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- Amazon has spoken and Black Friday starts tomorrow [ MDSR #2]
Amazon has spoken and Black Friday starts tomorrow [ MDSR #2]
Million Dollar Sellers
November 16, 2023
This bi-weekly newsletter, coined “MDSR” for short, aims to help you accelerate your sales and growth without reinventing the wheel. From essential industry news and events to priceless resources and tips, we offer quick, potent insights that can be your shortcut to success.
Hot Off The Presses 📰
Black Friday already? This isn’t lingering daylight savings confusion — Amazon is just kicking off Black Friday a full week early on November 17th and keeping the party going all the way through to Cyber Monday.
Extending the sale seems to be for good reason given Deloitte’s promising 2023 holiday retail survey which found that 35% more consumers are planning to shop during this year’s BFCM week than last year.
Beyond a longer holiday sale window, Amazon’s pulling out all the stops to make clicking “buy” a no-brainer this year. On the heels of their new social shopping features for product recommendations they’ve also announced a partnership with Meta that links Facebook and Instagram accounts with Amazon so consumers can seamlessly buy Amazon products they see on their feed — and so Amazon and Meta can share data for ad targeting. What a time to be alive!
Amazon may or may not be borrowing some inspiration from TikTok Shop with that one, but the inspiration borrowing seems to be mutual with TikTok’s plans to develop an eCommerce fulfillment network to make a more competitive play for US sales.
Other than that, we hear Amazon’s working on an AI model that’s twice as complex as ChatGPT. The use case remains to be seen.
And Temu is looking at another class action lawsuit alleging that their app contains dangerous spyware that gives the company access to literally everything on your phone.
Yikes…
Million Dollar Advice 💸
Does this sound like you?
I know my target audience better than anyone. The data can’t tell me anything I don’t already know after X number of years selling in this niche. Making product and keyword decisions on a gut feeling have gotten me pretty far over the years.
If so, you may be relying too heavily on the kind of emotional decision-making that leaves money on the table. But it’s not too late to try a data-driven Amazon strategy for top product rankings in time for BFCM. What do you have to lose?
Ecommerce Tool Of The Week 🔦
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With prices starting at $15 for images and $25 for TikTok videos plus no subscription fee, its a no brainer to sign up and get started.
Mention “MDSR” in their support chat and instantly receive $25 bucks to spend 💸
BFCM Tricks Of The Trade 🎁
Alex Hormozi knows his stuff, and these are the 5 tactics he says you should try if you’re looking to win the holiday gold rush this year:
Don’t hesitate to be a loss leader — a loss leader strategy is when you sell a product at a price that’s not quite profitable to attract new customers — or sell your other products.
Embrace gift cards — turns out most people don’t actually get around to using them, which means you net more $$.
Create high ticket scarcity — meaning, offer high-value products or services for a very limited amount of time to motivate customers to take action faster.
Try a free with prepay strategy — this means tapping into the power of perception. If you usually sell shirts for $5, offering customers a promotion where they can buy 1 shirt for $10 and get 2 for free will get you more sales than offering a 30% discount on 3 shirts — even though both offers are ultimately the same.
“Magic wrap” your holiday promotions — which is basically just reskinning the language you use to market your products and holiday discounts to make them hyper-relevant to your target audience and their interests during the holiday season.
We also mined LinkedIn for these next few kernels of wisdom…
^^ Read the full post here.
ChatGPT Prompts 🤖
Still need to holiday-ify your Amazon listings? These killer ChatGPT prompts can help:
Provide 5 product description variations about [PRODUCT CATEGORY] to entice [TARGET AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC] while holiday shopping.
Develop a holiday-themed product description for our [PRODUCT CATEGORY] that mentions all its benefits, and what makes it a great gift.
Craft a gift-focused product description for [PRODUCT X] that can also cross-sell [PRODUCT Y] as a holiday gift bundle for [TARGET AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC].
