Now that we’ve officially reached the 2020 holiday shopping season, it’s time to fully optimize your online listings and generate as much profit as possible.
This year’s surge in online shopping certainly sets up the holiday season as one for the record books, and we want to make sure your organization is ready to reap all the benefits from it.
We’ve compiled a hefty list of selling tips that will definitely help you reach all your Q4 goals, and more—read on to take advantage!
Holiday Season Ecommerce Tips
With proper planning and execution, the number of shoppers that see your products online can be increased exponentially.
1. Diversify and apply through SellerActive
Maximize visibility of your items by featuring them on as many marketplaces as possible. Not selling on eBay or Walmart yet? Short on the time and resources it will take to get onto those marketplaces?
Our new Professional Services program will help you diversify, manage time wisely, and succeed in the e-marketplace application process, with ease. Schedule a free consultation to review your data, see where your listings exist, and where else they should be listed, to increase sales opportunity.
Additionally, don’t miss out on a predicted record Q4 by not getting on Walmart, where there’s no risk, and no fees required. There’s also more exposure and less saturation for Walmart sellers — in December 2019, Walmart saw 27,000 monthly visitors/seller compared to 2,100 monthly visitors/seller on Amazon. And Feedvisor predicts 2020 Q4 e-marketplace sales to grow 32-35%, in comparison to last year’s Q4.
Walmart also has an anticipated post-pandemic growth rate of over 44%, and will be closing its brick and mortar stores on Thanksgiving for the first time in 30 years, paving the way for heavily increased online selling potential.
2. Leverage buffer functionality to prevent overselling of hot items
Utilize the Minimum and Maximum quantity buffers to help you manage your inventory, from afar. These can be life savers when you’re strapped for time this busy season.
Don’t risk the chance of overselling products, or wasting your time worrying about them, by using the Minimum quantity buffer. This buffer ensures we will pull your listing when you’re very low on inventory of a hot item that sells quickly.
The Maximum buffer is also a must-have feature during the holiday season, especially because it can create demand and urgency for your high stock items. Essentially you regulate the number buyers will see for availability of an item — you can trick a buyer into thinking the item is almost sold out, even when it’s not.
Learn more about how to best leverage the Minimum and Maximum inventory buffers here.
3. Utilize repricing capabilities to be more competitive
The repricing aspect of our software helps you maximize your margins via algorithm versus rule, and makes sure you’re not leaving money on the table.
For example, our system’s repricing algorithms will determine when you’ve won the Buy Box, and will continue pricing your products upwards. That way you can keep products priced at the most advantageous level, and avoid pricing them too low.
Velocity pricing is another repricing strategy to consider this time of year because it helps move stale inventory. This tactic reprices those products to align with a specific sales goal, and works best as you start to prepare for 2021 Q1.
4. Kits & Bundles
An excellent way to make your products stand out from the competition is by offering them in kits and/or bundles. Especially if you sell a lot of standalone, single-pack items.
Combining several single-pack items into a kit or bundle helps increase your average order value, which in turn increases gross profit.
More importantly, it allows you to create unique listings not available through your competitors. You can offer several of the same item in a discounted multi-pack, or appeal to holiday shoppers by selling items that augment each other, in a bundle.
This provides a great promotional opportunity, prompting shoppers to buy more from your inventory.
5. Quickly access inventory updates on SellerActive’s main dashboard
One of the most useful features on the dashboard during Q4 is the Low Stock filter, which will help you easily maintain stock of popular products.
Also through the dashboard you can monitor your Top 10 products of the week, and use that data to develop successful sales strategy.
Utilize Best Practices for Holiday Marketplace Success
Applying the previous tips to your holiday ecommerce plan will help maximize your selling potential this season, but don’t forget to consider best practices from previous years, as well.
Check out this great, actionable advice from Deliverr co-founder Michael Krakaris in his article How to Reach Holiday Shoppers this Q4. We’ll also soon be releasing tips shared directly from eBay, Walmart, and Amazon, so keep an eye out for upcoming blogs specific to those marketplaces.
Don’t hesitate to contact SellerActive if you have any further questions, in the meantime!
