Don’t underestimate how many sales You’ll make!
“You pretty much could sell dog poop in Q4”
- Look at the BSR’s of the top Sellers in Your Niche/of Product for last year Q4 (OCt. 1ST- Jan. 1ST) to estimate sales. (I use Jungle Scout’s Free sales estimator)
- BSR’s in Q4 are different from normal (lots more products & sellers) and are usually not correct…
For example: in January after Q4, BSR’s can take over 1 month to catch up.
- BSR during Q4 is different from the rest of the year. For example: A BSR in Home & Kitchen of 50,000 during Q4 could be really good= 1,000 units per month. But that same BSR of 50,000 in Home & Kitchen the rest of the year could mean only an average of 200 units per month.
- Always order at least 20%-30% more than you think You’ll need.
- You will run out of stock!
2) Use Your Cash Back Rewards Credit Card for ALL Purchases – Or a Point/Miles Rewards Card3) Try Bundling products together – if a product doesn’t sell as well as You hoped for in Q4, bundle 2 or 3 popular/high sales products together. A top “most recent trendy” hot Toys & Games product may not sell as well alone but can be bundled together with another popular toy of the Season to increase sales. Same for other products like Home & Kitchen products.
- ***Toys & Games is restricted or Gated for new Sellers and new product listings from Oct. 1 – Jan. 1. Too many counterfeit Toys & Games sold in Q4.
- If You want to sell in Toys & Games You’ll have to launch (start selling and launch) before Q4.
- Have Supplier or Freight Forwarder Bundle products together in 1 box w/FNSKU and ship to Amazon. *Products need to be fully put together and packaged as the bundle or set/kit before they leave Supplier.
- Additional option: Have both products sent to Your House first and then package them together yourself. >Label, create shipping plan and Ship into Amazon yourself using “partnered carrier program”.
- Need to add on a “bonus item” or another piece to a product already at Amazon?
- Products already at Amazon, create a removal order (Free right now) ship them to Your House or a Freight Forwarder or 3PL to be re-packaged, labeled w/ new 1 FNSKU, then shipped back to Amazon. Removal order to 3PL or House best option IMO.
- You can keep extra units at Your House until needed at Amazon. Or to sell via FBM on the side (FBM). OR use a 3PL like Deliverr or ShipBob. Both are very affordable.
4) Expect Longer Shipping Times and Longer Inbound Check-In Times, plus other delays.
- **Products You want available by November 1ST, Ship By Sept. 1ST.**
5) Pricing Strategy
- Don’t drop your prices just to sell more units.
- If Your products are not selling as well even by the first week of December, Just wait. New Sellers and Old Sellers will drop their prices and quickly run out of stock before Christmas. Giving You an advantage!
- Go through Q4 with a strong pricing strategy! Stick to Your plan and only adjust for deals and promotions!
6) Make a spreadsheet to track all products that you’ll be selling ahead of Q4.
- Spreadsheets should include total units ordered, arrive at Amazon by date, reserved or transferring unit amounts/ dates, and the “available” inventory. And of course sales done weekly/ monthly.
- Keep a list of all the units You’ve ordered, how many you’ve sold (both organically and through PPC) and how many are available for each SKU/ASIN.
- Amazon Inventory reports may be wrong, or delayed by a week or more. Same with return reports.
7) If You are doing FBM (merchant fulfillment) or some Retail/Online Arbitrage, make friends with Your local post office, UPS store, Pick-up Drivers, or FedEx drivers/ employees. These are critical people to your success and should be treated as gold, like your own employees.I recently made a video covering Q4, preparing for it, should You launch a new product in Q4? And how to estimate sales/ inventory needed. I’ll be making a new video covering Q4 in detail and each one of these steps above soon!
Thank you for reading! GO CRUSH Q4!
