1. What are seasonal products?
Seasonal products refer to commodities with obvious seasonal characteristics in sales. For example, small fans and short sleeves in summer, electric heaters and down jackets in winter. Generally speaking, the sales cycle of seasonal products is relatively short, ranging from half a year to two or three months. For sellers, seasonal products are a "love-hate" existence. If the products are selected and promoted properly, the store can obtain higher traffic and sales in a short time. If the products are selected incorrectly or the goods are not sold in time, the seller will face the problem of inventory backlog.
Seasonal products are divided into many types, such as regular, festive, and regional. Different products will have some differences in promotion and stocking, but the general principles and directions are basically the same.
2. Can seasonal products be made?
After comprehensive analysis, seasonal products can still be made. Stocking is a difficult point, so many people will ignore such products. Doing things with barriers and doing things that others cannot do will have higher profits. Generally, sellers will choose to sell non-seasonal products because they can maintain long-term and stable sales. The sellers of seasonal products are old sellers who are familiar with Amazon and have certain experience. So as a newbie seller entering Amazon, don't try it easily
3. Seasonal product stocking guide
How to do seasonal products on Amazon? Today we will talk about seasonal products.
For an Amazon seller, if you want to do a good job of Amazon seasonal products, then when operating an Amazon store, you need to do overall control, stocking and product unsalability.
3.1 When should seasonal products start to be stocked?
Maybe it takes three to seven or eight months in advance. For products purchased from overseas, communicate with the manufacturer to find out how much can be produced in a month and whether it can be stored for a long time, and then work backwards according to the peak season. For example, if Chinese products are shipped to the United States, if the peak season is December, they will be put on the shelves one month in advance, with a demand of 3,000 pieces, and 40 days for shipping time. The products will be shipped to the Amazon warehouse in mid-September. The factory has a monthly production capacity of 500 pieces, and production will be arranged in March. Be careful not to ship too early. If you arrive at the Amazon warehouse too early, Amazon's high storage fees will be wasted.
3.2 How to stock seasonal products?
Check the sales data of previous years and evaluate the sales volume during the peak season. In order to avoid inventory, four insurances can be taken.
- The first is that if the sales volume is 6,000 during the season, only 3,000 can be sent. Don't be greedy and don't seek to take all the profits. In the second year, you can send more with experience, such as 4,000.
- The second is to ship in batches through multiple channels. If a logistics company delays or loses items, it will delay the product from being put on the shelves, which will undoubtedly increase the risk. You can ship in batches through two or three logistics companies. The same is true for shipping in batches. In case there is a problem with one batch, shipping in batches reduces the risk. This is also the importance of screening logistics companies at ordinary times. More logistics companies with good timeliness and good reputation should be sent.
- The third insurance is that if the seasonal time period is long and the stock is out of stock in the middle, you can issue a red order to replenish the stock. If the time is too short, don't replenish the stock. The logistics timeliness is slow and the product is slow to be put on the shelves during the peak season. It is easy to be out of season if it is sent.
- The fourth insurance is to put the product on the shelves one month in advance. Although seasonal products have a lot of natural traffic, if they can be put on the shelves one month in advance, open Vine, have several reviews, and accumulate a certain weight, the sales will be better than pure new products. In addition, if they are put on the shelves one month in advance, enough time will be reserved. If they are shipped on time, there is a possibility of delay in putting them on the shelves.
4. How to operate seasonal products?
When it comes to how to quickly promote seasonal products, the first thing is actually the advertising of the products. The most important thing is to master the seasonal attributes of the products. It is necessary to clearly understand when the peak season and off-season of this product are, and when is the transition period between them. It is necessary to accurately divide the product into different periods, and then make different advertising strategies for each period. For example, for Christmas seasonal products, the search volume of Christmas products has been high in the two weeks before Christmas, and it can last until one week after Christmas, so it is necessary to keep the degree of holding during this period.
4.1 Operation strategy before the peak season
The traffic of seasonal products is generally only 2-3 months, so the number of stocks is very important. We need to estimate the sales volume within these 2-3 months, and then determine the number of stocks.
