eBay and Amazon turned to sellers to share advice with peers on holiday selling. eBay for Business posted a video with holiday-shipping tips from sellers, and Amazon ran a sweepstakes on its discussion boards.
eBay runs a regular video series called “Sellers Talk Shipping!” where it has covered a range of topics (international shipping, the eBay Labels program, tips on packaging, and more). On Monday, eBay for Business posted, “Sellers Talk Shipping! Holiday Shipping Tips,” though the video was originally posted to YouTube last month.
Some of the tips sellers shared in the video about holiday shipping: Factor in delays during the busy holiday season, package items more securely, and make sure to have enough shipping supplies on hand.
Meanwhile, Amazon ran a sweepstakes a week ago asking sellers to share tips for a chance to win $100 in Amazon gift cards:
“We’re asking all our selling partners – across different categories, sales experience, and locations – to share with your fellow sellers your top tip for selling during the holiday season. We’re accepting responses from now until 11:59PM PT on 11/17, at which point 10 lucky respondents will be awarded $100 in Amazon gift cards. We will notify the potential prize winners via their Forums account, and post the winner’s usernames on Forums. US residents only, 18+.”
Some excerpts of sellers’ tips include the following:
“It would be safer to use VACATION MODE than increase your handling time for a few days if you need a few days off for HOLIDAYs.”
“Utilize your Amazon shipping settings during the holidays to make sure you are charging correctly for expedited shipping as this is the time that people will be looking to utilize this type of shipping!”
“Make sure your FBA inventory is shipped well in advance of the holidays and checked-in properly. We also utilize web analytics to market and push customers to our amazon listings.”
“It can be very overwhelming to deal with vast amount of data/reports/tabs in the Amazon seller central. Take time to master the key links. Bookmark them in your account top bar. Also get the mobile app for on the go account access to almost all features.”
“Stay in stock, Stay in stock, Stay in stock, staying in stock is one of the best ways to keep your sellers rank up, and during the holidays you can usually expect a surge of sales which leads lots of sellers to run out of stock during the holiday season, so stay in stock and you will be way better off than if you were to run out.”
“If you operate a brand, update Stores and A+ content with holiday-focused images, videos, and messaging.”
“Make sure to take care of any return requests in a timely manner, and make sure to accept any return requests and promptly refund the customer. A defect on your account or an A to Z claim will cause your listings to lose the buy box completely until your account is in good standing again, and this can take a very long time, months actually because your sales will fall so dramatically you will not be able to get any sales to improve your health score, so it can be devastating. So accept returns even if it is not your fault as a seller.”
“Make your customers an irresistible offer by bundling together some of your best sellers at a discounted price.”
“Optimize Your Listings for the Holiday Season: Tailor product listings to reflect the holiday spirit. This might include updating product titles and descriptions with relevant holiday keywords and ensuring that your product images are high quality and showcasing the items as ideal gifts. Additionally, consider offering “gifty” holiday-themed bundles to attract more buyers looking for convenient gifting options.”
“Continue to optimize your main image, be creative! Also, test, test, test. My first choice is never what comes out on top in testing.”
“Don’t rely on SCAN sheets. They are not considered an acceptance scan and won’t help you in A-to-Zs when the next scan isn’t for several days, if at all. Sincerely, Someone who lived through Xmas 2020”
Some sellers used the opportunity to vent:
“Anyone have a tip for dealing with Amazon’s compettive pricing bots? We’re the manufactgurre and now, instead of growing our brand we’re spending hours on the phone with Amazon’s support trying to appeal amazon phantom pricing takedowns. Support seems to know less about it than we do.”
“Our #1 selling tip: to offer better service and less stressful shopping on our own sites and explain to buyers the real cost of doing business on this platform as we try to keep our business alive with made in USA products after China has stolen our listings and copied our products.”
“Our plan is to stop selling on Amazon during the holiday season. The returns are out of control!! Do I win??”
Here’s an advice: Don’t. Just don’t.