Thousands of Amazon Marketplace sellers are getting the opportunity to have their products appear on high-traffic holiday deal pages on Amazon.com throughout the holiday season, opening up the possibility for a big increase in traffic and sales.
Amazon announced on Monday that sellers are being invited to offer holiday deals to be featured on such pages, including the Today’s Deals page, Gold Box Today’s Deal page, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal pages, and category holiday pages. As the company notes, the most popular holiday categories (like electronics and toys) will have numerous deals each day from various sellers all season long.
Amazon Marketplace VP Peter Faricy said, “It will now be easier than ever for our millions of customers to find popular and unique holiday products from our sellers. We know that customers expect to find the lowest prices on Amazon and love browsing the holiday deal pages for great bargains. We are excited that for the first time ever our sellers will be able to showcase their unique and high quality items on the holiday promotion shopping pages.”
Michael Silberstein, operations manager for NYC-based electronics retailer Focus Camera, said, “Our Gold Box Deal promotion earlier this year was an outstanding success. We listed a popular camera at an unbeatable price that was showcased on the premier placement of Amazon Today’s Deal page for several hours. As a result, we received an enormous increase in sales during the promotion, especially for an item priced over $200.”
“The Gold Box Deal promotion helped us sell approximately 30 percent of the cameras we had in stock in only a few hours,” he added. “Considering our large inventory, the amount of orders we fulfilled greatly exceeded our expectations. The Gold Box Deal attracted so many customers that we can’t wait for our next chance to participate during the holidays. Amazon is undoubtedly our most important sales channel during the holiday season. If our items are listed on Amazon and the price is right, sales are guaranteed.”
Gold Box features are shown to all Amazon customers with an account, and new customers see Gold Box “Quick Picks” a few days after their first purchase. These deals include a daily deal, a selection of “best deals,” and lightning deals, which pair a single item with a limited number of coupons.
Many others should be feeling similar effects throughout the season. According to Amazon, over 2 million sellers experienced record holiday growth during the holiday season last year. In the U.S. alone, unit growth increased over 40% year-over-year.
Stu Eisenman, president of Delaware-based E-Revolution Ventures, said, “We experienced a tremendous increase in sales for the products we’ve offered as Best Deal or Gold Box Deals. Not only do our sales increase for that item but the deal brings attention and increased popularity to the product that lasts well beyond the promotional deal. As a smaller retailer we were never able to offer our customers the same shipping savings as larger competitors. By participating in Amazon’s FBA program, we can take advantage of the economies of scale. Through the FBA program we’re able to leverage Amazon’s reputation for customer service into increased sales. We can focus on analyzing which items are hot sellers during the holiday season and take steps to ensure ample quantities are available.”
There are concerns about online spending going into this holiday season. eBay, which released its earnings report last week, gave some less than stellar guidance for the season, and according to the New York Times, online retailers are worried about uncertainty created by the government shutdown.
Amazon will release its report this Thursday. We’ll see what kind of guidance they give.