How to Boost Seasonal Sales on Amazon (7 Strategies Explained)

Seasonal sales are an excellent opportunity to increase your revenue as an Amazon seller. But if you step into it unprepared, you’re in danger of missing the chance altogether.

Sharp sellers act early and smart. You can do the same by learning the best strategies to boost seasonal sales on Amazon and anticipating potential challenges.

So, let’s explore how to sell more in a market where everyone is trying to do the same.

For a head start, you can partner with our affiliate network, Archer Affiliates. We have vetted marketers ready to drive traffic to your listings with our innovative system and reliable sales tracking.

Join Archer Affiliates today and enjoy one of the most efficient ways to boost your Amazon traffic and seasonal sales.

Why Are Seasonal Sales Important for Amazon Sellers?

Statistics show Amazon sells thousands of items per minute every day. But the frenzy is real around holidays, so seasonal sales are key to sending your earnings through the roof - if you know how to prepare for it.

Seasonal sales can mean both holidays, like Christmas or Black Friday, and specific times of the year. In summer, people go bananas for swimsuits, BBQ grills, and outdoor furniture, whereas in winter, they jump at heaters, warm clothes, and early holiday decorations.

Keeping a calendar of these specific periods throughout the year will prepare you for the demand. You can clear out old inventory and bring in new items you expect to be in demand. And when the seasonal sales start rolling, you’ll boost your product rankings.

More sales are always sweet, but the bigger benefit is that increased conversions tell Amazon your products are hot, and it should up their rankings.

A higher product ranking creates a wave of increased visibility you’ll surf even after the end of the season. So, you could sell more in the long run simply because you maximized the seasonal sales.

Types of Major Seasonal Events

As a seller, you should think of Amazon seasonal sale events as either holidays or specific times of the year.

The holidays that bring the most traffic to Amazon are:

• Christmas: Huge demand for gifts, decorations, and holiday-themed items
• Black Friday/Cyber Monday: Massive sales across almost all categories
• Easter: Popular for candies, gifts, and spring-related items
• Halloween: Costumes, decorations and candy see a spike in sales
• Valentine's Day: High sales of chocolates, flowers, and romantic gifts
• Mother’s Day/Father’s Day: Gifts for parents, such as cards, flowers, and gadgets

The specific times of the year when people go on a shopping spree are:

• Summer: Vacation gear, coolers, picnic supplies, or outdoor furniture and toys
• Back to School: Stationery, backpacks, clothing, and electronics
• Winter: Heaters, winter clothes, and early holiday decorations
• Spring: Gardening tools, spring cleaning supplies, and outdoor sports equipment
• Fall: Autumn decorations, Halloween items, and warm clothing

Of course, if you’re selling power tools, you’ll probably not see a huge spike in sales on Valentine's Day - unless you target women who want to surprise their partners with an electric chainsaw. Or if you advertise with a message like “Show her how much you love her by finally building that dream gazebo she’s always wanted!”

While this might sound like a joke, it’s the secret to growing seasonal sales on Amazon: position your products to reach the right audience with the right message. More on that below.

How to Grow Seasonal Sales on Amazon

Targeted marketing and understanding your customer’s needs or preferences at different times of the year are crucial to growing your seasonal sales on Amazon.

You have to align your product offerings and promotions with your ideal customer’s interests. And since we’re talking about a limited time window for the sale, you want to bring in more traffic fast.

Throwing in some season-specific keywords can help a little, but launching into a full Amazon SEO campaign isn’t the best option because SEO takes time. Here’s what is faster instead:

1. Use Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves letting others (affiliate marketers) direct their audiences to your Amazon listings. You track their sales with attribution links and pay a commission per sale.

This strategy is low effort and high return if you choose your affiliates carefully. Provide them with promotional content (images, videos, banners, or text), and they do the hard work, sending traffic from social media, newsletters, blogs, forums, etc.

To start affiliate partnerships without worrying about infrastructure and sales tracking, it’s best that you join an affiliate network. The cool thing about our network, Archer Affiliates, is that we, the founders, were Amazon sellers ourselves. And because we were struggling to connect with the right affiliates, we built this solid program that we feel all sellers need.

Connect with Amazon affiliates through our network, and get the support you need to stand out during crucial seasonal periods.

2. Pay For Sponsored Ads

Sponsored ads are a bit intimidating because of the upfront costs. Whether you opt for sponsored products, sponsored brands, or sponsored display ads, you must know what you’re doing to make money instead of flushing them down the PPC drain.

But if you can nail your Amazon sponsored ads and target broad and long-tail keywords with seasonal relevance, you can see sales rolling in relatively fast.

3. Leverage Amazon’s Programs

Amazon wants you to sell more. So, its special programs will give you the visibility you need to boost seasonal sales. Here are a few programs you should look into:

• Amazon Prime Day: Enroll your products in Prime Exclusive Deals and leverage Amazon’s biggest sale event for Prime customers.
• Amazon Business: Join this program to sell to businesses, and you can reach more customers, especially during seasons like Back to School.
• Amazon Global Selling: Sell your products in multiple countries to take advantage of seasonal sales worldwide.

4. Stand Out With A+ Content

A+ Content is a special tool that Amazon can provide to make your product page and listing stand out. You could add videos, custom text placements, enhanced images, and even shoppable comparison tables.

Not all brands are eligible for it, but if you check and find out you are, use it to update your page with a seasonal theme. This will make shoppers feel more festive, boost their excitement, and encourage them to buy.

DID YOU KNOW?

According to Amazon, Basic A+ Content can increase your sales by up to 8%, and if you implement your Premium A+ Content well, you could boost sales by up to 20%.

