The Best Holiday Pricing Workflows for Amazon Sellers
by November 1, 2020
This guest post was penned by Iulia Talanga, an Amazon Repricing Expert for SellerEngine, developers of a suite of software products and services designed specifically for Amazon sellers. Check out SellerEngine.com for some of the ways that her energetic team can help your online retail business grow.
Looking to maximize your profits this holiday season? Want to know the best strategies for your Amazon inventory pricing? You’ll need to keep categories, sales ranks, competition and much more in mind when setting your prices.
Know Your Competition
Experienced Amazon sellers know their competition. Whether it’s Amazon itself or another 3rd-party seller, understanding your competition’s strategies is key to repricing, especially over the holidays.
Now is the time to outperform your competitors. When repricing, if you have a good understanding of how your competition operates, a great practice is to exclude the ones that you know would like to start a price war just to take you out of the market as quickly as possible. Don’t worry, once they sell out, you will be next in line for the sales at the correct price for you.
Avoid Overly Aggressive Pricing
There’s no shortage of sales over the holidays, but having an aggressive pricing strategy may not get you the profits that you’re hoping for. You’d be better off using price floors and ceilings, and staying in a general “sweet spot,” rather than following your competitors’ prices and enabling their strategies to dictate yours.
There are cases, though, when it’s all a matter of circumstance. If you’re approved to sell toys over the holidays, for instance, you could take your chances, and raise margins on this part of your inventory.
Don’t Get Caught Up in Price Wars
This is one thing we can’t stress enough. Undercutting your competition over and over again will only lead to getting you out of the market really quickly.
The one exception is when you have time-sensitive items (expiring grocery items, seasonal goods that you don’t want to hold onto) or items that are going to be hit with long-term FBA storage fees. If any of your items fit these criteria, the holiday season is a great time to be aggressive in setting prices and to really push for sales.
Keep Your Metrics Up
Even if you have the best pricing strategies, you’ll need to back them up with excellent order management and customer support. Focus on replying to Amazon and customers quickly. Make sure you do everything in your power to minimize your Order Defect Rate.
Being extra careful with your dispatch timing will also pay off. Not only will speedy dispatches please your customers, but they will also declutter your shipping area and minimize your risks of making costly mistakes. Even if you need to muster up some extra muscle power from your Christmas elves to speed things up, it’s well worth it. If you’re expecting a backlog of shipments, you could also look into other couriers to use temporarily.
With everything else going on this time of year, don’t let your metrics suffer. An account suspension can be a killer at this point. Of course, if it does happen, you can get in touch with the SellerEngine Services team to see if we can help.
How Sellery Helps
Sellery offers year-round assistance. Among its many perks are the fact that it computes a minimum price to keep you out of price wars, it reacts in real time to your competitors’ price changes, and it allows you to elect your competitors at leisure. With unlimited pricing strategies, you can rely on its tried-and-tested solutions to help you win the Buy Box.
Have questions or comments for Iulia? Start the conversation in the comments!
