With 2022 just around the corner and online shopping on the upswing, sellers on Amazon must prepare themselves for the upcoming year. While the pandemic may have given your online business a slight push, rigorous planning for the next year can ensure that you win big on Amazon in 2022. As per Statista, it has been projected that Amazon’s market share in the US will account for 50 percent of the entire eCommerce retail market’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) by next year. In order to capitalize on this enormous opportunity, sellers must deploy a range of strategies to engage and convert shoppers.
In this blog, we will be highlighting various aspects Amazon sellers must be prepared with to achieve higher sales in the year ahead.
1) Plan inventory well in advance:
Observing noticeable sales patterns in the last two years will help in understanding how slowly or quickly the product inventory depletes. Using these observations, plan the inventory for next year in a more streamlined and efficient manner. It is also crucial to keep Amazon events like ‘Back to School’, ‘Great Indian Festival’, and big sale days such as ‘Prime Day’ in mind when making the inventory plan. This will make the business season-ready, especially for the first six months of the year. As Amazon increases the number of fulfillment centers, sellers should take advantage of this expansion by planning, forecasting, and shipping their inventory ahead of time. Along with this, it is also imperative to have a good inventory management system in place. Planning basic and buffer inventory, using a promotion calendar to prepare for sale surges, and streamlining shipment dates as well as frequency can help in maintaining a smooth-running inventory system. Further, given the huge logistics issues that have popped up in the last few months, proper inventory planning has gained immense importance.
2) Create well-planned advertising campaigns, deals, and promotions:
Increasing the daily sales average through consistent efforts over a longer period of time is key to building a sustainable business on Amazon. One way to make this happen is by carefully planning your entire operations and weaving ads, deals, and promotions well into them. These deals need to be planned sufficiently in advance as their success depends on many crucial aspects like – inventory, pricing, selection of ASINs, etc. We have seen several cases where deals work even better with well-structured ad campaigns, thus benefiting our clients in terms of better organic ranking. Having a progressively improving organic ranking is imperative to sustainably grow your products on Amazon.
3) Build newer champions from mid-performers:
Whether it requires optimizing the current product listing for mobile-friendliness or upgrading the product based on customer feedback, working on existing mid-performing products is always a good step forward. Videos in listings also help enhance product understanding and thereby improve conversions. Investing in mid-performing products would provide consumers with more options to choose from and increase the overall count of top-performing products. After all, the higher the number of top-performing products, the higher the chances a business will continue to grow at a faster pace.
4) Capitalize on rising demand:
One thing every business learnt from the past year is exploiting recent trends and high demand products. For example, one of our clients is in the business of essential oils and diffusers. Their vigilance helped them in maximizing on the demand for improved indoor air quality with their diffuser and air-purifying products leading to sales going up by 45%. Taking this learning forward in 2022, businesses must keep an eye out for products that may not have been in demand earlier but may now be observing an upward trend in the marketplace.
5) Explore the latest advancements:
The shift in shopping habits has propelled many consumers to opt for Amazon as it is a more convenient and safe alternative to in-store shopping. As a result, Amazon is constantly growing and adding new features to its marketplace. Recently, they ventured into the luxury segment with their new proposition of ‘Luxury Stores’. Amazon has also made some new additions to its advertising platform, namely Amazon Attribution, Amazon Live, and Sponsored Display Ads. Focusing on these advances in the marketplace will allow businesses to set foot in unventured territories and target a different segment of consumers.
6) Expand to the right geography:
Amazon encourages businesses to sell in other geographies such as Canada, UK, Germany, Singapore, UAE, etc. by offering several benefits and added features. One such feature is ‘Build International Listings’ which allows sellers to port their entire product listing and reviews from established markets to new geographies. This minimizes the risks of a new launch and lets you expand to another geography with ease. In order to take advantage of these benefits, it is extremely important to first identify the right geographic region for your business. A few factors to consider while taking this step are – picking the right products to sell in that market, figuring out the inventory processing, and outsourcing crucial services such as vernacular content to specialists who privy to the shopping habits. Lastly, logistics and other fundamental aspects need to be thoroughly organized to succeed in this new expansion. Amazon is seeing large growth in these countries with far lesser competition on the platform than the US and this can be an opportunity for you.
7) Reap the benefits of Amazon’s Brand Registry, Launchpad program:
Amazon has a host of programs to give new sellers an added push in the initial days. One such program is the Launchpad program which provides empanelled brands with additional benefits like advertising, promotional positioning, review benefits, etc. Registering the business on Amazon’s Brand Registry also has a huge set of perks, making it a necessity for all sellers. One of the primary benefits is protecting trademark products from counterfeiters and listing ‘hijackers’ who end up stealing a large share of the market. Another perk of getting brand-registered is the ability to create A+ content descriptions with unique templates, images, and videos. This helps increase brand awareness, product understanding, and overall conversions. It is also suspected that Amazon will be adding more targeting options on its advertising platform for brand registered sellers. In order to reap these benefits and level up their business a notch, sellers must get their brand registered on Amazon’s Brand Registry and opt for programs like Launchpad, if they haven’t already.
As Amazon continues to grow at a remarkable rate, it is imperative that sellers plan and prepare for various possibilities coming their way. From tapping into new opportunities to expanding their existing portfolio and reach, sellers can experience tremendous success on Amazon by actively focusing on the aforementioned tips.
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