5. Be Active On Social Media

Social media takes time, so not every seller has an active presence on any specific platform. But if you do have an account with some following, by all means, create engaging posts that promote your seasonal products and link directly to your Amazon listings!

Running contests and giveaways is another way to generate buzz and drive traffic from social networks.

6. Offer Bundles And Time-Limited Offers

A practical bundle at a great price can be irresistible. Just make it a time-limited or quantity-limited deal to stimulate the customer’s fear of missing out and bundle related items explicitly appealing for the season, like:

• A beach bundle with sunscreen, towel, and sunglasses
• A back-to-school bundle with a backpack, lunchbox, set of notebooks, pens, and pencils

Deals of the day and lightning deals, which offer short-term discounts on specific items, also create urgency and encourage quick purchases. And don’t forget about coupons if you want to attract bargain hunters.

7. Add Seasonal Keywords To Your Listings

While SEO is a long-term strategy, keyword integration is a must in any seasonal sale. So, pick the most relevant keywords for that season and use them to update your titles and descriptions. Include the ones you’re left with among the backend keywords.

This keyword optimization, combined with seasonal ad campaigns, A+ Content, and promotional strategies like lightning deals and coupons, will help you see a more immediate impact on your sales. Meanwhile, your organic SEO will build up over time, playing its part in your multi-faceted approach.

This is how you capture the maximum possible audience during peak seasonal periods.

Key Challenges in Boosting Seasonal Sales on Amazon

The road to boosting sales on Amazon is paved with multiple challenges. Depending on the strategies you choose to implement, here’s what you should anticipate and prepare for:

• Handling increased orders: If you can’t deliver on time or reply to your customers fast, negative reviews will come, plummeting your product ranking, visibility, and sales.
• Stock issues: Understocking can make you lose sales and negatively impact your product ranking while overstocking can lead to high storage fees if you don’t sell those items as you expected.
• Product relevance: Not all your products are relevant to a specific season, and you must position them to appeal to your customers’ current needs and preferences.
• Reaching the right audience: Making sure your offerings reach the right audience at the right time takes precise targeting and planning.
• Quickly adjusting strategies: The time window is limited, so you’ll have to watch your performance metrics like a hawk and step in for quick adjustments to maximize sales.
• Ad optimization challenges: With so many ads pouring onto the platform, costs spike, and optimizing your campaigns for good ROI is hard.
• Price wars: Seasonal sales are stiff competition, and some sellers will lower their prices, forcing you to do the same to stay competitive.

Best Practices to Increase Seasonal Sales on Amazon

Now that you know the big strategies and the potential challenges you might encounter, it’s time to learn some fine-tuning practices. Each of the following small details can contribute to a better shopping experience for your visitors and, therefore, more conversions:

• Motivate affiliates with higher commissions: Offer exclusive deals or early access to your promotions to attract affiliates looking to maximize earnings.
• Optimize product listings and ads for mobile users: Since many shoppers buy from their phones, optimizing for mobile is crucial to capturing a large audience.
• Run flash sales with big discounts: Create urgency and drive quick purchases with significant discounts for a short period.
• Add countdown timers on your product pages: Remind visitors of the time limit and push them to buy faster.
• Offer additional discounts to your ‘Subscribe & Save’ customers: Encourage more purchases from loyal customers with extra savings.
• Send personalized email campaigns: Promote your seasonal deals and make subscriber recommendations based on their past purchases to drive targeted traffic and sales.
• Actively encourage reviews from happy customers: Build trust and attract new buyers by showing how recent buyers use your products during the season.
• Run sponsored display ads: Retarget customers who viewed similar products but didn’t purchase to bring them back to your listings.
• Update your product packaging to match the season: Make your products more appealing with seasonal or holiday-themed packaging.
• Offer gift-wrapping services or gift-ready packaging: Attract holiday shoppers looking for convenient gifting options.
• Allow customers to pay in installments: Provide flexible payment options, especially for higher-priced items.
• Use the “Frequently Bought Together” section: Cross-promote complementary products to increase average order value.
• Sell discounted gift cards: Encourage more purchases by offering gift cards at a discount.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Now that you know the strategies, best practices, and potential challenges, you’re probably left with a couple of common questions:

How Early Should I Start Preparing for Seasonal Sales?

You should start seasonal sales preparations as early as you can, with at least 2-3 months in advance. This timeframe allows you to properly run the inventory management, plan your promotions, and decide exactly how you’ll optimize your listings or set up your ad campaigns.

What Tools Can Help Me Forecast Seasonal Demand on Amazon?

Amazon’s Sales Dashboard and Search Terms Report are the best places to start researching for your seasonal demand forecast. Google Trends is another great option for looking at search queries across different regions and time frames. And if you like tinkering with PPC tools, Helium 10 or Jungle Scout has built-in product research tools you can try.

Can Seasonal Sales Strategies be Applied to Niche Categories?

Absolutely, you can apply seasonal sales strategies to niche categories. By adapting your strategies and highlighting different aspects of your product, you can make it relevant for various seasons and holidays, resonating with seasonal demands and preferences.

Conclusion

Boosting your seasonal sales on Amazon isn’t a last-minute thing. You have to prepare for each season well in advance and execute your strategy with great attention to detail.

You can use targeted marketing, optimize product listings with seasonal keywords, run sponsored ads, join Amazon’s special programs, and create all sorts of bundles and limited-time promotions.

Still, the lowest effort and highest return strategy to increase sales on Amazon in any season is affiliate marketing. If you let affiliates drive external traffic to your listings, you get to focus on other aspects of your business. And you only pay them when they sell.

Join Archer Affiliates today and gain access to a network of 2,500+ vetted affiliates eager to let their audiences know about your seasonal sales.