Amazon St Patricks Day: How Sellers Can Shoot For eCommerce Gold

By Brittany Line

Holidays are a great time for Amazon sellers to boost sales. With March right around the corner, it’s time for you to start thinking about Amazon St Patricks Day sales. By having a focused eCommerce strategy as you head into March, you can maximize St Patricks Day sales and profits.

So, what are the best products to sell? And how will you ensure that your products are the ones making their way into buyers’ carts?

The following tips will help you develop clear, effective Amazon selling strategies to secure St Patricks Day sales.

Stock up on St Patricks Day-themed apparel

While St Patricks Day isn’t typically a gift-giving holiday, that doesn’t mean people aren’t looking to make purchases. Consumers spent an estimated $4.4 billion on St Patricks Day in 2016, making it a prime time to stimulate sales.

Many will head out to bars, while others will attend parties and parades. No matter where people go, everyone who celebrates the holiday needs one thing: accessories.

Amazon sellers should be sure to source popular St Patricks Day accessories such as:

–St Patricks Day scarves

–Green bead necklaces

–St Patricks Day hats

–St Patrick Day socks

On St Patricks Day, the gold is in the GREEN

In addition to sourcing items featuring shamrocks and leprechauns, Amazon sellers should also source items that are, quite simply, green.

To satisfy those people who want to dress up for the holiday without going over the top, be sure to source plain ol’ green shirts, green leggings, green hats, green shoes…pretty much anything green will do. This will add another set of potential high-sellers to your product mix, helping you boost Amazon St Patricks Day sales.

Need more ideas for products to sell?

Check out Amazon’s St Patricks Day homepage for a collection of popular products.

And of course, don’t forget the chocolate!

Chocolate is one of those things that sells year-round, but it’s especially popular during holidays. It’s hard to resist those tasty chocolate coins, so consider adding them to your Amazon St Patricks Day product arsenal. If you’re an FBA seller, you’ll need to follow Amazon’s guidelines for selling date- and temperature-sensitive products.

The full guidelines are pretty extensive, but fear not—we highlighted a few key things to remember below:

Date-sensitive products:

• Products that can expire must have the expiration date printed on the master carton in 36-point font (or larger) AND on the individual/retail display unit

• A product that has an expiration date may be listed with FBA as long as the unit is lot-controlled and the remaining shelf life is greater than 105 days from the time of receipt by Amazon

Time-sensitive products:

• Temperature-sensitive products must be able to withstand at least a minimum temperature of 50 degrees F and at least a maximum temperature of 100 degrees for the duration of the product’s shelf life without adversely affecting product quality

• FBA accepts products that are subject to melting (like chocolates) between October 1 and April 30

Include the word “shamrock” in Amazon St Patricks Day product descriptions

We won’t get too much into the whole shamrock vs. clover debate (all shamrocks are clovers, while not all clovers are shamrocks), but all you need to know is that shamrock is the way to go when writing your Amazon product descriptions.

Most Amazon sellers know that selling great products is only half the battle. If no one is seeing the great products that you’re selling, then you’re not going to make any sales. That’s why it’s so important to have a clear strategy when writing your Amazon product descriptions.  

“Clover” is the name of a crafting brand with numerous Amazon listings, so consumers searching for clover-related items will see crochet sets instead of St Patricks Day items if they just search for “clover.” To make sure your listings have maximum exposure, include “shamrock” and “St Patricks Day” in your Amazon product descriptions.

You should also consider optimizing your product descriptions for SEO, as we do by omitting the period and apostrophe in “St. Patrick’s Day.” While grammar snobs will absolutely scoff at this, there’s compelling evidence that people don’t use apostrophes in search.

Whether including apostrophes negatively affects SEO is still unclear. But, we’d rather err on the side of attracting more potential buyers through organic search than risking lower placement on Amazon’s search engine results pages (SERPs) because of a staunch adherence to grammar.

Know your target demographics

While people of all ages celebrate St Patricks Day, young adults tend to have more enthusiasm than older folks.

In 2016, more than 70 percent of Americans between 18 and 24 years old celebrated St Patricks Day in some capacity. That’s double the number of seniors who celebrated, so keep this in mind when developing your selling strategies.

It’s no secret that millennials like to hit the bars on St Patricks Day. 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds went to a bar or restaurant on St Patricks Day last year, so this is a key demographic to cater your listings to. Cheesy sunglasses, shamrock shot glasses, and alcohol-themed apparel are sure to attract millennial consumers looking to have a good time.

