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Black Friday & Cyber Monday Wrap-Up · Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, this is Selling on Giants at the E commerce Marketplace Show, where we chat with experts in the e-commerce industry and talk about the latest strategies, insights, and best practices you need to succeed on major e-commerce marketplaces.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Victor Dwyer, and today we have a familiar face on our podcast, Will Hare.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Will serves as the co-founder of Bellvix, an outstanding all-in-one marketplace marketing agency that's been creating ripples in the business world.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into our topic today, a Black Friday and Cyber Monday wrap-up, let's have Will introduce himself to provide a glimpse into what he brings to the table for our new listeners joining us today.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Will, thank you so much for joining.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, uh great to be back, Victor.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Were you just wrapped up?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Probably the busiest season for us, period.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard it Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and it was T5 and now it's T11.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just waiting for we just call it like November.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of November we're just talking and shopping and you know going right into Christmas or your holiday mode.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so I'm Will Hare.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the co-founder of Bellavix.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have you know 15 plus years, give or take, of experience on Amazon and marketplaces.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Primarily manage Bellovix, it's a uh marketplace management agency.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm an Amazon nerd, but during a long time, I love to talk to sellers and obviously talk about some trends we're seeing, a benefit being an agency similar to like private equity or aggregator.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of clients in different categories.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we kind of have like our own ecosystem and data that we can turn to to see trends and kind of get ahead of things and be more strategic for next year.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited to be chatting a bit with you about it on today's show.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, awesome.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd love for you to kind of like share your screen a little bit and kind of understand like what's really been happening in Black Friday.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll make sure of the people listening to this podcast as well.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do our best to kind of describe those words and we'll also link the presentation of what Will's gonna be having in here so that way everyone's going to have it.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll do our best to also describe kind of what's going on, just seeing what the trends we are, because it's kind of crazy what's been going on for this Black Friday.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot different than we're used to.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, especially compared to last year.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of crazy, and you know, inflation is definitely an issue, but overall, you know, for Bellavic sellers, and I'm sure for a lot of other e-commerce brands, overall it was it was a good season.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: We did see growth, especially comparing to previous period.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm actually gonna summarize this.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna hit a couple of the really important pieces that I love your audience to know.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, for specifically for Black Friday, 9.8 billion spent, and 54% of purchases made online were made via mobile devices.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And this is really interesting.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: So important that when you're thinking of your listing, that you're optimized for mobile view.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So your first 70 characters are really powerful.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And while it's not in here, Cyber Monday was 12.4 billion.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So while it did more in sales, was not as strong as Amazon.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Belavic's brands is similar to other agency owners and other brands in our niche.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Black Friday was our best day by far and tends to be like that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: In your experience, Vic, under some of your brands and stuff, has Black Friday always been a better day for you?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's mainly Prime Day.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I usually have almost a on the Prime days, it's normally like from a seven to eight X day over day sales, and then Black Friday is usually only like four or five X, but it's also weird because people pre-buying Black Friday week, but so the days are like weird now because it's not like it's not a day anymore, it's a week.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot different because all prime day sales are like basically in those two days, but Black Friday was like a week because even Amazon starts saying that like early Black Friday deals.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: That was Monday, the the Monday before Black Friday.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot weirder with that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's some data that I have on that side.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very cool.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And on our end prime Black Friday outperformed July Prime Day, October Prime Day, but October Prime Day didn't outperform July Prime Day.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess I got we might have a lot of giftable um type brands in our portfolio.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let me keep going with this presentation.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: E-commerce price decrease about six percent, so it was slightly lower compared to the previous 12 months.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we saw obviously a lot of discounting going on, which is no surprise.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: 89% of sales were done on Black Friday.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, what this is saying is that a lot more, according to numerators data, 89% of the shoppers were making purchases during Black Friday, although a lot more sellers were discounting a lot earlier than Black Friday.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Quick question actually prices decrease six percent, but with inflation, it's actually with the price like the cost of goods going up, but we discounted more, six percent more than last year.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's exactly it.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's like kind of one of the spots, and I'll stop sharing just so we could summarize that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but yeah, so that's a big thing is like so inflation.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, for example, I think we said we saw about a seven and a half percent increase in sales compared to last year, according to Adobe, I believe.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at 2022 compared to 2021, when it when we went off from that data, it was closer to like 12.5%.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just more.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so the I saw Statistica have a survey and the argument they're making is like we spent more to get the same amount.