Year after year, Halloween has become a growing source of income for sellers on Amazon. But how do you prepare your offers for this special time of year?
First of all, let’s position Halloween strategically in a personal marketplace selling calendar. In some ways, Halloween marks the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year, followed chronologically by Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas.
The fourth quarter is undoubtedly the most festive period of the year. It’s also a golden opportunity for Amazon sellers looking to significantly increase their earnings. For many sellers, fourth-quarter revenues represent the predominant portion of their turnover.
What to Sell on Amazon for Halloween
The opportunities to increase earnings during this time of the year certainly regard a wide range of sellers. At least judging by the product categories that can be favorably impacted by this holiday.
Among the best-selling products for Halloween, you can find:
- Decorations: from classic pumpkins to spider webs and skeletons. On Amazon, you can buy virtually anything to decorate your homes, both indoors and outdoors;
- Lights: pumpkin-shaped LED lights are very trendy on Halloween. Spectral light bulbs in all colors, shapes, sizes, and designs also sell well. They are not only ideal for decorating the exterior of homes but can also be used as lighting inside carved pumpkins which are the traditional symbol of the holiday.
- Sweets: most of the sweets sold on Amazon during this period are made of chocolate. But, be sure to not underestimate other goodies like gummy candies;
- Costumes: dressing up for Halloween has become a common practice in many countries. It’s no coincidence that this is the time of year when the sale of costumes with a spooky theme peaks;
- Makeup: closely related to dressing up. Halloween is one of the ideal times people unleash their creativity and dress up as their favorite scary character.
Preparing Your Amazon Store for Halloween
So far, we’ve noted that many different kinds of products can be sold at Halloween. Therefore, the event should not be underestimated by sellers of the various categories. Choosing the right products to sell is only the first step in remaining competitive on the market.
How do you prepare your Amazon store for Halloween? Let us suggest some strategic ideas!
Anticipate Your Activities
Amazon customers can make last-minute purchases. Sellers, however, in order for their online stores to be ready for the occasion, must prepare texts, images, warehouses and promotions well in advance.
Another reason why Amazon sellers should prepare their offers as early as possible, and in any case within September, is that by doing so they can capture early Halloween traffic. In fact, many buyers start stocking up, especially on sweets, as early as August! For this reason, ensuring that you have Halloween-themed products ready in September can provide a competitive advantage.
Furthermore, running PPC campaigns with targeted Halloween-related keywords is generally more cost-effective during this period due to lower competition. And even if the search frequency is lower, the campaigns will still make a significant contribution in terms of sales.
In turn, the increase in ad conversions will reflect on rankings, thus generating organic traffic. In short, if all goes well, by the time October arrives, your listings will have already achieved a lower BSR (Best Sellers Rank), which will boost sales.
Conducting In-Depth Product Research
Selling the right product is the most important decision that Amazon sellers can make. Naturally, it should be something that customers want to buy and should be of high quality so as to generate positive reviews or, at least, avoid negative reviews.
There are several reliable methods to ensure that you choose the best item that suits your budget and preferences:
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- Check the list of Amazon’s best-selling products using “Halloween” as a search term or something more specific if you already have the product to sell in mind;
- Visit the product pages of the top 5 listings and check the section where Amazon indicates what else the same customers have purchased to get an idea of buyer preferences;
- Use Amazon’s Trend Report to determine the demand for Halloween products in the last 12 months;
- Use Google Trends to find popular products in real-time, filtering by location, if necessary;
- Utilize third-party applications for finding profitable products on Amazon.
Choose Your Niche
Choosing your niche is a fundamental step. It will serve as the basis for selecting the category and subcategory of your Amazon listing. The tone of the text and the design of the images will also depend on the profile of the target market.
When choosing the niche, you should also take into consideration:
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- Price: calculate your potential profit on the product at various price levels and determine whether you are satisfied with the revenues or not;
- Market Size: Is it better to compete with many sellers in a popular category where buyers are abundant? Or with fewer sellers in a niche category with a smaller customer base? The answer will depend on your strategies;
- Capacity: Ensure that you have enough liquidity to maintain a sufficiently large inventory up to the final minutes of Halloween shopping.
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Stock Up for Halloween
This brings us back to the third point on our previous list. It is essential to manage a larger inventory during this period of expected peak sales. You should also consider the possibility of offering different product sizes.
For example, many Amazon buyers prefer to stock up on candies and other sweets. So, avoid losing a sale simply because your product is not packaged in the ways and quantities preferred by the customers.
Another pitfall to avoid is running out of stock. When this happens, all efforts to boost the ranking of your listings will be in vain. Amazon automatically labels an FBA listing as currently unavailable when stocks are depleted. The result? A drop in sales that could not only harm your ranking but could also consign your product to oblivion.
Discounts and Promotions to Boost Halloween Sales
Granting discounts on Amazon FBA is relatively easy and quick. Furthermore, it is also possible to plan these promotions in advance or create coupons to promote on other online platforms.
With a bit of creativity, you will certainly not run out of solutions. For example, you can include Halloween gift cards in your packages to encourage early purchases. Or, instead of a discount, you can offer a bundle of two or more products at a lower price. Or include free items for a specific minimum number of orders.
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Create Halloween-Themed Content
Even if you don’t have much time to design your Amazon store or product pages with a Halloween theme, sometimes it’s enough to customize your content correctly so as to create a favorable impression among current or potential customers.
For example, sometimes a Halloween-themed packaging appearing in the preview image of your listing in search results and in all other product page images is all that’s needed. Or, you can modify your merchandise title with fun and seasonal keywords, and this might do the TRICK!…. or TREAT !