We are entering the annual peak selling season with Black Friday (Nov 25) and Christmas shopping already picking up!
Amazon Sales Increased by 83% Compared to the Same Period Last Year!
My preparation for this year's 4th quarter has focused primarily on:
- Better inventory management to stay in stock as I ran out of stock way before Christmas last year.
- Working on improving performance of Amazon Advertising Campaigns.
1. Improving Inventory Management
Last year I under-projected sales and ran out of stock by mid Nov and early Dec for several SKUs. The result was low sales in Nov and Dec 2021 as I had ran out of stock to sell!
This year, I ordered stock for Q4 early and had all my inventory in the US by the end of September. I had at least 2 months projected sales quantity in FBA and standby quantities to last till January 2023 in a US 3PL to quickly restock to FBA as needed.
The biggest problem with inventory this year is caused by Amazon's sudden lowering of Restock Limits last week. I had a replenishment shipment ready to ship to Amazon on Nov 1st, then Amazon suddenly lowered my Restock Limits so I could not send the shipment in!
Next year I am considering using a 3PL that can do FBM cost-effectively. I have a couple of options I'm exploring and will update as things progress.
Even though I ordered much more stock this year, several SKUs are almost out of stock again! This is because my last 30 day sales is over 83% up compared to the same period last year! From a glass half-empty perspective, I've under-projected again! But from a glass half-full point of view, sales are doing well beyond expectations!
A big reason I'm selling more than projected is due to:
This year, I ordered stock for Q4 early and had all my inventory in the US by the end of September. I had at least 2 months projected sales quantity in FBA and standby quantities to last till January 2023 in a US 3PL to quickly restock to FBA as needed.
The biggest problem with inventory this year is caused by Amazon's sudden lowering of Restock Limits last week. I had a replenishment shipment ready to ship to Amazon on Nov 1st, then Amazon suddenly lowered my Restock Limits so I could not send the shipment in!
Next year I am considering using a 3PL that can do FBM cost-effectively. I have a couple of options I'm exploring and will update as things progress.
Even though I ordered much more stock this year, several SKUs are almost out of stock again! This is because my last 30 day sales is over 83% up compared to the same period last year! From a glass half-empty perspective, I've under-projected again! But from a glass half-full point of view, sales are doing well beyond expectations!
A big reason I'm selling more than projected is due to:
2. Growing Amazon Advertising
I have just finished another round of PPC Ninja's excellent free 4-week mastermind and analyzing my account data more thoroughly to grow my Amazon Ad funnel and further optimize campaigns.
As a result, I've added a number of new advertising campaign types such as:
Secondly, I've been using Amazon Brand Analytics - Search Query Performance and Product Opportunity Explorer to find new keyword search terms to target. These are like goldmines of keyword data direct from Amazon.
Thirdly, my ad campaigns have been getting far more efficient (higher sales with lower spend, decreasing ACOS and increasing conversion rates). A big part of this is due to using PPC Ninja to optimize my bids daily, as well the improved ability to analyze and therefore leverage campaign placements more effectively.
In the last 30 days:
As of this moment, I have 397 Amazon Ad campaigns with 16,189 keyword targets and 1,901 product targets, plus views and purchase remarketing audience targets. It would be impossible to manage all this effectively in Seller Central, and I used to do it via Ad Report flat files. But using PPC Ninja is so much easier and produces better results as the stats above show. Of course you need to execute a sensible and well structured Amazon advertising strategy too.
My Amazon advertising strategy and structure can be found on my Amazon PPC Advertising page.
As a result, I've added a number of new advertising campaign types such as:
- Sponsored Brand - Product Collection
- Sponsored Display - Remarketing
- Additonal Sponsored Brand - Video Ads
- Christmas season campaigns that have Christmas and holiday gifting related targets - I created Christmas specific campaigns so I can manage these campaigns by pausing and enabling as appropriate every year
Secondly, I've been using Amazon Brand Analytics - Search Query Performance and Product Opportunity Explorer to find new keyword search terms to target. These are like goldmines of keyword data direct from Amazon.
Thirdly, my ad campaigns have been getting far more efficient (higher sales with lower spend, decreasing ACOS and increasing conversion rates). A big part of this is due to using PPC Ninja to optimize my bids daily, as well the improved ability to analyze and therefore leverage campaign placements more effectively.
