Why September is a great time to launch on Amazon

Welcome to the BRING your product idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products, or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Let's get started. Hello and happy September. I can't believe we're here already.

Well, actually, full disclosure, when I record this, it's actually not September, it's still August. But I know it'll be here soon enough. And I also know that September is always such a busy time. And it is for me anyway.

I have two main busy types of year. One is January, the other is September.

And the reason I think September is so busy for me is because it's a time when everyone who's been thinking about getting their products onto Amazon starts, and those who are on there already want to do all the work needed to get their listings ready for a great quarter four. So for my September episodes, these are the topics I'm going to be covering. Broadly, we're going to go into more detail than that.

We're going to be talking about why September is such a great time to get started on Amazon. And that's going to be today's episode.

And then I'm going to have a series of episodes around what you can do to get ready for quarter four if you're already listed on Amazon. So today, as I said, I want to talk about why September is such a great time for launching.

I'm going to keep this episode fairly short because I know, as I said, it's busy. We're all busy in September and I know you would just want to get on with it. So the first reason I think quarter four.

Sorry, the first reason I think September. Gosh, I'm getting ahead of myself. We're not in quarter four yet. One more month.

The reason I think September is a great time to get started on Amazon is because you've got enough time before quarter four kicks in to get yourself set up and to do it well. It's great timing because you're not rushing.

I mean, ideally, if you had more time over the summer is a great time to get your set up on Amazon for lots of reasons. But we won't go into that now because this is September and it's too late.

Maybe next year I'll do an episode around Easter about why summer's a really good time. But however, September still a really good time because you still have Time, you're not rushing you, you could still got time to do it.

Well, I know that over the summer, lots of us are away, we're taking time off with our families. If you're prepared to put your head down and just get it done, September is still a great time.

My advice here, however, is to, yes, get it done, but to still focus on getting it done really well. Don't think, oh, it's September and I'm really key. Vicki said that, you know, it's basically the last chance get listed up on Amazon.

It isn't the last chance. However, if you're looking for quarter four sales, obviously you'd want to be up and running before the end of September to benefit from those and.

But then, you know, this is up to you. You don't, you absolutely don't have to have everything done before quarter four starts.

I'm just saying, in an ideal world, wouldn't it be nice to go into that last quarter of the year when you're prob. Busy everywhere else doing other things, knowing that Amazon is set up and hopefully starting to make sales for you?

But with that in mind, I don't want to suggest that you rush to set up or you skip things or you think you'll come back to them later, because finding the time to do that is going to be really hard. Plus, it can be difficult to make some changes on Amazon.

Don't get me wrong, if you're just tweaking product title or updated images and stuff, that's fine. But what you don't want to do is go ahead and get everything set up and then decide you want to make a big change.

That's going to cause you a lot of hassle further down the line. So while I want you to sort of put your head down and get your setup done, I want you to also do it really, really well.

Because getting off to the best possible start is always my recommendation. Especially if you are trying to get some Quarter four sales on Amazon. The better your listing is, the more time you take planning your launch.

All of these things will really impact how well you do in quarter four and beyond. So while you still have plenty of time, as I say, time is of the essence.

You'll be wanting to get your listing set up reasonably quickly so you can start making sales. However, I don't want you to rush that process. There is a little bit of a balance here.

I would also say that September is a great time because you might have been nearly ready all summer. Lots of people delay getting set up on Amazon until September, maybe, because I said they've got holidays, they're away.

I've actually got some lots of work booked in for this September, which is amazing with brands who, you know, I was speaking to back in June or July about, you know, getting this work done in September, because people understandably want to take some time off. September still gives you a really good time. It's a really good head start before everything gets really crowded.

So if you have been putting it off, especially if you've been one of these people who've been putting off until January, I'd say go for it now, because if you decide to launch an Amazon in January, but you, you know, you're nearly ready anyway, you might as well do it now because you're missing out on a massive quarter. And as I say, there is still time.

Another reason I think it's great to get started on Amazon now is that there's less competition than in those peak selling months. So in October through to December, as you can imagine, it gets really busy on Amazon. Amazon's a busy marketplace anyway, as you know.

But things get even busier. There will be brands who sell seasonal products who only come online and sell those during, you know, those months.

