Amazon Prime Big Deal Days is set for October 2024. The major sales event – and the peak holiday shopping season – are quickly approaching. For sellers, third-party (3P) selling is an opportunity to increase revenue, brand visibility, optimize retail media advertising, and expand your customer reach as shoppers embark on holiday shopping. Here are four ways sellers can manage their multichannel selling strategy by automating the process to reach maximum potential.

Understanding Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024

Prime Big Deal Days is Amazon’s exclusive event offering Prime members early access to deals across a variety of popular categories. This is an opportunity for sellers to appear before retail membership-paying consumers. According to eMarketer, 65% of US adults pay for Amazon Prime membership. Retailers with paid membership options such as Costco Wholesale, Walmart+, and others are also growing their membership numbers, according to eMarketer data.

This year, the event will take place in 19 countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK. Participating sellers are already preparing to ensure that inventory, listings and marketing strategies are ready for the influx of traffic.

With heightened demand, it’s helpful to automate key processes such as inventory management, promotion management, and marketing automation. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution allows sellers to synchronize and optimize operations to meet Amazon’s requirements for Big Deal Days. This helps sellers avoid costly stockouts, incorrect listings, and poor retail media ad performance.

How to avoid errors on marketplace listings

Big Deal Days is the unofficial kickoff to the peak holiday shopping season. High-traffic periods can be overwhelming when managing multiple selling channels. Rithum’s integrated commerce solution offers a suite of features that resolve specific common pain points for sellers.

Rithum’s centralized dashboard provides brands and retailers with a view of operations. This allows sellers to track and synchronize fulfillment, inventory, and orders across multiple channels.

• Repricer automation: Automatically adjusts prices based on inventory levels, competitor pricing, and market conditions. Watch this video detailing Rithum pricing functionality for retailers and brands selling on Amazon, eBay, and other channels here.
• Performance monitoring: Track real-time sales performance and identify issues during the sales event. This allows sellers rapid adjustments.
• Stock alerts: Receive low-stock alerts to enhance inventory management. Sellers can replenish inventory before stockouts occur, which would otherwise result in lost sales.
• Order routing and management: Seamlessly track and manage orders from Amazon and other platforms, reducing errors and improving efficiency.
• Shipping integration: Automatically update and track shipping information, providing transparency for both Amazon and your customers.
• Returns management: Streamline the returns process. Offer a hassle-free experience for customers while reducing your team’s workload.

How to leverage retail media ads during peak shopping events

Retail media advertising is increasingly important to brands and retailers with 81% of advertisers noting it is very important, according to a December 2023 Skai Path to Purchase Institute survey. Rithum’s platform helps sellers optimize their retail media advertising Amazon ad campaigns by dynamically adjusting bidding, targeting, and budgeting in real time. Sellers can fine-tune their retail media advertising performance during the sales event. This helps focus ad spend on the most profitable products.

Rithum Managed Services for Amazon advertising uses a data-driven approach to provide:

• Full-funnel monitoring: Track ad performance and customer behavior to dynamically adjust your campaigns to achieve the best results.
• Automated spend adjustments: Rithum automatically shifts advertising spend from products receiving high organic traffic to others that require promotion, maximizing ROI.
• Profitability insights: Real-time tracking of fees, shipping costs, and storage fees allows sellers to maintain profitable margins during the sales event.

How to apply lessons from Big Deal Days to prepare for the holiday season

After Big Deal Days, Rithum’s team advises sellers on how to gradually reduce retail media ad spend to continue momentum without overspending. This is achieved through incremental ad spending.

Rithum’s retail media team generates custom reports that provide data-driven insights. They use campaign monitoring data which contains thousands of campaigns, ensuring optimal performance and prevents incorrect bids or ad pauses. Holiday readiness reports help brands identify what worked and what needs improvement before the holiday rush. Rithum’s actionable insights show sellers what to consider when refining strategy for peak holiday shopping.

