Getting ready for Q4 on Amazon – what to do before it gets busy
Q4 is the biggest stretch of the year on Amazon, and every year, the sellers who do well in it are the ones who sorted the boring bits early rather than scrambling once things are already moving at full speed.
Here’s what’s actually worth looking at, and when.
Update your listings before Amazon does it for you
Amazon’s new 75 character title limit and Item highlights field is now live across all marketplaces, including the UK. If you haven’t updated your titles yet, Amazon’s AI will start rewriting them for you, which is worth avoiding if you can.
It’s worth writing your new titles now, even if you don’t update everything straight away, to get ahead of this. There’s no way of knowing how good, or not, Amazon’s suggested titles will turn out to be, and a non-optimised title could hurt your SEO.
Know your inventory deadlines
A few key dates to have in your diary. Black Friday is 27 November and Cyber Monday is 30 November. To take part in Black Friday, stock needs to arrive at an Amazon fulfilment centre by 16 September in the UK and 9 September elsewhere.
Amazon hasn’t given exact cutoff dates for the rest of Q4, just that they’ll be prioritising receiving stock in September and October. A sensible target is to have all your FBA stock arrive by mid-October at the latest, and to know it may take longer than usual to be processed once it’s there.
Check your account health while you’ve got time
This is a five minute job that’s easy to skip, and a costly one to leave. Check your account health dashboard for any compliance issues or approvals that need attention. Most issues come with deadlines and consequences attached, so it’s worth getting on top of it before anything actually goes wrong.
Review your ad budgets alongside your listings
Your title and item highlights now affect how you show up in search, so it’s worth reviewing ad budgets at the same time as your listings rather than treating them separately. If you’re planning deals for Q4, the Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday submission window closes 20 October.
Get reviews when you launch new products
If you’re launching new products ahead of Q4, this is the time to think about getting reviews in place. If you’re short on time but have the budget, Vine is worth looking at. Reviews can take a while to come through, so it’s worth starting as early as possible, and always before you start paying to send traffic to the listing.
Thinking about starting on Amazon rather than getting ready for Q4?
This is still worth knowing even if you’re not selling yet. It gives you a real sense of what the busiest quarter of the year actually involves, and honestly, it’s a good reason to think carefully about timing. Launching in Q4 itself tends to be harder and more expensive to get sales going, so waiting until the new year is often no bad thing.
None of this needs to be complicated, time consuming, or done all in one go. It’s just far easier to look at now than in the middle of your busiest period, when you’ve got plenty of other things to think about.
If you’d like to talk any of this through, whether you’re prepping for Q4 or weighing up whether now’s the right time to start, get in touch or join one of my free Amazon Sellers Support & Connect calls.