platform where shoppers buy from even during the BFCM and holiday season sale time.

So it’s definitely a strategic move for you to consider Amazon marketplace during this time. Now let’s look at how to prepare for it!

How to prepare for Amazon marketplace marketing in 2024?

If you’re an Amazon seller, you’re competing with thousands of brands on the platform. And more so during the BFCM and holiday season.

And so you have to be prepared on every front—from listing the best offers to coming up with marketing strategies for BFCM to ensuring the best product visuals. Here’s your checklist with actionable points.

1. Optimize Amazon Listing

Include keywords in titles and descriptions

Change your SEO strategy for the holiday season by ensuring your product titles and descriptions include holiday-themed keywords. For instance, “gift”, “holiday”, “BFCM discount”, “Black Friday”, and “Cyber Monday”, among others.

Check Product Information Accuracy

People hesitate to buy during BFCM because of stringent return policies. One solution for this is to share accurate and as much information on your products so that shoppers feel more confident to buy without hesitation.

Check product dimensions, color, variants, and availability to prevent customer dissatisfaction.

3. Prioritize Product Visual Appeal

An important aspect of Amazon marketplace marketing is the visuals—92.6% of consumers’ purchase decisions are influenced by visuals.

One way to grab consumers’ attention during the BFCM frenzy is to have high-quality product images. Ensure the images are clear, professional, and appealing, and show the whole product.

2. Holiday promotions and deals

Offer lightning deals

Amazon has a feature called Lightning Deals—a limited number of discounts offered on items for a short period. This helps create urgency and drives traffic.

Moreover, you can use FOMO tactics to increase conversions.

Implement discounts and coupons

The most common but important holiday season eCommerce marketplace strategy is to offer discounts and coupons that stand out.

Offer better deals and discounts than your competitors. Ensure you’re amongst the first to offer those deals. Adjust and optimize discounts and offers based on real-time sales.

Leverage Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday sales

Amazon has Prime Day and Black Friday sales on the platform at the same time. You can take advantage of these days when customers are shopping on Amazon in full swing.

Align your promotional calendar with Amazon’s shopping events to attract maximum shoppers and sales.

3. Product photography

Adapt product photos for BFCM

To make the visuals more relatable to the season, adapt them as per the sale. For example, use festive colors for BFCM and Christmas themes.

To adapt to the themes, you can use AI image tools and make quick changes. Dresma is a preferred photography tool for eCommerce stores that makes it easy and faster to edit and manage your photography campaigns.

Incorporate seasonal elements

A crucial part of BFCM marketing for Shopify stores are the photography themes. Use AI tools to add a festive flavor to your images.

For instance, a festive background, props that resonate with holiday seasons, relevant lighting and colors, and themes based on specific festivals and days. It helps create emotional connections and drives sales.

Tailor images for target audiences

To make your products and offers more appealing, tell shoppers how your products can be used. For instance, your photographs should depict how your products can be used during the holiday season.

Create different depictions for different customer segments.

4. Stock and inventory planning

Inventory management

To avoid overstocking or understocking, use past data and trends to forecast demand for products accurately. Moreover, plan for a longer BFCM and holiday season as consumers tend to continue shopping beyond these days.

Prepare for the anticipated surge in demand based on your offers and discounts. During the sale time, track inventory, monitor stock and ensure streamlined operations to meet high demands.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

Among the many critical aspects of Amazon marketplace marketing during high-sale seasons is how efficiently you’re able to fulfill orders. Make it easy for yourself by considering using FBA to handle logistics.

This program enables you to outsource order fulfillment to Amazon and offer customers free, two-day shipping through Prime. Not only does this ensure reliability but also enhances customer experience.

5. Leverage sponsored ads

Keyword targeting

Online search during the BFCM and holiday season tends to be 10X as consumers look for deals and discounts. Imagine customers searching for specific keywords but your product pages do not show up.

