With the stress of the last month of the year at Amazon over, we face the month of January with enthusiasm and a great desire to do well to achieve the proposed goals. This is the philosophy we must have to start the year 2022 on the right foot and with good intentions.
It is true that for many sellers on Amazon the last two months of the year are very stressful because they know that is when they have to put all the meat on the grill as they are their important months of sales and hence, they are key to achieving their goals. This past year 2021 has made it even more stressful, if possible, due to supply problems, logistical problems, the rising cost of raw materials and the arrival of materials just in time or even later than expected for sale.
Now it is time to recapitulate, but be careful, we can´t fall asleep because after the storm there is no calm; we must continue to fight and take advantage of the opportunities that raise up day by day, regardless of the moment we are in.
For all these reasons, January is a key month to get off to a good start on Amazon. Here are some basic recommendations on what we should focus our efforts on this month to achieve our goals.
1.- Prepare your annual strategy in a coherent and objective way, allocating your resources correctly.
If you have not yet defined your Amazon strategy, you must get to work on it. It’s okay if you haven’t had time or you didn’t have everything clear, but you must have it defined and closed during January. If you still don’t have everything tied up and under control, at least define the plan for the next two months, but don’t go aimlessly or you could pay dearly.
If you have doubts about what you should consider, basically work on the following concepts:
– Catalogue: which products are you going to support this year on Amazon, and which are going to be the spearheads. Also, include possible launches and those that, for some reason, you are going to stop selling or must discontinue.
– Sales targets: based on the catalogue you will support, define your sales targets. If you do not know, analyse those achieved in 2021 and work with a moderate % increase.
– Advertising budget: define how much you are going to invest in advertising and once you have the Budget, distribute it monthly according to your product typology, sales seasonality, and learnings from the previous year.
– Amazon Events. It is known this New Year you are going to have Prime Day and Black Friday in addition to the specific events of your vertical and common events such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day … Take it into account when making your promotional strategy and take control of the delivery times in warehouse, production, stock.
2.- January is a month with a possible increase in returns.
As in the offline world, the month of January after the holidays, returns increase. Have you ever wondered what are you going to do with the returned products? If you haven’t thought about it, you’re already running out of time… and if the product is seasonal, you should act immediately. January is a sales period and perhaps you should activate promotions so that the product leaves the warehouses and is not returned.
3.- Your advertising in Amazon should not stop
Indeed, the month of January after the hangover of the holidays is a month in which advertising investments drop considerably compared to the previous two months. Of course, just as the investments go down, so do the CPCs, so don’t stop investing. Whether it is January or any other month, Amazon continues to sell, and the customer continues to search and buy products, so stopping advertising is not a recommendation. Control your budget, your campaigns, continue with the best performing ones and keep gaining traction so that when Valentine’s Day arrives you don’t have to start from scratch.
4.- Analyse well the data provided by Amazon to make good decisions
This month is the time to analyse all the data that Amazon offers you. And we are not only referring to sales, but also to consumer behaviour with your products, promotions results, stock problems and how they may have influenced sales, delivery and picking times that have been handled … that is, everything that makes the wheel turn correctly.
5.- Get ready for Valentine’s Day.
Yes, indeed, you must get ready for Valentine’s Day. Size your stock, review and define your prices (if you are a seller), upload new products in time so that they arrive on time (although you are already a little late as it will be difficult to be Retail Ready for the event), work your detail product pages optimizing them and doing a correct keyword research, adapt your store and define if you are going to take advantage of the increase in traffic that this type of events causes on Amazon, to activate a promotion and include it on time in the platform.
All these guidelines and actions must be developed in an organized, planned, and coherent way. At Amazing, we have been working with our clients on this and without a doubt, we know that this is the way to do things right and start the year off on the right foot. From advertising to everything related to retail catalogue and promotions must be aligned and hand in hand.
Thanks to our specialized team in each area, we make decisions based on data so that we don’t get carried away by prejudices that could lead us down the wrong path. Always focused on our clients’ objectives and activating the necessary levers at the right time to achieve them.
Somos una agencia especializada en ayudar a los vendedores en Amazon en la gestión de marketing y publicidad.