Learn how Rithum’s integrated commerce solution can help by scheduling a demo today.

The post How Sellers Can Prepare for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024 appeared first on Rithum.

This is the final installment in a three-part blog series on the 3 Global E-Commerce Tactics to Address for Success in 2023. Check out the first installment on adapting to changing consumer behavior and the second on increasing product visibility and shoppability to learn more. 

The market has long been bracing for a potential recession in 2023. Consumers have felt the pull too, preparing for harder times by shying away from large purchases and opting for the necessities instead. 

Instead of shying away, we believe now is the time to double down, tune up your consumer/partner relationships and execute digital shelf operations with precision and heightened attention to detail. 

Focus on the Things You Can Control

While you can’t change the economy or directly influence consumers’ purchasing habits, you can step up your digital shelf execution. That way, when consumers are finally ready to purchase, they know exactly where to turn. We recommend that you: 

• Lean into personal relationships. One currency that doesn’t fail in a recession is personal connections. Spend time nurturing retailer relationships and strengthening ties that will be harder to sever when push comes to shove. This is even easier to accomplish when you have Brand Analytics data in hand to streamline partners’ jobs with the ability to spot pricing mistakes, check content accuracy and compliance and monitor out-of-stock products.
• Fine-tune the details. If retailers start carrying less of your brand SKUs, counterbalance by stepping up your digital shelf execution. Win the digital shelf by making products easy to find and seamless to purchase. Audit SKUs for prices, stock rates, visibility and content so the surviving products you do have on the shelf perform at their peak. By staying attentive to the performance of each product, you can help maximize conversion rates. 

Improve Execution, Recession or Not

You can’t always predict consumer behavior or economic volatility — but you can stay alert and proactive in your approach. Even without a looming recession, you can always step up your e-commerce game with strategic execution that prioritizes:

• Staying in tune with consumer behavior trends
• Expanding to and selling in the channels where target customers browse, research and shop
• Executing advanced retail media campaigns that target the right audiences
• Fine-tuning content and product details to increase visibility
• Streamlining customer experiences from click to purchase
• Doubling down on key campaigns and SKUs to maximize conversion
• Monitoring campaign performance and product analytics

Rithum’s Managed Services professionals help you spot trends early and often, so you can tweak campaigns and achieve goals even in an atypical environment. With solutions like brand analytics, and professional guidance in digital marketing and automated feed management, we help you spot the program areas that need immediate attention while planning ahead for growth.

Download the full eBook, 3 Global E-Commerce Tactics to Address for Success in 2023, for more tips and tactics as you navigate the year ahead.

The post 2023 E-Commerce Series: Drive Excellent Digital Shelf Execution (Part 3) appeared first on Rithum.

How are you telling your brand story?

If you’re a registered brand on Amazon, Amazon A+ Content provides a fantastic opportunity to present your brand and your products your way when selling on Amazon. 

Free and unlimited for both vendors and sellers, Amazon A+ Content is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic and sales — and to cross-promote your other products.

What Is A+ Content on Amazon

A+ Content is Amazon’s way of letting you enrich your product descriptions and page details with: 

• High definition videos 
• Enhanced images 
• Comparison charts
• Robust FAQs 
• And more 

These details allow you to showcase your brand and better convey the value of your products to help customers make informed buying decisions and give consumers a more sophisticated shopping experience.

According to Amazon, only vendors and/or sellers who are either approved through the Amazon Brand Registry program or a part of specific programs such as Amazon Launchpad and Amazon Exclusives can use A+ Content.

If this applies to you, you can add A+ Content to any product within your approved brand catalog. And you can get that enhanced content set up in as little as 15 minutes.

A note on Premium A+ Content: It’s important to note that Amazon’s free A+ Content is completely different from Premium A+ Content, also known as A++ Content. The latter is an invite-only option that involves following a criteria and gives brands access to even more modules, such as interactive images, slider galleries and video loops. While A++ Content can be a great option for very large brands and feature-heavy products, A+ Content works well for the majority of ASINs.

