It’s early November and you hear a Christmas carol blasting from the speakers in Starbucks. You’ve barely finished carving pumpkins and choosing your Halloween costume and already the lights are going up on Oxford Street. The days are getting shorter, and the weather is getting colder. The Holiday Season has officially begun–are you ready for it? Every year the holiday shopping season seems to start earlier and earlier. These days it all kicks off with Black Friday, the iconic U.S. shopping holiday which recently hopped the pond to much fanfare.
During last year’s Black Friday, UK Consumers spent an estimated £810 million, with Worldpay reporting a 74% spike in online sales from the previous year. Amazon UK alone sold 64 items every second. So how can you put your business in the best position to capitalize on this growing trend?
Spend time selecting your best-selling products before planning your inventory, asking yourself what might generate a high demand. Forecast your sales based on prior year volumes, thinking about whether your overall sales have grown since then. You can also use handy tools like Volo Commerce to help you manage your inventory, pricing and shipping (but you probably already knew that if you’re reading this!).
Amazon’s “Super Sales” can tempt Amazon sellers to cut prices and compromise their profit. Selling at a loss makes little sense for Amazon Sellers who are unlikely to be able to promote their brand in the process – most customers don’t take much note of exactly which Amazon store they’re buying from.
So how can you still benefit from the extra traffic around Black Friday? Cut prices in the days preceding and succeeding Black Friday. Reduce your profit margins to maximize sales but make sure they remain positive. This way you can profit from the super sale hype without hurting your business.
On Prime Day (Amazon’s summer version of Black Friday), European Market Sellers experienced a 53% spike in year-on-year sales – a considerable increase.
But this was dwarfed by the 300% increase that sellers using the FBA service experienced. Joining the FBA has other year-long benefits – in fact, 71% of Market Sellers increased their sales by at least 20% after joining the program.
4. Make sure you’ve got adequate finance in place
Once you figure out your sales strategy, plan your cashflow around it. It’s important for you to forecast your cashflow as well as your profit and loss to determine whether you have enough working capital to pay for inventory.
If you find that your cashflow is likely to be stretched, don’t hesitate to contact us at iwoca. We offer small business credit facilities to Amazon Sellers and small businesses.
Use these tips to maximise your sales early so you can make the most of the festivities. We wish you the best of luck for this year’s holiday season!