Maximize profits and shoot for the gold

As always, our main goal here is to help you increase sales and shoot for the gold by maximizing profits.

To recap:

• Source plenty of St Patricks Day-themed accessories and apparel

• Don’t underestimate the power of listing lots of green products

• Use shamrock, not clover, in your Amazon product descriptions (and don’t forget to ignore the little voice in your head telling you to include apostrophes in St Patricks Day – sometimes certain grammar rules should be broken for the sake of getting better search rankings)

• Pay close to attention to products that will be must-haves for young adults looking to have a good time, such as shot glasses

Armed with these tips, you can end March feeling satisfied with your Amazon St Patricks Day saleswith a big boost to your bottom line and reach the pot of gold profits at the end of the rainbow. 

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Amazon's 'Record-Setting' Holiday Season: Which Numbers Are Worth Paying Attention To

Like eggnog, mistletoe and Rudolph, lengthy Amazon (AMZN) press releases extolling how popular the e-commerce giant's goods and services were between Thanksgiving and Christmas have become a staple of the holiday season. And in line with the spirit of the season, the announcements mix a fair amount of hype and theatrics with items their intended audience -- Amazon investors, merchants and business partners -- should genuinely be impressed by.

Altogether, Amazon's 2016 holiday press release contains over 100 bullet points sharing "fun facts" about its seasonal performance. Some are clearly fluff meant to inform/remind readers that a particular Amazon service exists, or to drive home the scale of Amazon's operations -- for example, noting that Home Alone and Elf were the holiday movies most frequently requested via the Alexa voice assistant, or that customers "purchased the weight of a grizzly bear in gold."

And others, such as lists of holiday bestsellers for three dozen categories, seem meant to inform merchants about what's in demand and remind everyone about the breadth of Amazon's retail offerings.

But in between all of this, Amazon also includes a number of points highlighting how much Amazon's operations and customer base have grown in recent years. Some of these are more impressive than others.

Here's a run-down of the most noteworthy holiday season sales, subscription and usage figures included in this year's press release, and just how meaningful each datapoint is.

1. "Millions" of Alexa devices were sold.

Ultimately, this isn't very surprising. Amazon discounted its Alexa-powered Echo and Fire TV devices during the holiday season, and research firm CIRP estimated in November Amazon sold 2 million Echo units alone during the first 9 months of 2016. As usual, Amazon declines to provide specific hardware sales data.

2. Echo sales were up over 9x relative to last year's holiday season.

This is more impressive, and shows how the early-2016 launches of the less costly Echo Dot and Tap speakers/voice assistants have expanded the Echo line's addressable market. Amazon's figure is backed up by the fact the iOS Alexa app made it to #4 on the App Store's free download chart on Christmas Day. Once again, though, a precise sales figure would be nice.

3. Over one billion items were shipped worldwide via Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

This is impressive on a standalone basis, and it's worth noting that Amazon didn't provide a similar number in last year's holiday press release. Prime and FBA have both seen tremendous growth over the last few years, and there's a lot of evidence showing both that Prime members spend much more on Amazon than other customers, and that many merchants are adopting FBA to make their goods Prime-eligible. But in the absence of data about the average selling price of Prime/FBA-shipped goods and their share of total Amazon shipments, this stat doesn't tell us much about whether a company expected to do fourth-quarter sales of $44.7 billion will meet its numbers.

4. More people tried Prime this holiday season than in any previous year.

No surprise, given Prime is still clearly seeing robust growth. Citing survey data, Cowen estimated that the number of U.S. Prime subscribers grew by 23% annually in October to 49.5 million; the launch of a monthly payment option in April may have helped. Amazon still isn't providing data on the overall number of Prime subscribers it has, however.

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10 Ways to Boost Your Amazon Sales This Holiday

by JORDAN MALIK 

Even if you are not enrolled in one of my recommended Q4 sourcing groups, I put together some tips to help you make maximum sales/profits with your Amazon business this Xmas:

1. If this is your first Q4 experience, you may have noticed that your sales haven't yet started to soar. That isn't unusual; while most of the corporate world divides the year into quarters starting in October, Amazon sellers consider November to January the "true" Q4. In other words, don't be alarmed if your sales figures are still modest because the real rush has not yet begun.

