Cyber Week is finally upon us – and it’s going to be big. By all accounts, the shopping momentum between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday is expected to generate record sales this year as online shopping continues to spike. Ideally, brands should have their Cyber Week marketing and advertising strategies in place by now. If not, there are still things you can do to better prepare for what is forecast to be the highest-grossing Black Friday and Cyber Monday in history.

Assuming you have inventory to fulfill orders, Channel Key recommends promoting hot ticket items with coupons and Lightning Deals. Sponsored Display Ads, Sponsored Brands Ads, and Sponsored Brands Videos are all effective advertising tools you can use to drive traffic to these listings. Of course, the most effective approach for your brand will ultimately depend on a variety of factors, including the products you are promoting, the search volume, the amount of competition, and how aggressively your competitors are marketing and promoting similar items.

This year, brands have access to several new tools that weren’t available during the 2020 holiday shopping season. Sponsored Brands Videos, introduced earlier in the year, provides a video ad format option to its Sponsored Brands program. This season, sellers are also able to enhance Sponsored Display Ads with additional creative including text and a logo. Amazon also released several new beta metrics to help brands better analyze the performance of their campaigns. Sellers may have access to a new Search Term Impression Share Report for Sponsored Brands, which will provide insight into the share of total impressions you are getting for the search term you’re bidding on. The Brand Category Benchmark Report is another new metric that marks a brand’s performance compared to other brands in their respective categories.

Sellers should also take appropriate steps to ensure their brand store and product listings are retail ready and holiday optimized. It’s not too late to audit your current listings to make sure product titles contain the right keywords, key features include the most appealing benefits, and product images are fully optimized to attract and convert holiday shoppers.

According to Adobe Analytics, the 2020 online holiday season is forecast to break all its past growth records to top $189 billion, a 33% YoY spike. Taking extra steps to prepare for Cyber Week on Amazon – even this close to the actual event – will help position your brand for success during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year. Visit the links below for more in-depth insights into what to expect during this year’s holiday shopping season including how your brand can strengthen its online presence to capture the most sales.

• New Amazon Tools, Performance Metrics, and Seller Requirements for Cyber Week
• Five Illuminating Holiday Shopping Predictions for Retailers

Channel Key is a full-service channel management marketplace consulting agency that has helped generate $250M in Amazon sales for retail brands around the world. Complete 360-degree services include marketplace strategies, content development, marketing and advertising, catalog management, marketplace and fulfillment setup, ongoing consulting, and much more. To learn about how Channel Key can help increase sales for your business, contact us today for a free consultation.