Or they’re searching on your website but are unable to find anything. Hence, focus on holiday-specific keywords in your BFCM campaigns to ensure relevant traffic.

Optimized ad copy

Another crucial element of Amazon marketplace marketing is the copy - how you describe your products, how you highlight your holiday season promotions and how your ads grab customers’ attention can be a gamechanger for your sales.

6. Using sponsored brands and sponsored display ads

Sponsored brand ads

Whether your BFCM and holiday offer involves discounts, exclusive collections, free shipping, or other unique promotions, you can think of ways to promote your brand to capture customer attention.

By using Sponsored Brand Ads, you can make your brand more relatable.

Sponsored display ads

Making Sponsored Display Ads a part of your Amazon marketplace marketing can help you attract traffic from within the Amazon site.

You can use this feature to retarget shoppers who show interest in your products. You can also include personalization to make your offers more relevant.

Best practices for Amazon marketplace marketing

Using the above marketplace strategies for BFCM should be combined with the best practices that will ensure a seamless experience for your brand and your customers.

Use these Black Friday ecommerce marketing tips and best practices:

1. Using Amazon A/B testing for product listings

Test various elements

BFCM product listing optimization is paramount during the BFCM time because you don’t want to miss out on any opportunity.

Hence, test all the elements of your listings, such as, product images, titles, descriptions, payment methods, test links on the page, etc.

Take Data-driven decisions

With AI and data available, it is best to avoid assumptions. Use information and data gathered via A/B testing to enhance your listings.

For instance, you may need to change or tweak keywords, product titles, or add images, and badges, etc.

2. Encouraging holiday-specific reviews

Review requests

A strategy many eCommerce retailers use during the BFCM and holiday sales is to request customers to share reviews of products bought during the sale.

This helps collect data for future promotions. Moreover, it helps build stronger connections with customers for the future.

Incentivize feedback

Collecting customer feedback and incentivizing it with discount codes or free gifts can help you build long-term relationships with customers.

This is especially helpful when you have first-time customers during the BFCM sale. Reviews and feedback are one of the best Amazon marketplace marketing strategies used by merchants.

3. Incorporating user-generated content (UGC)

Showcasing UGC

UGC has 4X higher click-through rates compared to other content. Customers trust recommendations from other customers and authenticity.

And that’s what UCG brings to the table. Some ways to display UGC is to reshare social media posts and unboxing videos of customers, on the product pages during the BFCM and holiday sales.

Engaging customers

UGC also helps boost customer engagement. For instance, you can offer incentives to customers to share their content and experience, thus, enhancing their experience. Watching UGC also helps engage other shoppers.

4. Promote across channels

Incorporate all channels in your holiday season eCommerce marketplace strategies. Your customers are spread across channels and hence, if you want to maximize reach, ensure you mention your Amazon deals across all customer touch points.

For instance, on social media, email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and other communication channels.

5. Tracking key Amazon marketplace marketing metrics

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Your BFCM marketing for Shopify stores plan is not a one-and-done deal. You have to keep adjusting and optimizing it. For that, it’s a must to track and monitor KPIs. Measure factors such as click-through rates, traffic, conversion rates, cart abandonment rate, sales, etc.

Adjust strategies

Based on the findings from measuring KPIs, keep making adjustments for better results. Remember, you have a few days to try everything to get better results. Hence, make use of AI tools for Amazon marketplace marketing, such as Dresma, the all in one eCommerce content creation solution.

Get started with your Amazon marketing marketing for a successful BFCM season

Preparation, planning, starting early, and continuously optimizing are the pillars of ensuring a successful BFCM and holiday season marketing strategy.

We’ve shared the many elements of the strategies above.

To ensure a seamless flow, you will require an efficient tool. Meet Dresma, an all in one eCommerce content creation solution that takes care of content, photography, and much more.

Explore Dresma for your BFCM and holiday season Amazon marketing today!

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