Amazon Holiday Sales Hacks for 2022
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It's that time of year again! The Holiday Rush is upon us, and everyone is looking for ways to make the end of the year more successful.
As we are headed into this holiday season, we wanted to share a few tips with you that might help you squeeze a bit more value out of your end of year, and even new years, book sales. There is no such thing as a sure thing, but hopefully these tips and trends will make a difference for you.
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1. Focus on new audiences
Take a look at your current marketing campaigns, and see if there are any gaps you can fill. Maybe your marketing has focused on educators, but but not on parents. Maybe there are some sales trends from the last few months that you are not taking advantage of yet. According to NPD BookScan, YA fiction print sales have grown 3 percent this year. If you have some titles that fit that category, it might be a good idea to focus some marketing on those titles.
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2. Add some Spanish language keywords to your titles
The Spanish language book market has been growing quickly (interesting history here), with some large publishers even seeing an increase in 2022, when the English language market has been declining. Publishers Weekly even had an article about growth in the Spanish language Christian market just a few weeks ago.
When you are adding new keywords to your titles, it may be helpful to add some Spanish language keywords in addition to the English keywords you already have. Spanish speakers in the US may try searching for products in Spanish, regardless of the book they end up buying. Also, if you have Spanish-language titles for sale, make sure they have both Spanish and English copy in the Description field.
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3. Put a little shine on your books
Speaking of product information fields to update, it is always good to update, and put a little bit of shine on, your data. Update your book description, author bio, and keywords. Add new reviews and endorsements. Add a book excerpt.
Product information does two key things for trade marketing:
- It improves discovery through what we at Firebrand call BEO (Book Exposure Optimization)
- It improves sales conversion with CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Some production information fields are more geared toward BEO (keywords, title, categories), and other fields are more geared toward CRO (description, author bio, excerpt). Be sure to make updates to both kinds of fields to get the most bang for your buck.
In a recent study we ran on over 3.3 million titles from over 11,000 sources, we found a surprising number of titles that were missing key data or had data that was just not helpful. For example, of that 3.3 million titles, 2,756,188 had only one BISAC Category assigned, and 332,826 of those had generic BISAC codes (e.g. Fiction/General) assigned as the only category.
Updating your product information is one of the best ways to increase sales.
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4. Remind readers that books are a bargain
Books really are a bargain in the current economy. List prices of print books do not normally change a lot, even with inflation, due to the difficulties of stickering current stock. In a time when prices for other entertainment sources keep on increasing (I'm looking at you, Netflix...), it might be helpful to remind your readers that books are a good investment for both entertainment and information-gathering.
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5. Add more images
Amazon loves images. You can have as many as 7-9 images on any product listing, and images have proven to be one of the best ways to increase sales. A+ content can increase sales by as much as 10%, and high-quality images play a crucial role in that.
These product images can be interior spreads, product shots, or even an image of the table of contents. You could even create images that highlight key endorsements and reviews. These don't have to be complex or heavily designed; just spend a little bit of time on Canva and you'll be good to go.
Additional images improve searchability as well, since Amazon's algorithms give more weight to products with more images.
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6. Take advantage of Third-Party Sellers
A lot has been said in recent weeks about the fact that Amazon seems to be reducing orders at the most inopportune time for holiday sales. However, just because Amazon doesn't want to order your product directly doesn't mean you have to give up on having it available on Amazon and ready to ship.
Third-party sellers are taking an increasing number of unit sales on the Amazon store. Nearly 2 million small- and medium-sized businesses are Amazon third-party selling partners, and more than 50% (or even as high as 60%) of sales on Amazon are through third-party sellers.
Now, many of those sellers are using the Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program, which does not necessarily help your stocking needs. However, an increasing number of marketplace sellers are doing their own fulfillment.
This chart shows third-party fulfillment rates over the last 4 months or so for titles that are tracked in our Eloquence on Alert platform. The blue line shows fulfillment by the third-party directly, and the orange line shows fulfillment by Amazon. Notice the trend lines diverging.
So, what does this mean for you? It might be beneficial to reach out to some of the legitimate marketplace sellers who are already selling your products and work out an arrangement with them directly. That sidesteps the need for Amazon to always have stock, and broadens your base as Amazon continues to focus on, and give the Buy Box to, marketplace sellers.
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Conclusion
We hope these tips are helpful as you engage your holiday sales over the next few weeks.
Happy Holidays from all of us here at Firebrand!
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Do you know how your books are doing
in the marketplace today?
✦ Are you being elbowed out of the Buy Box by third-party sellers? ✦
✦ Is your Sales Rank jumping or dropping today? ✦
✦ Did your latest book get any new reviews? ✦
✦ Has your last price change actually been implemented? ✦
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Catching issues and opportunities for your books on retail sites is easy!
1. Sign up for a no-obligation demo of Eloquence on Alert.
2. Start tracking your titles on Amazon (US, UK, & CA), B&N, Bookshop.org, ChristianBook.com, Book Depository, Apple, and more.
3. Get daily, custom alerts that help your books succeed!
Move from frustration to confidence today!
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