Just make sure you’re not using any keywords that Amazon’s banned before you go live…
YouTube Playlist ▶️
These are some must-watch videos that provide tactical steps to improve your business!
Think these are helpful?
Share this newsletter to help other sellers get actionable tips like these.
eCom Stock Watch 👀
Amazon stock started 2023 at $84. Today Amazon traded at $142.59, up +13% this month and +70% from the start of the year. Their forecasted price for the end of 2023 is now $160 (+12% from today and +90% YoY). Prices are expected to climb to $163 by summer 2024 and $175 at year end (+23% from the current price).
SHOPIFY → Last earnings report on November 2nd and next earnings report currently TBC
Shopify stock was $50.50 at the top of 2023. Today they traded at $62.34, up +12% this month and +23% from the start of the year. By the end of 2023, their price is expected to hit $71.22 (+14% from today, +41% YoY) — and $85.76 by the end of 2024 (+38% from the current price).
Alibaba stock started 2023 at $88.09. Today they traded at $82.26, down -1% this month and -7% from the start of the year. By the end of 2023, their price is expected to hit $84.38 (+3% from today and down -4% YoY) — and $108.55 by the end of 2024 (+32% from the current price).
Walmart stock came into 2023 at $127.34. Today they traded at $167.68, up +7% this month and +32% from the start of the year. By the end of 2023, their price is expected to hit $176 (+5% from today and +38% YoY) — and $182 by the end of 2024 (+9% from the current price).
Did you hear that joke👂
I tried to search for lighters on Amazon, but there were only 25,792 matches :)
— Argin Gerigorian (@argingerigorian)
6:29 AM • Nov 9, 2023
Got a better one? Reply to the thread!
Upcoming Ecom Events 🗓️
The world of eCommerce is ever-evolving, and upcoming events like these are exactly what you need to keep your finger on the pulse and stay relevant.
Traffic & Conversion Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 9-11, 2024. You can look forward to 3 jam-packed days of actionable content about new traffic channels, customer-centric marketing, and conversion break-throughs led by 45+ expert speakers.
eTail in Palm Springs, California, February 26-29, 2024. Join 195 industry leaders in an intimate conference atmosphere for some meaningful dialogues about omnichannel excellence.
MDS Inspire, in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 4-5, 2024. You won’t want to miss the only MDS main event where non-members can attend. This once-a-year event features the multi-million dollar sellers in the industry that you haven't heard speak anywhere else.
ASD Market Week in La Vegas, Nevada, March 10-13, 2024. This is the ultimate consumer merchandise trade show, offering a four-day shopping experience with product options that will appeal to retailers of all shapes and sizes.
Shoptalk in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 17-20, 2024. Come together with 10,000 retail changemakers to gain exclusive insights and connect with industry giants. If you’re looking to boost your brand recognition and expand your business, this one’s a must.
And those are really just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to mark your calendars for all 19 of our top recommended eCom events, don’t miss our complete roundup below.
Looking for a mastermind community?
Million Dollar Sellers (MDS) is an exclusive community of 600+ like-minded Amazon and DTC sellers from all over the world. Collectively, our members generate more than 8 billion in annual sales and dominate some of the biggest categories on Amazon. MDS offers world-class events, chapters, industry discounts, resource libraries full of SOPs, templates, and video recordings of private trainings, workshops, events and so much more.
If you are looking for a business professional community made for ecom entrepreneurs then consider applying today.
*To qualify, you must be a full-time seller or brand owner and do at least 1 million in verified annual revenue.
Until Next Time ✌️
As always, thanks for sticking with us since you’ve read this far.
But now, over to you — we’d love to hear how you’re approaching BFCM 2023 and how it’s going for you.
And you’re always welcome to smash that reply button and let us know what you’d liked or didn’t like about this newsletter.
If you need us in the meantime, we’ll be trawling the internet to find the latest and greatest content you need to succeed 🔥
Sincerely,
d