Benefits of A+ Content

When selling on Amazon, you have to compete and stand out among millions of sellers. Adding A+ Content can play a huge role in giving you that competitive advantage.

The main goal of A+ Content is to increase your conversion rate and boost product sales. It provides a better understanding of your product to help persuade customers to buy.

To capture the attention of potential buyers and drive sales, your products must be distinguished from related products sold by your competitors. Previously, differentiation was a big challenge for sellers due to the limited guidelines from Amazon. Before A+ Content, it was tough to grab a consumer’s attention and convince them to purchase with just a small paragraph. Formatting restrictions limited sellers from going above and beyond with their product presentation, a factor shoppers highly regard.

To help you further understand the importance of A+ Content, here are some additional benefits.The enriched elements of A+ Content can more effectively: 

1. Grab a shopper’s attention.

   Buyers are looking at hundreds of product pages. Amazon A+ Content can help your product stand out from the crowd with formatted text, large, high-definition images or a video explaining the product usage. Cluttered product pages deter consumer interest; optimized content and formatting entices it.

2. Visually pleasing for consumers to skim for key information.

   Chunks of paragraphs and text blocks are difficult to read. Amazon A+ uses unique images and text layouts, bulleted feature lists and product comparison charts allowing consumers to easily skim and more quickly get the information they need. With consumers visiting multiple touchpoints, providing information effectively is essential.

3. Bring your product into the spotlight.

   A+ Content gives you the opportunity to showcase specialty features in action, provide tips for getting more out of your product or tell the story behind your product. A more comprehensive look can give consumers the confidence and trust needed to ultimately make a purchase.  

4. Help boost conversions.

   Enticing images paired with quality content can encourage consumers to hit the Buy Box. And paired with an easy buying experience for consumers, the result can lead to an increase in return on advertising spend (ROAS) and reduced advertising cost of sale (ACoS).

5. Fight counterfeits.

   Using A+ Content will help shield your product from counterfeits. It will garner brand recognition and build reputation. Consumers will know your brand is the rightful owner of these types of products, and it will prevent others from counterfeiting.

6. Use proven marketing strategies.

   Do the aspects of the Amazon A+ Content remind you of a well-designed brochure? That’s not a fluke. Without the limitations of an ordinary product description page, A+ Content allows sellers to explore color schemes, different formats and other strategies marketers have utilized and found successful for decades.

7. Improve reviews and reduce return rates.

   Before purchasing products, consumers want as much information as possible. With A+ Content providing consumers with detailed information they need, you can expect fewer returns after the purchase. Fewer returns means more satisfied consumers. Satisfied consumers are likely to share positive reviews of your product and brand, which will then persuade future consumers during their own research.

How to Create A+ Content on Amazon

Start by manually selecting which products you want to enhance. While all ASINs can benefit from A+ Content,  laying solid groundwork boosts chances for success. You’ll want to be sure the time and resources you put into creating extra content are likely to result in higher sales and revenue. 

If you’re having a hard time choosing ASINs, start with your top sellers. Other excellent candidates for A+ Content include products that tell a strong brand story or tend to sell at premium prices, as well as the items you’re already driving traffic to through seasonal campaigns and promotions.

Brand-registered Amazon Sellers have access to an A+ Content Manager that provides recommendations on which SKUs to prioritize adding A+ Content. These are ranked in order of priority based on a variety of factors Amazon indicates may increase your sales and discoverability.  

You’ll have two options to choose from: Self-Service or the Amazon Builds for You module. When using the Self-Service option — Rithum recommends this option for most ASINs — you can use up to five different design modules per product page. There are 12 different basic modules to choose from, so play around with the different modules to figure out what will work best for the specific product.