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: So like inflation is obviously a big issue.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: What was even more interesting is like the actual trend.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So not only that, but more people chose to shop online than in retail.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think retail only saw like a two and a half percent increase, which was relatively low.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have like Reuters and IGN noting that most people during the holiday are choosing to shop online, so it's just an even like Axios, which is a supply chain service logistics data conglomerate, and they're saying that the operational stability and efficiency for Amazon sellers is improving, meaning that you could order something, get a great deal, not have to murder your neighbor inside a Walmart to get it, and you know, everybody's pretty happy.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I bring this all up because you're hitting home at like a really important point.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we are feeling inflation, and it's great that we're seeing more spend, but like our buying power is less.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: But for Amazon sellers in general, like online retailers, a lot more people are choosing to go online to search for these deals and events.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that is also pretty interesting and an interesting trend.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just think it's a lot easier from like because usually the deals are honestly better on Amazon than sometimes you get in Walmart, like it's like these retailers where because there's so much more selection and so much more competition there that why would you be like going at midnight or whatever, 9 a.m.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: to go fight people when you could just be getting it online at this point.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the games change.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like uh honestly, like the working hours are better, like people aren't having to there's no midnight as much.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, they open it a little earlier and a little later.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: My wife spent a lot of time working retail, and I remember when she was in college and stuff, like the Black Friday Cyber Monday time was like, you know, the whole week before they're they're pulling up all nighters and getting their store ready and everything else, and it's just it's crazy, and those days are over, you know what I mean?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like it'll be in a news event when uh our kids learn about how crazy our grandparents were on buying Christmas kids.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any other valuable insights you want to share in that presentation that you want to add?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to turn back just to chat through a case study, but I'd love to talk about some trends we noted, just like in general, that might help sellers better prepare for future events.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And to kick it off, I'll start with a pretty easy trend that most people could probably guess, but advertising costs were up.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the rising ad spend was up, which is great.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: More advertisers advertising, a lot more opportunity.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, CPC was up, so it's indicative of like a more competitive landscape and a lot more brands turning to.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a percentage rate on that, like by chance, like an average percentage rate?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: If not, no worries.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did it go up?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if you had any idea, like went up 50% or anything else like that.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'll have to think out.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Where did I get that data from?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'll have to double check because that's not from our data.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we don't have enough data for that to for me to be putting that out, but I believe this was by their software provider.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: It starts with the P, not perpetuate, not perpetua.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Pacview, Pacview pulled that out.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they're saying the rise in ad spend and CPCs mean a more competitive landscape.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're also seeing declining ROAS since 2022, which just says that it's becoming a more competitive market.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And what's interesting that they tied together was that sellers are struggling to align discounts with consumer expectations that align with cost of clicks and purchases.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, like that's the real challenge.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And like, you know, hindsight's always 2020, of course.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: But that's one of the trends we noted advertising costs being way up, which is something we've been seeing for quite some time now.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, question if you had a giftable item, okay, so at some level that let's say if you're giving an item that's 30% off, okay, and if you were to advertise that on Black Friday, it wouldn't be as like effective as giving away for 50% because you would get a lot more clicks and a lot more people would purchase and be a lot more interested.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any insight on how steep to go the discount to where it starts being where it starts eating your profit margin versus being beneficial?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because like obviously, like a 10% discount on Black Friday, if you spend$10,000 on a 10% coupon, that's super ineffective admin.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no point of spending, you're gonna lose a lot of money.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but if you did it on a 30%$10,000, you might be more effective with that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have any insights there?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is a really great question.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And what I'll say, it varies.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not cop it out, I'm gonna give you a real answer, Vic, but it varies based on category.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: What I will say at Bellavic specifically, what we do is we test this a lot of times.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I will say you'll be surprised that more often than not, offering a lower discount, but having the discount available will be better for your conversion rates.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, we generally find that there's a point of diminishing returns.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can't give you general numbers because like I don't know what a typical, based on our brands, like what a typical discount would be, but I'd say generally what we know not the most aggressive discounts because like the perception is that you're liquidating something that has some type of manufacturing defect.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas opposed, and this is what I've heard from other thought leaders, as opposed to something that's only slightly discounted, and it means that you're getting a deal on it, it's not like we're giving away because something's wrong with it.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: There is a point of diminishing returns.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how we think about promotions.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's super valuable.