Amazon’s Black Friday, the year’s biggest shopping event, is now behind us. Traditionally, when partnered with its cousin Cyber Monday, it makes up Cyber Week. But this year saw many retailers launch discounts and deals much earlier in order to take full advantage of the opportunities created by lockdown 2.0.
This extended timeframe gives sellers more chances to engage with their audience and drive sales. But there’s a downside too. When deals aren’t restricted to a single day or weekend, the lines between that event and the ‘true’ Christmas retail period blur. Shoppers may not be as inclined to make snap or impulse purchase decisions because they know that more offers will be available in the coming weeks.
As the company responsible for bringing Black Friday to the UK, it’s probably little surprise that Amazon is the one leading the charge by offering the biggest range of deals across the largest number of categories. It also offers the biggest search opportunity for brands. With a 20% bigger ecommerce market share than its nearest competitor (Ebay); 54% of all product search is now on Amazon compared with just 46% on Google.1
Searches translate into sales, with an average Amazon shopper spending a massive £400 between now and Christmas. Shoppers aged between 35 and 44 spend the most, an incredible £447, which is above the average.
Focusing on increasing sales on Amazon is becoming more and more of a priority for brands where Amazon is (or will be) a major arm of their ecommerce channel strategy, and with very good reason. Amazon is now the fifth biggest retailer in the UK. Last year, £4 in every £100 spent was on the Amazon platform. 2 Between April and August this year, the number of people shopping on Amazon had increased by 10% driven by the impact of lockdown restrictions. 3
So, if you’re a brand already advertising on Amazon but looking at how to increase sales on Amazon, getting your strategy right is critically important. You should be asking yourself two important questions. In the short term, how can you leverage data from sales from Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday events to boost sales over the holiday season? And then looking at the longer term, how does that data impact your 2021 ecommerce strategy?
Taking steps now to expand and build your campaigns will help ensure you are ready and raring to go for the next busy period for retail ecommerce. With a second lockdown now upon us, social restrictions in place and long winter nights to look forward to, many commentators unanimously believe that online shopping is about to hit an all-time high, making the next few weeks a critical phase of the year for retail. Be prepared, because competition will be tough as rival brands fight for sales.
One key strategy to help with increasing sales on Amazon over the festive period is to ensure your brand stands out from the crowd. Statistics show that 44% of buyers browse less than two pages of search results, so the need to feature high-up in search results is vital – even more so when you consider that Amazon’s ecommerce market share is projected to be nearly 40% in 2020. 4 In short, you need to raise your game on a platform that has a sizeable chunk of the retail market share. You’ve got to get it right – so no pressure then!
When the stakes are so high, working with an expert can be invaluable; a partner that offers services such as the best Amazon PPC management for example, and who can help you strike the general commercial aims of a seller on Amazon. They should have a deep understanding of how Amazon promotions work and be able to recommend the best products to put forward and suggest deals on shipping. So why not consider working with the best Amazon marketing agency to help augment your success on Amazon?
Melody is a global Amazon agency, an appointed Amazon Solution Provider Network agency and a member of the independent agency group – smp. We generated a combined 28x ROAS across Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 and 18.2x ROAS during Christmas last year. Melody provides many invaluable services including a range of account management options covering essential areas of brand exposure such as sponsored advertising, performance marketing and branded content. Whether you are new to the selling platform on Amazon or a regular who is looking to refine and target your campaign more, we can create bespoke and sophisticated product pages that will really make your brand stand out. Our tried and tested strategic approach ensures we get consistent results as evidenced by our expanding portfolio of well-known clients. We’re a top Amazon ads agency so why not get in touch and give us a try?
This article was written by Chris Cooper, Planning Director at Melody agency.
