As consumers gear up to spend an anticipated $149 billion on holiday goods and gifts, the question on everyone’s mind right now is: Who’s going to win all those sales?
Only time will tell. But as the holiday orders start surging in, we have a resource you can use to stay ahead of your competition throughout the remainder of the season — one that beats even the biggest crystal ball.
We have stories from successful sellers.
Every year, ChannelAdvisor hears from numerous brands and retailers as they discover newer, better ways to land loyalty and sales. By applying the lessons they’ve learned from past peak seasons, you can inch your way even closer to an extraordinarily profitable Q4.
And so, without further ado, here are our top tips from fast-growing sellers.
Advance your advertising on the Big 3
Advertising on the Big 3 — Amazon, Facebook and Google — has never been so cutthroat, or so central to peak season success. These channels are by far the biggest and most crowded advertising platforms in the US, Australia and many other countries around the world. That means if you want to get your products in front of the right people, advanced advertising strategies are a must. And not just on one or two of these channels, but across all three.
Why? Because each ad platform offers its own unique opportunities for reaching countless consumers based on the different ways they want to shop. Maintaining strong campaigns throughout the season on Amazon, Facebook and Google will help ensure you’re getting the right product listings in front of the right shoppers, at just the right times.
For example:
- After creating customised Amazon Advertising campaigns, Ames Walker saw sales soar by more than 10%
- By focusing heavily on Facebook dynamic ads, Pure Formulas watched its average order value (AOV) rise 36%
- When Rocky Brands turned to Google Shopping Actions, the retailer quickly grew from a thousand dollars a month in sales to hundreds of thousands of dollars
All three sellers were looking for new ways to make their products stand out in search, but none of them had time to tackle the associated tasks. So instead, they automated the processes of creating ad structures and optimising content… and made sure those data feeds were designed to meet each channel’s requirements and guidelines for successful campaigns.
PRO TIP: Are you struggling to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS)? Not sure where to focus efforts for the remainder of the 2019 holiday season? Our digital marketing experts are available to provide a complimentary analysis of your ad accounts to identify new opportunities.
Get Aggressive With Your Pricing Strategies
If there’s one thing all successful sellers excel at, it’s product pricing. Being able to drop or increase the price of a listing at just the right moment has been the determining factor for many sales.
It’s also an ideal technique for boosting revenue during the holiday rush. Why? Because successful sellers have shown how dynamic pricing can quickly lead to big revenue jumps.
Consider the case of SIM Supply. After seeing success with algorithmic repricing on Amazon, the retailer decided to apply similar strategies on other marketplaces. Shortly after implementing a new solution to keep prices both competitive and compliant across multiple channels, the retailer’s week-over-week gross merchandise value (GMV) jumped 20%.
SIM Supply isn’t the only one. We’ve seen sellers experience an overall 50% increase in gross profits after turning to dynamic repricing tools. And with velocity repricing, sellers are now starting to have prices automatically adjusted based on different goals – whether that means squeezing more margin from fast-selling holiday gifts or lowering prices when sales start to slow.
Prepare for Postseason Selling
While you continue to make tweaks and adjustments throughout December, it’s also time to strategize for the year ahead. The more extensive your presence across a growing array of e-commerce channels, the better positioned you’ll be to continue winning sales when the holiday shopping frenzy ends.
That’s why we recommend getting ready to launch on more marketplaces today. The most profitable sellers tend to be the ones that don’t delay in getting products loaded and launched on as many marketplaces as possible:
- Scarpetta Shoes grew sales by an astounding 1,000% after expanding to 19 new global marketplaces
- By listing products on 44 marketplaces, Bling Jewelry went from a few million dollars in sales “to several million very quickly”
- After expanding to 24 marketplaces in more than 50 countries, Speedmaster was projecting online growth in the range of 50% to 100%
As buyers get increasingly savvy about comparing prices and exploring shipping options, they frequently consult with an array of e-commerce marketplaces when making buying decisions — both during the holiday season and throughout the year. The more extensive your presence on these channels, the more likely they’ll be to find you.
To Recap: The above successes can be attributed to several highly effective habits of high-performing sellers — ones that will be helpful to any brand or retailer looking for proven ways to increase online sales this season. These habits include:
- Advancing your advertising on Amazon, Facebook and Google
- Using pricing strategies as an easy way to win more sales
- Expanding your marketplace presence to prepare for post-season shopping
These are just a few of the many strategies used by successful peak season sellers, but they’re three of the most important. If you’d like to stay ahead of the latest trends and best practices you can use in Q4 — plus tips and tools that will apply throughout the year — be sure to subscribe to the ChannelAdvisor blog.
Editor’s note: This blog post was previously updated on November 16, 2018. It has been further updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