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And like with everything, with the trends you've discussed so far about the rising ad costs, the discounts getting steeper.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you recommend for an Amazon seller?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like with this issue that are is happening right now.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's a pay-to-play platform.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: The survey that came out this year, Amazon from like a cost per click and a cost per acquisition, it's still way cheaper than general, you know, website and retail.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: We actually see this with you know all of our brands while it's going up.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of catching up to the norm, which is like your Googles and your Shopify's, things that have been around and are more established.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, obviously, Amazon's picking up Steam, they understand the audience game between Accelerate and a lot of other events, you know, they are building a media empire and they're really getting into the logistics game, partnership with you know, Facebook, Meta, Snapchat, Shopify, like outside, we're kind of going outside of our conversation, but like, you know, they're Amazon's not going anywhere.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're getting deeper into advertising and logistics.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever there's a holiday or opportunity to get in front of customers, play the game and make sure you're profitable, you know.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Unless you're in, you know, let's try to grow top line sales for a specific reason.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you'll be the best judgment of like what you can afford in terms of discounting.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's super valuable.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anything else that you want to discuss on those trends before we dive into the next trends that you had?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I got one more trend that I thought was pretty interesting, and then I could talk on to some first for 2023 that we we noted.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if if it feels like the holiday is starting even earlier, like discounts and deals, it actually is.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: According to Salesforce, they're saying that I don't have the exact timeline, but the discounts were started earlier in October and were better this year than the previous year in terms of the amount of discount, which is pretty interesting.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then the uh National Retail Federation says that about 55% of consumers took advantage of early holiday sales by 35% chose to wait to the weekend before.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, as we're complaining, like Halloween's losing out to Christmas and Thanksgiving doesn't stand a chance.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're also training our shoppers to shop early, shop often, and that the discounts only gradually get better.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So pretty interesting trends we're seeing for at least for 2023.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're also, you know, kind of in inflation.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: We got a bit of a recession going on, so it doesn't mean that this is indicative of like what's gonna be happening next year or the year after that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you an online seller struggling to navigate the complexities of marketplace management?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let Bellovix help.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our dedicated team of professionals are passionate, innovative, and committed to excellence to growing your brand on marketplaces.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: With Bellivix, you can trust your brand where we receive personalized support and expertise that will help you stand out from the competition.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that every brand is unique, which is why we tailor our approach to fit your specific needs.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ready to take the brand to the next level on marketplaces, contact Bellovix today.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let us help you achieve your goals to grow your brand.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what's the actionable advice you would give to someone for next Black Friday?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Would it be to do it um early in October?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's some actionable advice that Amazon seller can walk away with?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I could actually let me share my screen.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'll walk through something we did as part of a case study that's like the perfect example of what I would consider sharing if I was ramping up my Black Friday Cyber Monday strategy.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive the scrolling for anybody who's viewing us.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am simply scrolling our PDF deck, which will be available on the what the show episode, Vic.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So if anybody wants this, they can check it out.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: But in this particular example, so typically I like to start mid-October, but obviously it depends on the brand.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: We obviously we always have campaigns going.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that these are these campaigns are specific for the holiday.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the first thing we did is just like get the flywheel in motion.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, starting November 1st, we're starting to get aggressive on bids and budgets.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we want to have a presence, we want to be around non-branded keywords, we want to make sure that we have a presence everywhere that we deem necessary to have a presence.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: So on product detail pages, on competitor pages, when somebody searches on Amazon, when somebody searches off of Amazon, when somebody's in markets, or like there's tons of different scenarios that you'll want to annotate if ad coverage is needed.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then the second week of November, we do another increase of rounds of bids, but in this one, we're starting to focus more on items that are gonna be promoted, as well as mid-funnel DSP campaigns.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So these campaigns were launched probably mid-October, if not a little earlier, and they're getting they're conquesting, they're getting people in market or in category in aisle.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So those are gonna get a little more aggressive as we're starting to ramp up.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: The third week, we're gonna get aggressive, even more aggressive on competitor and category targeting.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing a lot of advertising, but we also have promotions going on.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're also doing brand tailored performance, we're doing Amazon posts.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, on top of these advertising techniques, we're also, you know, leveraging promotions and other marketing features to our advantage.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we're doing a lot of retargeting.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: In this particular case study, we had our brand run a live stream throughout Black Friday and into Cyber Monday, which helped out tremendously.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case study, you see, in culmination with a robust advertising strategy and leveraging Amazon Prime, they had the best sale of the brand's history, and it was 30% higher than Prime Day in July, which is where broke the record for the first time.