If it feels like Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year, you’re not wrong – data shows that 45% of consumers started their 2022 holiday shopping in September.
The scramble for seasonal spending is just around the corner, and Amazon’s Cyber Week is a banner event for brands that want to maximize sales by extending their traditional Cyber Monday deals. Amazon’s T5 (short for “Turkey 5”) refers to the five shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, but from an advertising perspective, this is a two-week event that can make a huge difference in this year’s bottom line.
If you want in on the action this holiday season, here are a few steps you can take to get Cyber Week ready.
1. Determine whether ecommerce events are right for your product.
Before you dive in head-first, it’s worth considering that not everything is a great fit for Amazon’s holiday deals. It’s important to be aware of how your category traditionally behaves during this time of year, and how discounts are likely to impact consumer behavior.
If you are selling something giftable (for example, a hand tool in the $20-$50 range), it’s a no-brainer: Cyber Week is for you! However, if you sell something highly specialized, Pro-focused, or hard to put under the tree, it may be best to sit this one out. Your audience is less likely to be using Amazon’s platform to seek out your products, and trying to compete with brands who have doubled or tripled their advertising budgets for this week will probably only hurt your ROI.
2. Investigate your eligibility.
Not everyone who sells on Amazon’s platform can participate in Cyber Week sales. In order to qualify for certain Amazon deals, you must have a sufficiently favorable sales velocity. This positive sales history makes your brand eligible to apply for Amazon events.
If you aren’t quite there yet, take heart! Brands who aren’t eligible for the event-exclusive deals can still take advantage of the traffic that Cyber Week generates on the platform. This is the perfect time to offer your own discounts or manufacturer’s coupons to an influx of holiday shoppers.
3. Set your budget.
To make the most of Cyber Week, get ready to dramatically increase your advertising budget and keyword bids. The exact figures will vary according to your company’s goals, but generally, a two- or three-fold increase is standard to make a splash during holiday sales.
This is also a good time to take a holistic look at your content. Anticipate an increase in traffic and make sure that you’re optimized, up-to-date and seasonal.
4. Bring your A-game.
Cyber Week is the pinnacle of the shopping year – your deals should reflect that. Focus on your best-selling products and plan to offer your very best deal of the year. Even if you offered steep discounts on Prime Day, your Cyber Week offer should undercut them.
The reason? Think of Cyber Week as a tremendous awareness play. Breaking even (or even taking a loss) during an event that puts your brand in front of a huge pool of consumers will equate to sustained sales and brand recognition – a bigger win in the long run.
5. Ramp up (and plan to stick around).
It goes without saying that the advertising you do in preparation for Cyber Week is critically important, but don’t treat Monday like the finish line.
No matter how early we start holiday shopping, most consumers report that it continues up until Christmas Eve. Use the momentum that you generate during Cyber Week to carry you through the entire buying season, and you’ll see your advertising investment continue to pay off in big ways.
6. Don’t forget about the other guys.
Amazon is the ecommerce king, but its competitors are eager to match pace.
Amazon keeps the exact dates of its Prime deal events a closely guarded secret, but whenever the announcement drops, Walmart and Target are always quick to follow suit with their own ecomm events. While these sales don’t generate quite as much buzz, they can still be valuable for brands as the holidays approach. These retailers have been known to offer great promotional opportunities as a way of leveling the playing field, so don’t overlook them as part of your year-end ecomm strategy.