Guidelines for A+ Content on Amazon

Amazon A+ Content does give you more creative freedom, but following guidelines can ensure your content gets approval. Here are a few to consider when creating A+ Content:

• Images: Be sure to use supported image file types such as JPG, BMP and PNG in the RGB colorspace. Avoid blurry and low quality images as these are not allowed for A+ Content.
• Text: Proofread all your text and avoid spelling mistakes and inconsistent punctuation. Use bold and italic formatting only for headings or a few select words.
• Claims and awards: There are quite a few requirements for including certifications and awards. We recommend researching the rules thoroughly before including them in your content. For example, certification claims and awards must be proven through text with certifying or awarding body, study, publication or other evidence. The year of the award or certification must also be specified. Environmental claims like “eco-friendly,” “biodegradable” and “compostable” are not allowed in text, images or symbols. Related claims, such as an assertion that a product is “recyclable,” must be proven in text with supporting information. Satisfaction claims are not allowed. 
• Content restrictions: Steer clear from referencing your company as a seller or distributor. Only use comparison charts when comparing against products of the same brand. Keep away from quotes or attributions made by individuals, customers or other private figures.

There are just a few of the guidelines set by Amazon. To read more about specific terms and policies, check out their A+ Content guidelines.

A+ Content Best Practices

When creating your A+ Content, we recommend:

• Making the content easy to scan. Use subheadings, short paragraphs, bolding and other formatting options that will make it easy for consumers to understand the biggest benefits of your product at a glance.
• Combining text and images. When describing a key feature or selling point, accompany that text with a related image — and vice versa.
• Using consumer feedback for inspiration. If your customers often compliment you on a particular product feature, highlight it in comparison charts or descriptions. 
• Avoiding content errors. This goes beyond typos. Tread carefully when using special characters and symbols (including trademarks) and links. Be certain to include the correct image sizes based on the selected module.

46% of online consumers stated they start their product searches on Amazon, so your key focus should be to optimize your product detail pages. 

Looking for more Amazon advice? Rely on the Amazon experts. 

Acting as an extension of your internal team, Rithum’s Managed Services team combines the strengths of our cutting-edge e-commerce technology with our unmatched industry expertise. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help manage your Amazon A+ Content.

Interested in learning more about how to optimize your Amazon A+ Content? download our eBook to see ideas and inspiration for product pages that increase traffic and boost sales.

Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published in January 2018 and was updated in December 2022 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Quick-Start Guide to Creating Amazon A+ Content appeared first on Rithum.

Holiday decor is now on the shelves, people are making plans for gathering and some even have their shopping well underway. That means it’s too late to make adjustments to your Q4 tactics or holiday e-commerce campaigns…right?

Not exactly. There’s still plenty you can do to manage the holiday rush and ensure a smooth season. Our Rithum Managed Services experts put together a list of “quick hits” to help you tie a bow around your 2022 holiday efforts. 

10 Last-Minute Holiday Planning Tips

You may have gotten a head start this year in anticipation of holiday challenges like supply constraints and economic pressures. Or maybe this holiday season got ahead of you and now your team is scrambling for holiday e-commerce best practices. Regardless, we recommend these quick tips to help you tie up loose ends as the holiday season approaches.

Ensure Stock for Fulfillment Services

If you work with a third-party fulfillment service like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), you should be in the process of stocking them with plenty of your top-selling items for the holiday. Ensure adequate supply now so you don’t have to spend money or increase stress rushing later.

Identify and Publicize Your Last Ship Date

Calculate your last possible ship date to ensure delivery by December 25. Pair this with your shipping carrier’s last send dates and make it clear to customers so there are no surprises.

Account for Lead Times

Review your on-time delivery metrics, and assess whether or not you need to adjust lead times for fulfillment and delivery.

Prevent Overselling

Keep tabs on inventory and listings to prevent overselling, especially on Amazon, resulting in frustrated customers. Implement a “supply buffer” so you always have some stock on hand.

Avoid Big Changes

Now is not the time to be trying something new. Avoid big changes in your e-commerce setup, including pricing strategies and product description page setups. Instead, adopt an “all hands on deck” approach that highlights your biggest strengths and doubles down on advertising and promotions. 