Secondly, analyze the advertising methods of Amazon seasonal products. To optimize the advertising of seasonal products, it is necessary to accurately grasp its seasonal characteristics, when is the peak season, when is the off-season, and when is the preparation period. Then, different advertising strategies are implemented in stages. If sellers are still using old listings, they will start advertising for online promotion one month before the peak season. According to the advertising data of the previous year, if there is a word that performs well, you can now search for that word to view your own advertising position and natural position. If the word performs well now, you can advertise manually.
Successfully put the product on the shelf one month before the peak season, the product is put into storage for sale, automatic advertising, low budget, and the product must have 1-10 comments. Increase the budget after there are comments to ensure that there is traffic throughout the day. If there are old listings from last year that perform well, you can merge the listings and increase the number of comments.
4.2 Operational strategy during the peak season
During the peak season, we have accumulated a certain amount of reviews and exposure traffic at this time. At this time, we can adjust our bids and adjust the advertising position of our products. Try to make the product on the first page of search results, or the top of the first three pages, so as to increase the exposure of the product.
At this time, you can go all out and force traffic in all aspects. However, the peak season traffic at this time will cause your budget to be used up quickly, so we must use the budget on the cutting edge, increase the budget for keywords and advertising activities with good performance in advance, and reduce the budget for keywords with poor performance.
4.3 Operation strategy after the peak season
After the peak season, the operation is also based on the store situation (generally divided into three situations: inventory, no inventory, and clear inventory).
- If there is no inventory, decisively shut down the advertisement. After the peak season, advertising is useless, which will only increase advertising costs and sales. Don't be reluctant to give up advertising data, and decisively shut down the advertisement.
- If there is still a small amount of inventory, you can control the budget appropriately. If there is still inventory, the advertising budget and bid should be reduced to exchange the lowest advertising expenditure for the maximum sales amount.
- If there is still a large amount of inventory, clear the inventory in time. When the advertisement cannot generate orders, the remaining inventory will be backlogged. At this time, it is necessary to clear the inventory through various channels such as off-site. Don't wait until the next peak season for this batch of old goods. You must know how to discard them.
5. Things to note when operating seasonal products on Amazon
- Pay attention to restocking
Selling seasonal products on Amazon requires you to be vigilant at all times. If people buy a particular product in a particular season, then that season is the peak season for that product. Therefore, you need to restock more frequently than usual. You want to make sure that your product is never out of stock, so you need to restock accordingly. If you are worried that the peak season is over and you still have excess inventory, you can sell the remaining products at a lower price or return the inventory in the Amazon warehouse and keep it for sale next year.
- Expand the range of product sales rankings when selecting products
Before you purchase, it is recommended that you pay attention to the historical sales ranking of the product. When the peak season arrives, you should still buy products with higher sales rankings. During the peak season, most seasonal products on Amazon are sold out, so customers will start looking for relatively less popular products. However, each category is handled differently, so you need to handle it accordingly.
- Watch out for multiple sales peaks for the same product
If you find multiple sales peaks for the same product in your listing, you may need to check the prices of these products. It's good to have a product with multiple sales peaks, but it may also mean that you've priced the product too low. In this way, even if your product sells the most, your sales profit may not be high.
- Start selling before the peak season
Most sellers who have successfully sold seasonal products on Amazon know this: starting sales before the peak season not only allows you to make profits first, but also generates more profits due to seasonality. On the other hand, promoting your products before the peak season may make it easier for certain product PPC campaigns to bid for keywords. In addition, selling before the peak season can make you develop a habit of ordering inventory in advance.
- Sell different products according to the characteristics of different seasons
No one says that you must sell products only in a specific season. If you are selling seasonal products on Amazon, you should choose different products according to the characteristics of different seasons. It is possible to sell different types of products according to the season. Doing so will not only simplify logistics, but also keep inventory consistent with sales.
- What to do if you become inventory?
There are many unknown risks in such a long period of stocking. If the goods are in China, consider whether they can be sold to peers or returned to the factory, even at a reduced price. If they have already been shipped and cannot be put on the shelves, see if they can be returned to the overseas warehouse and sold next year. If they have already been put on the shelves, consider bundling them with existing products. At this time, the importance of multi-platform operations is highlighted. The products are also in the peak season on other platforms. If orders are placed, use Amazon's multi-channel distribution, or cooperate with Internet celebrities and bloggers to clear the inventory, and take advantage of Amazon's activities, coupons, prime and outlets.