So people with gifting products or maybe Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, anything sort of seasonal. I definitely of brands who sort of are dormant for nine months of the year and then for these last three months they all go on Amazon.

It may be there are brands who have additional products so they launched their Christmas or gifting ranges over these times as well. There's just a lot more going on.

And launching your product now gives you a bit of time to get some visibility and get some sales without being drowned out.

Because as we've spoken about lots of time before, what Amazon values is sales and reviews and the more of those you can get, even if a small number before going into quarter four, honestly, will give you an advantage also if you decide to run any Amazon ads and the ad prices so the bid amounts will hopefully. I can't always. I can't promise this, obviously, because I'm recording this in August.

So I can't say for sure what will happen in September, but I would say usually they are a little bit lower in September than they are as we get further into the. Into quarter four.

Reason for this being is when you know, we're looking the run up for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, a lot more people switch on ads at this time of the year. And the more people that have ads, the more people that are bidding, the higher the bid prices are. I see it every year as well around Prime Day.

So that was in July this year. I had to think about that. And lots of ads campaigns I manage.

We did notice that the bid amounts really increased for like the week to 10 days around that, which makes it obviously a little bit more expensive and can have a hit on your return on ad spend as well. So if you do run to.

If you decide in that you're going to run some ads before as part of your launch, and we'll talk about a bit about launching later. So if you're deciding that, okay, as part of getting going on Amazon, I'm going to run some Amazon ads.

Doing this in September is really good because hopefully you'll get a week or two of ads with slightly lower bids before everything gets a bit crazier and a bit more expensive. However, saying that however, and wherever you launch, the sooner the still, I would say the sooner the better.

Because even if you're listening to this and you're thinking, well, I'm not going to be running any ads on Amazon, I'm going to use my email list or I'm going to do something else. Do remember that as we get into quarter four, they're going to be lots more people sending emails about their seasonal products or their promotions.

There's going to be a lot more out there competing for people's attention. So however you plan to launch on Amazon, I would say think about doing what you can as early, as early as possible, because I don't know about you.

By sort of November time, I'm getting so many emails from all the brands I'm subscribed to, it just becomes. It just becomes a lot. And a lot of it goes in the bin, sadly. Another reason why September is a great time.

There are lots of reasons why September is a great time is you can start to build some early traction and get some social brief. So I mentioned ads. It's a great time to test your ads before things get too expensive.

I think testing your ads in September will give you a bit of a better baseline. Whereas if you start your ads in, let's say, end of October, as I said, bid amounts might be quite higher.

This might affect your ads, your return on ad spend, it might look a bit lower, whereas actually that might just be what that looks like for that quarter. Whereas for the rest of the year it would be a lot more profitable, if that makes sense.

It will give you an idea to get sort of what your sort of baseline is, I think that's really helpful. Also, it gives you time to get some reviews as well.

So whether you're going to use Amazon, vine or you're going to do something else, I. I really think it's worth getting some reviews. So when you go into quarter four, you've got some reviews, you've got some sales, and basically a bit of momentum.

Now, I have done a whole episode on getting reviews on Amazon because getting reviews on Amazon is really, really hard, but is also really, really important. And I also recommend, if you can, getting some reviews before you run ads.

Now, let's be honest, realistically, we're perhaps getting a little bit tight for that, depending what method you're going to use to get your reviews. However, that's in an ideal world to.

If, you know, if an ideal world doesn't always apply, it might be that you need to be looking for getting those reviews and running your ads simultaneously. And. But I think reviews is the one that I would definitely prioritize if I had to choose.

So, as I said, you can use Amazon vine, which I've spoken about in another episode.

But again, if you're going to be using vine, doing it in September makes a lot of sense because as we get later on into the year, everyone gets busy, there's more competition, there's presumably more companies submitting their products for Vine. I really think doing everything as early as possible makes a lot of sense.

And my next reason for getting going sooner rather than later is that if you do have any issues, it gives you time to fix them.

I have mentioned in this podcast so many times before how Amazon can be tricky, how things don't always work out how you'd like them to, that there can be issues, often unforeseen, and they are all fixable, I'll say that now, but that can take a bit of time, a bit of patience, a bit of effort on your part, and two things, really.

One, you don't want to be dealing with that, you know, mid November, when you've got so many other things going on, you've got orders to get out and maybe you're doing markets or whatever it is, you know, it's just a busy time of year. You don't want to be messing around, fixing issues on Amazon.