2. If you're an Amazon seller who is restricted from selling via FBA, be sure to read my recent advice here.

3. Although your peak Q4 sales typically happen in December, don't assume your season is done when the holidays are over. Be prepared with sufficient inventory and keep up with your marketing efforts through December and into January to take advantage of shoppers using Amazon cards they got as gifts. January can be a highly profitable month for online retailers selling through Amazon because buyers who have holiday fatigue get a second wind as they shop for themselves. Don't cut the last month of your Amazon Q4 short by assuming January is a slow month.

4. Don't panic over Amazon's Toys and Games guidelines. If you haven't seen this message before, you might worry at getting an official notice, but Amazon regularly prepares for the holiday season by determining eligibility for selling in toys and games that year. It's natural for sellers to be concerned that they might not meet the guidelines and earn approval to sell during their peak season, but the guidelines only apply to some sellers. Amazon retailers offering merchant-fulfilled toy sales must meet the requirements, but FBA sellers are automatically approved.Only if you're selling toys merchant-fulfilled (shipping straight to buyers) do you need to take note of this year's guidelines.

5. Revisit how you look at sales ranks and price during Q4 when considering inventory purchases. During the slower summer months, I might pass on an item ranked below 200,000 as too slow to be worth my while. During Q4, sales increase exponentially, and an item that barely moves the needle in August could be a hot seller in December when holiday shoppers start spending. If a toy or game that sells two units a month in the middle of summer starts selling twice a day for the holiday season, you need to have the inventory to fulfill demand.

6. Don't be eager to drop your prices too early. Holiday spending increases all over, so customers are willing to spend more per item as well as buying more items per transaction. A toy that sells for $15 in July could move well at a $30 price point during Q4's peak days. Whether you change prices manually or use a third-party online repricer, hold off on deep discounts until you have a clearer idea of retail prices. CamelCamelCamel is a good place to start researching prices; check there to learn whether your inventory items' prices increase during the holiday months. If you change prices at all, consider raising them while demand is at its highest.

7. Make inventory choices that set you apart from the crowd. Many Amazon sellers wonder if they should aim for this year's hottest toys and games for resale, but everyone else is reading the same reports. Stores that tell you which toys will be the most sought after this season already plan to stock plenty of them, leaving other retailers wrestling with overstock by the end of Q4. Instead of following the holiday hot toy recommendations, go 'underground' for perennial favorites (new AND used!)

8. Always strive to pay less for your inventory. One example is discounted gift cards. My favorite online discount gift card source is Raise.com. It's not your only option, though, so I encourage you to shop around to find a good fit for you. Buying discount gift cards to major retailers such as Target, Big Lots, Marshall's, Walmart and Walgreen's gives you more to invest in your inventory, which in turn leads to larger profits. (See more of my cost-cutting ideas here).

9. Stock up on packing supplies and office materials. You aren't discounting anything for the holiday season, and neither do shops that sell packing tape, address labels, shrink-wrap, age range labels, or any other essential supplies for toy and game sellers. Now is the time to get your packaging station organized and well stocked. Other ideas are in my post for eBay sellers.

10. It's inevitable - you'll get returns. Have a system in place for dealing with returns. Know your options for items that get returned due to damage incurred during storage or distribution. Amazon will reimburse sellers for items that get damaged or lost if the company is responsible for the problem, but this process isn't always automatic (Amazon can sometimes drop the ball here). So you'll need to take the lead to ensure Amazon reimburses you. You can get step-by-step help with this trusted e-book OR this great video training. In short: If a return due to distributor damage or loss happens to you, make sure to ask for reimbursement from Amazon regardless of whether the end customer returns the purchase. The responsibility falls on the distributor at that point, and neither you nor your customer should have to pay an additional price. For advice on returns made by customers, see this blog post. 

10. Enjoy the holidays. All too often, sellers get so caught up in sourcing, buying, organizing, packaging and shipping that they don't take time for themselves and their families. Q4 is the biggest season for toy and game resellers, but make sure you free your calendar to spend some time with those who matter most to you. Think about the holiday spirit that's motivating your customers to buy such great gifts and share that love with your own friends and family. That matters more than even the biggest Amazon payout. It's probably a good idea to spend a lot less (or zero) time on Facebook.

May these tips and tactics lead you to a more profitable, successful and meaningful Q4 this year. If you have your own thoughts on what can make the holiday season more wonderful for all of us, I welcome your comments. Share with us how you plan to make this Q4 outstanding.

Good luck and keep me posted!

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