Four ways retailers should prepare for peak selling days

From Prime Day to Black Friday, Singles’ Day to Cyber Monday, the ecommerce calendar has become jam-packed with peak selling days in recent years.

“The ecommerce calendar has transformed with peak shopping days in recent years, so it’s important for retailers to be agile”

Mike Shapaker, ChannelAdvisor

Where the weeks in early December leading up to Christmas were traditionally the peak days on which retailers focused in the past, the calendar is now awash with dates for retailers to embrace.

To help you prepare to navigate upcoming peak selling days with ease, we’ve compiled four essential tips for retailers.

1. Learn from last year

It’s often best to start your prep for upcoming days by looking back to previous peak seasons. Not only can you identify buying patterns and top sellers to help with inventory management, you can also identify trends to shape your future plans.

For example, our 2015 highlighted that mobile traffic accounted for over 60% of all traffic during the Cyber Five weekend and 40% of all orders — a significant jump from a year ago. Allow this to shape your 2016 plans – ensure your listings are mobile optimised and consider advertising like Instagram Dynamic Ads to boost your presence.

2. Be early

Look at your inventory now to determine the best products for promotion. There will be a lot of traffic online that day. What will catch a shopper’s eye? What products (or margins) do you have that others don’t?

3. Deliver on your promise

Don’t underestimate the value consumers place on delivery. If you guarantee delivery dates or final cut-off shopping days, be sure to live up to them. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) can be a great way of easing the complexity of delivery, especially during peak season.

With Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), you store your products in Amazon’s fulfilment centres, who then pick, pack, ship and provide customer service for these products. The added bonus – FBA also gives you access to Prime consumers, which can be crucial on days like Prime Day or Black Friday.

4. Stand out from the crowd

Don’t be afraid to experiment with advertising to help you increase visibility. Programmes like Amazon Sponsored Products are a good way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. If you’re already using Sponsored Products, perhaps it’s time to bid up on your keywords.

Create special campaigns just for peak days, use manual keyword targeting and get aggressive about the types of keywords you use and the amounts you bid.

“Create special campaigns just for peak days and get aggressive about the types of keywords you use”

Mike Shapaker, ChannelAdvisor

The ecommerce calendar has been transformed with peak shopping days in recent years, so it’s important for retailers to be agile, prepare in advance and keep looking out for the next new shopping event. Good luck.

To find out more about the major discount days around the world and what retailers can learn from them, download Retail Week’s new white paper, produced in association with ChannelAdvisor, free of charge here.