Know Your Deadlines

Anticipate marketplace cutoffs for adding new products to the site. Adjust accordingly and list all your items as soon as possible. 

Set Up Critical Data Monitoring

Make sure reliable monitoring is in place for your feeds, quantity/price updates, orders, listing errors and top-selling items. That way, you can stay focused on urgent needs and the bigger seasonal picture when you’re in the thick of holiday selling. 

Double-Check Promotional Pricing

Double- and triple-check any promotional pricing you have scheduled through a deal planner or promotional fields. Check pricing is correct and dates are formatted correctly. Make sure to allot extra time for your feeds on marketplaces that have longer processing times.

Boost Last-Minute Advertising

Go big! Plan to boost your advertising and retail media spend in the final weeks before Cyber 5 and Christmas. This is also an appropriate time to increase your budget caps. 

Watch Marketplace KPIs

Keep a sharp eye on your marketplace KPIs to avoid suspension during Q4. 

The Time Is Now

This is what you’ve been waiting all year to execute. Make sure your program is all buttoned up to not only put your best foot forward among digital shoppers, but also ensure the best turnout at the end of the 2022 holiday season. 

Need help? Rithum Managed Services leans on decades of holiday planning expertise to help e-commerce brands and retailers get ready for the biggest selling season of the year. Contact us for guidance and a more confident approach to your Q4 sales.

The post Scrambling Before the Holidays? Try These 10 E-Commerce Tips appeared first on Rithum.

The holidays are fast approaching and brands and retailers of all sizes are busy with last-minute preparations. To help sellers plan for the season ahead, we decided to highlight some advice from our Managed Services experts in a Q&A blog series. 

The Rithum Managed Services team works with clients every day to provide strategy and execution in their e-commerce efforts — maximizing their presence on marketplaces and optimizing their digital marketing campaigns. 

With marketplaces on top of everyone’s mind this season, we spoke to our client strategy team about some of their advice to help brands and retailers prepare for the upcoming shopping season.

Q: It’s August, what are the three most urgent things sellers should be doing right now before the holidays? 

Laura Jackson, Senior Client Strategy Manager: To prepare for the rapidly approaching holiday season, sellers should focus on their strategies in three major areas: marketing, selling and fulfilling.

For marketing, now is the time to finalize holiday budgets and set up final advertising campaign structures so they can be implemented prior to the start of the holiday season. The more time allowed for optimizations to be made to the campaigns on the seller side and for the campaigns to build history and relevance on the marketplace, the better!

As far as selling, make sure that your items are not only available for purchase on marketplaces but the listing content is fully optimized too. Reviewing titles, descriptions, bullet points, images and appropriate item specifics now will ensure success during the busy holiday season.

In the area of fulfillment, remember that increased volume of orders can pose many challenges for sellers during the holiday season and strategize accordingly. Finish out the season successfully by ensuring appropriate stock levels on popular items and have a plan in place to to ship orders in a timely fashion.

Q: When it comes to product listings, sellers always hear about the importance of “optimizing” product content. What does that mean in real terms?

Brad Haynes, Team Lead, Client Strategy: You have to remember that your content is how a buyer will understand the product you’re selling and if it truly meets their needs. If you go into a physical store, you can look at the item, hold it, see all angles of it, look at the mechanics of it, ask an associate questions. You need to consider that when creating your product listings. Are your titles strong enough to catch someone’s attention when scrolling through multiple listings?  Do you have multiple images (at least four) to show the buyer all angles and different views of the product? 

Think about your product line as well. If you’re an apparel seller, and you were shopping for your own products, would you have all you needed to know to make your decision such as fit, size guides, fabric content, care instructions, colors, sizing, etc.? If you’re a consumer electronics seller, do you show all the compatible makes and models of other items that work with the products you’re selling?

Q: What should sellers be doing now to ensure their inventory doesn’t go out of stock?