In the last 30 days:
- Increasing Ad spend by 7.9% has resulted in Advertised sales increasing by 18.9%
- ACoS decreased by 2.3%
- Impressions increased by 3.5%
- Clicks increased by 9.4%
- Cost-per-click is down 1.4%
- Conversions are up 21.5%
- Conversion rate increased by 1% to 10.12%
As of this moment, I have 397 Amazon Ad campaigns with 16,189 keyword targets and 1,901 product targets, plus views and purchase remarketing audience targets. It would be impossible to manage all this effectively in Seller Central, and I used to do it via Ad Report flat files. But using PPC Ninja is so much easier and produces better results as the stats above show. Of course you need to execute a sensible and well structured Amazon advertising strategy too.
My Amazon advertising strategy and structure can be found on my Amazon PPC Advertising page.
Amazon and Planning for 2023
I'm already looking ahead to next year with the following plans:
- Launching a bunch of new listings
- Finding more optimal ways to manage inventory and shipping
- Focus more on growing my on sales and reducing my Amazon training
1. I already have a pipeline of products I want to launch. The good thing is the manufacturing cost is between $0.10 to $2.60 per product.
I plan to sell the product that costs $0.10 at $8.99. After all fees, excluding advertising:
The profit margin of 56% also allows lots of room for advertising since it would ad sales would still be highly profitable even with a relatively high ACOS of 30%.
2. I'm exploring a service with a warehouse in China that can drip feed shipments weekly (or whenever I want) direct to Amazon for FBA at very competitive rates.
This has many advantages, including:
3. Being a teacher by natural gifting, I do enjoy teaching, training ad helping others. However this can negatively affect growing my own sales.
For example, this past week, I planned to create several new listings and send designs to my manufacturer. However, I have spent way too much time replying to questions in various chat groups and not gotten a single listing done!
I was planning to reduce the frequency of my training course to focus more on my own product sales and development. But Amazon has reached out to me multiple times this week and wants me to collaborate to speak at their events and train budding sellers. I literally just got off the phone with an Amazon marketing manager who asked for my preferred dates so they can schedule their events around my availability.
I suppose I'll just have to be more disciplined to manage my time better and not spend all day helping others!
With that in mind, I'll be conducting my final training course for 2022 on 14-16 November.
I'v never run a paid ad for my training course, and it's only ever publicised organically through sharing and word of mouth from past participants.
The big differentiator (and why it takes up my time!) is that I include four 1-to-1 consultations as part of the training, which is a big help compared to the typical course where you attend a big class or watch a video and then feel info-overloaded, overwhelmed, with no one to guide them personally.
I'm accepting just 5 more people (out of only 10 signups spots). Details on my Amazon Seller Live Training page.
I plan to sell the product that costs $0.10 at $8.99. After all fees, excluding advertising:
- Net profit: $5.04
- Profit Margin: 56%
- ROI: 3,876%
The profit margin of 56% also allows lots of room for advertising since it would ad sales would still be highly profitable even with a relatively high ACOS of 30%.
2. I'm exploring a service with a warehouse in China that can drip feed shipments weekly (or whenever I want) direct to Amazon for FBA at very competitive rates.
This has many advantages, including:
- Half the storage fee compared to FBA storage fees.
- Minimize use of a US 3PL, therefore eliminating the costs of shipping SPD/LTL from a US 3PL to Amazon.
- Much easier inventory management as this service is API synced to your Amazon account and can easily generate shipments and FBA shipping labels with 1 click.
- Consolidated shipping rates with customs clearance and insurance, with options for fast, medium, or slow boat combined with truck or UPS from the port to Amazon, or airfreight.
3. Being a teacher by natural gifting, I do enjoy teaching, training ad helping others. However this can negatively affect growing my own sales.
For example, this past week, I planned to create several new listings and send designs to my manufacturer. However, I have spent way too much time replying to questions in various chat groups and not gotten a single listing done!
I was planning to reduce the frequency of my training course to focus more on my own product sales and development. But Amazon has reached out to me multiple times this week and wants me to collaborate to speak at their events and train budding sellers. I literally just got off the phone with an Amazon marketing manager who asked for my preferred dates so they can schedule their events around my availability.
I suppose I'll just have to be more disciplined to manage my time better and not spend all day helping others!
With that in mind, I'll be conducting my final training course for 2022 on 14-16 November.
I'v never run a paid ad for my training course, and it's only ever publicised organically through sharing and word of mouth from past participants.
The big differentiator (and why it takes up my time!) is that I include four 1-to-1 consultations as part of the training, which is a big help compared to the typical course where you attend a big class or watch a video and then feel info-overloaded, overwhelmed, with no one to guide them personally.
I'm accepting just 5 more people (out of only 10 signups spots). Details on my Amazon Seller Live Training page.