But also if something goes wrong, it gives you a bit of time to recover because what you don't want is, I don't know, having an issue with sending in stock or a listing that gets suppressed.

And it's, you know, middle of October, early November, and, you know, that's really, really going to impact your sales if something goes wrong in September. Yes, okay, it will have a little bit of an impact, but it will also. You also have a bit more time to get it sorted out before things get super busy.

Also, it means that, you know, I'm releasing this episod on the 2nd of September, so it's pretty early in the month. Realistically, you should be able to get everything up and running on Amazon, depending how much time you want to dedicate it.

You could do it within the next week if you have the time and inclination to do so. But if something goes wrong and a couple of weeks added on to that, you're still comfortably within that September period.

So I would definitely recommend looking at that.

And my final reason is I think getting set up on Amazon now means you can feel much more confident and prepared going into this really, really busy season. You've done all the hard work before the pressure starts ramping up.

And as I said, you get busy with other things with your own website or whatever else you're selling your products, whatever else you have to do, you can, you'll be running your ads, maybe you've been running them for a week or two. You know, you're not just trying to get listed and going through the rigmarole that is getting CSL set up on Amazon.

I honestly think you'll be, you will be big sigh of relief if it gets to early November and you're like, right, I'm there. I've got fantastic listing on Amazon, I've got some reviews, I've got some more reviews coming in, my ads are up and running, I've had some sales.

And even if you haven't had lots of sales, honestly, getting started is the hot is the hardest part. And I think you will feel so proud of yourself.

Future you will be delighted if in, you know, by the end of September you're like, I have done all of that hard work and I'll be honest, it might be the quarter for next year is when you see things really start to take off. Because let's be honest about how Amazon works.

Amazon are still going to be showing people the products that have been making sales all year that already have more reviews. That is just a fact. But that doesn't mean that a, you can't get any sales this quarter four, you absolutely can.

The opportunity is still there and that just puts you in a much better position going into next year.

And then by quarter four next year, imagine you've got, you've been on Amazon For a full year, things will hopefully be looking, working really good for you.

And you'll also have some things that you can learn from too when you're coming to planning what you're going to do for quarter four on Amazon next year. So hopefully that makes sense. I promise your future self will help you. And that's what this is all about, really.

And I'll be honest, I'm recording this episode in what's the date give you a little insight? It's the 7th of August. This isn't going out until the 2nd of September.

But I'm doing this for future me because I know that after I record this podcast I need to edit it, I need to get it scheduled, I need to do my videos, I need to get everything onto YouTube.

There's a lot to be done and I go on holiday in a few weeks and I know that future me, when I get back for my holiday, will be delighted that I don't have lots of podcasts to record and edit and schedule because September will be done. And that is what I want for you, to make your future you really, really happy.

If this all seems like a massive headache and you've gone, okay, I'm kind of on board with you, Vicky. I kind of see why I should be doing this now, but I don't have the time, I don't have the inclination, I don't have the knowledge.

Don't worry, I can, I can help.

So first of all, I have an Amazon launch package which is for anyone who doesn't have the time to get set up on Amazon themselves that wants to get off for a really, really good start and basically you hand it over to me and I do it all for you and I just make it, make it happen. I have limited spaces for these this month. As I mentioned, September is a really busy month for me.

But if you get in touch soon, I will hopefully be able to help you and we can get you up and running by the end of September. And then I also offer one off power hours as well.

And these are great if you need a bit of you're stuck on one particular thing or you've just got lots of questions to ask because I appreciate this episode hasn't gone into lots of detail about how you get started on Amazon, but I do have a really great back catalogue and there is an episode on this there. So do you go back to the back catalogue if that's going to be helpful for you. So I really hope you have enjoyed this episode.

Stick around for the rest of the month.

We're going to be talking about things you can do on Amazon to make sure you have a fantastic course of four, because I guess that's what we're all gearing up for at the moment. Remember to rate, review, Scribe, subscribe, subscribe, tell your friends, and also go over and follow me on YouTube.

I'm Icky Weinberg and you can find all previous episodes there as long, as well as lots of great clips from both myself and my podcast guests. So I will see you again very soon.

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the Fullback catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickyweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.