How to take advantage of Black Friday as an Amazon Merch on Demand seller?
Black Friday is one of the most awaited events in the shopping world. Taking place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, it marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the USA. Although the event was originally associated with deals on products like electronics, today all industries and niches take advantage of the opportunity to attract more consumers.
Sellers on Amazon Merch on Demand can also tap into the potential of Black Friday by strategically preparing their print-on-demand items for the shopping spree.
In this article, we offer practical tips for getting your merch ready and enjoying maximum returns from the sales weekend.
Best strategies to increase sales around Black Friday on Amazon Merch on Demand
There are many diverse tactics that could be explored when it comes to Black Friday product preparation. But when it comes to Amazon Merch on Demand and print-on-demand goods, some specifics must be taken into consideration.
Below, we share with you the top three Black Friday strategies that apply to your merch on Amazon.
Discounts
The very nature of Black Friday is related to discounted products. Buyers who are actively shopping during the last weekend of November expect to find good deals worth spending on. This has created a trend over the years, where all sellers are fully aware of the need to offer a discount to grab attention. If you browse through Amazon listings around the 25th of November, you can see significant drops in prices throughout different niches.
Failing to adjust your prices accordingly will put you in a disadvantageous position. As opposed to letting your competitors steal your thunder, prepare for Black Friday in advance with an intelligent pricing strategy (we’ll show you how in the following sections). This will help you increase traffic to your listings, popularize your name, and ultimately enjoy lucrative returns.
Themed merch
Amazon Merch on Demand sellers often diversify their portfolios by offering merch with diverse themes. Some of these themes may be related to movies, holidays, animals, and more. But the truth is that Black Friday is a theme on its own, which you can utilize to your advantage.
A search on Merch Informer shows that there are a number of bestsellers in the t-shirt space that rank for the word “black friday”. These listings represent t-shirts that have centered their designs around Black Friday in combination with popular holidays or other themes.
Let’s look at an example.
The “Vintage Black Friday Squad Christmas Light T-Shirt” listing sells for $15.09 and has a BSR of 86 881. Its design is simple – a black background color and text reading “Black Friday Squad”. The design elements suggest that the t-shirt is created for Christmas shopping with friends or family, due to the Santa hat positioned on the Christmas lights around the text.
Other, similar designs successfully combine Christmas with Black Friday. We’ll see why in one of the following sections, where we analyze the most popular niches to focus on around the event.
Reviews
Earlier, we mentioned that Amazon users will be expecting to see the majority of Amazon products discounted or part of a deal around Black Friday. This means that price will not be enough to win over more traffic and encourage shoppers to make a purchase. You’ll need to adopt another strategy that will help you quickly win trust and position yourself as one of the go-to sellers for merch on Amazon.
The quickest and easiest way to do this is by standing apart with an excellent review list. A higher rating and a larger review count are two of the signals that potential customers are looking for when browsing through listings. In a pool of discounted merch products, yours can excel quickly by showing that others love your merch designs.
Don’t forget that collecting positive reviews is a long-term strategy. It won’t happen overnight. Because of this, we highly recommend striving to gather as many customer reviews as possible at least a month or two before Black Friday. It’s also important to remember that Amazon strictly prohibits manipulative behavior and client pressuring for positive feedback.
It’s essential to receive a genuinely high rating based on the quality that you’re provided.
Recommended practices to employ as part of your strategy
Now that you’re familiar with the fundamental strategies you can apply to secure more sales around Black Friday, it’s time to move to the next part of the equation – the best practices.
Lowering your prices
Earlier we mentioned that offering a discount around Black Friday is nearly a must if you want to maintain a competitive edge. But the truth is that there’s more to it.
Reducing your prices by a random percentage is a risky endeavor. You can end up attracting a lot of traffic and sales at the expense of a decent royalty per sale. This is why we suggest the following strategic approach to price reductions around the peak sale weekend.
A month before the Black Friday weekend, increase your listing price. For example, let’s say you’re currently selling t-shirts in a niche where the average price is $15 and the maximum is $30. Your listing is currently priced at $14. Raise the price to $25 (above the average, yet lower than the maximum) for around thirty days before the sale event.
During this time, you are likely to experience a drop in sales as the price is much higher than what your customers are used to. To reduce the potential losses, you can reduce the time to two weeks before Black Friday.
As the event approaches, reduce the price to $14 (your original price) or even lower (depending on the royalties you’re prepared to earn). As a result, your Amazon listing will now contain a side box indicating the reduced amount in percentage form. It will also include a scratched-out old price and a new price. This is highly attractive for consumers looking for a good deal on the marketplace.
By taking this approach, in reality, you’re not offering a price reduction. Instead, you’re creating a perception of a sale in the mindset of the customer. This is a popular tactic explored by different industries and niches to increase traffic and score more sales around certain periods.
Advertising
The next vital component of a good strategy is advertising. No matter how appealing your Black Friday deal is, you won’t reap the results unless your audience is aware of it.
Ultimate AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) Guide to Marketing Your Merch
You can embrace multiple advertising strategies, both on and off Amazon. In regards to promoting your Black Friday merch deals on Amazon, the most reliable option is Amazon Advertising. It enables sellers to set up sponsored ads and quickly reach the desired audience based on specific targeting. Although a paid advertising channel, it offers substantial returns.
At the same time, it’s also advisable to make the most of external channels to spread the word about your upcoming Black Friday deals. You may use your personal website, social media channels, and blogs to inform your audience about what they can expect to see in your Amazon Merch on Demand portfolio. You can rely on organic views or you can exploit paid advertising options on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
The most profitable niches making waves around Black Friday
Are there niches that are more profitable around Black Friday? We used Merch Informer to find the answer.
We performed a search on the Keyword Cloud tool to see what types of products Amazon users were browsing for the most on November 26, 2021.
Some of the results included:
- Christmas
- Matching family
- Go Brandon
- Christmas tree
- Family matching
- Christmas party
- Turkey
- Elf
We can see that the Christmas niche dominates. This is mainly because Black Friday sets the scene for Christmas shopping. In addition, the holiday is a month away from the event. To check our findings, we also used Merch Informer’s Merch Archive tool. It enabled us to identify the top-selling listings on the 26th of November, 2021.
One of the top performers was the listing “Dabbing Santa Elf Friends Christmas Boys Men Funny Xmas Dab T-Shirt”. It matches the Christmas niche and proves that Amazon users are actively shopping for Christmas merch around Black Friday.
Wrapping up
Black Friday creates significant money-making opportunities for Amazon Merch on Demand sellers. To hone in on this potential, you must prepare your listings in advance and create a bulletproof strategy.
Don’t forget to use Merch Informer as a reliable business intelligence tool throughout the process. This will empower you to make informed decisions, be one step ahead of competitors, and transform your Amazon side gig into a thriving business.