Kristin Sester, Team Lead, Client Strategy: Be proactive and review your inventory forecasting plan early — looking at Q4 last year, year-to-date trends this year and projected growth goals for Q4 2022. Consider: What were last year’s top sellers during the holidays? What are this year’s new featured styles or product lines that should be prioritized? Make sure to have enough stock available for your most popular and prioritized products to satisfy early shoppers, the Cyber Five and last-minute shoppers. 

Be sure to have a backup plan and ability to offer product alternatives. Review your current inventory buffer settings and implement or adjust/increase accordingly to help prepare for increased orders and balance products across multiple channels. Take note of key Q4 inventory replenishment dates if using marketplace fulfillment services such as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and plan to replenish items early in preparation for the holiday buying season.

Q: Any timely tips on making sure your delivery capabilities are in place and your packages reach consumers in time for the holidays? 

Brad Haynes, Team Lead, Client Strategy: Understand your last ship dates and plan accordingly.  You need to have your replenishment strategy in place by the middle of October, and it should consider how long it would take to restock certain items, focus on top-selling products, determine items for FBA and so forth. Start evaluating metrics from past holiday seasons and see if there were any issues around lead times, products being oversold, shipping carrier delivery timelines and adjust accordingly.  

If you found you were late shipping items last year, consider adjusting your lead time to ship to match the more accurate timeline. Be on the lookout for last ship dates from your shipping carriers so you can factor that into your last ship date to deliver to your consumers.  

If you had to cancel items for being out of stock, consider raising/adding a buffer to ensure you always keep quantity on hand. Understand your current stock at FBA. Are those top selling items? If not, consider replacing those with your anticipated top sellers for Q4. Determine your appropriate stock levels for FBA and start replenishing items now so you can get them shipping into FBA and available for purchase in time for Q4.

Q: Can sellers do anything to prepare for marketplace suspensions during the holiday season?

Kristin Sester, Team Lead, Client Strategy: A marketplace account suspension during the holiday season can be one of the biggest obstacles and detriments to a seller. Preparation should start now by reviewing and resolving any early warning signs and being cognizant of any marketplace performance notifications. Marketplace health monitoring should carry on with a proactive approach and top-notch customer service throughout Q4 and Q1 when holiday return and refund activities ensue.

To prepare, meet with key members of internal or external teams that will take ownership should there be any increased trends of fulfillment/shipping delays, order cancellation rates and customer complaints or negative reviews. Ensure that all members are aware of the marketplace guidelines and specific performance criteria/thresholds in their relevant area for each channel in which you list. Identify trustworthy teammate(s) who will proactively monitor your channel health, metrics and feedback at least three times per week from mid-October through the end of December and report any concerns to the appropriate owners for quick action.  

Q: How can sellers drive more traffic to their marketplace listings?

Nick Castillo, Team Lead, Client Strategy: You want to ensure that your content is optimized for search results on each marketplace. Focus first on titles, descriptions and bullets/features. Maximize the use of characters allowed, making sure that your content is legible and you’re not “keyword stuffing” with terms that are out of context. One size doesn’t fit all; you may need to customize the content to each marketplace for optimal results. Make sure your descriptions are formatted correctly and don’t include HTML formatting if it’s not allowed. Simpler is better. 

Next you’ll want to provide as many additional product attributes as possible beyond the minimal requirements. Not only are these additional product details used for search indexing but also filtering that shoppers use when browsing the catalog. This will help potential customers refine their search results and maximize click-through to your listings.

Finally, if available you can use keyword/search term fields to include additional words you couldn’t fit into your content. You can sometimes gear these toward related items or competitive items if allowed. If you’re using paid advertising that provides search term data this would also be a great place to include long-tail search terms that you find perform well.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our Managed Services team can help you prepare for this holiday season, contact us today.

_

Check out part two of this Q&A with the Experts series where we dive into digital marketing best practices. 

The post Q&A with the Experts: E-Commerce Marketplaces Best Practices for the Holidays appeared first on Rithum.