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we got to break it again for Black Friday.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, it's a very seasonal item and it's a very giftable item.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, their best sales dates are gonna align to these events, but we're happy that we're seeing these types of results, which is great.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But that's an example of a roller plan.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of went in deep.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're listening and only, I'm just sharing a presentation that just says really basic tier breakdowns with what we did in this particular example.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, like we're in this example talking about advertising, but letting you guys know you want to be taking advantage of all the tools Amazon gives you to support your brand.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: That includes manage your customer experience, actively be split testing.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have the resources, if nothing else, do pay-per-click advertising and leverage sponsored display.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: Customers are expecting some type of promotion, so even if it's as little as 5%, that's fine.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, if it's a lower cost item, if you're in the it's no longer the small light program, you're automatically in that program if your products qualify.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if you're not a giftable item, I would not participate.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're in a giftable category, I'd participate.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of our supplement brands participated.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say that it's very giftable.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: We weren't super aggressive on our discounts in that category, but you know, we gave them the option.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted to roll with it, so we ran with it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: But if I was selling toys or blankets, apparel, watches, stuff like that, I would be I would make sure I'm running discounts.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so what type of discounts do you normally end up running for Black Friday?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Prime exclusive discounts?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is it coupons?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: What type of discounts are you running?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's all the above.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: It depends what the strategy is, but if nothing else, prime exclusive deals tend to perform the best.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: We for specifically for events, generally not not regularly, at lightning deal, best day deals, stuff like that tend to work pretty good.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: We'll run coupons on items that don't qualify for lightning deals or whatever else.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And those are and then yeah, then we'll leverage like brand tailor performance.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: So those are kind of how we look at it.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then also, like what kind of behavior do you want to incentivize?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, like a lot of times during this year, we'll be running like BOGOs or buy one and get a discount off.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: We'll tie it to like liquidated products that we might want to get rid of, or we'll do bundles where we'll have like a tier by two, get five, ten, fifteen.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we may get pretty creative.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: I will say with like the bundle and even the virtual bundles, they don't get as much volume as like the coupons or the prime exclusive deals because of the visibility and like sometimes, especially with the bundles, you might have to add, but it's not of you have to add them a certain way to get them in there.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that a lot of customers won't, I they just don't perform, they perform great, they just don't get as much volume.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to touch on that for a second because of a lot of people are struggling with profitability, and that could be a good smart method during Black Friday to do a steep discount, but do a bundle somewhere in there to increase your average order value to help increase that profitability as a possible method.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any strategy you would add on to that, how you would approach to increase that average order value?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, hit on the head, virtual bundles is a great way.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you could bundle products together, which is also a great way to differentiate your product depending on if you're a reseller or what your products might look like.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the best way.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then you know, outside of that, they're looking for discounts.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you just want to make sure, you know, with the bundle deal.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think to get the virtual bundles, I think it's a five percent minimum, I believe.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then 20% to participate in some of the the other programs.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then depending on your category, we're big fans of subscribe and save.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, like if you're a supplement, if you're a beauty brand, if you're anything that is a consumable item, a lot of our strategies are built around like how do we get more subscribe and savers?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of that might be, you know, package inserts and other incentives.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: So great time to get access to new to brand customers because there's just a lot more volume on there.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking creatively, obviously, you know, it's December now, so you miss the boat a bit, but it doesn't mean you can't work these same strategies into like prime day or category specific.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think we got like pet day coming up in March, other events that are worthwhile.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you shared a lot of amazing actionable advice to do for next year.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any other advice you would do for people that are going through Black Friday next year or any other tips that you have that we haven't mentioned?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: From a tip perspective, just be prepared, prepare early.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, that's not gonna change.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: We put out a lot of information, so if you're ever wondering, feel free to check out our blog.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to if you email us directly, we're happy to send something your way.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, participate and Amazon's investing a lot.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, like a lot of what we're doing with brands that you know are not crazy large, we're putting a lot of emphasis on programmatic and streaming TV.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Your ability to build audiences is gonna be really important.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're also moving into like TikTok and social.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: So those are opportunities as Amazon continues to form partnerships for you to consider strategically as you're considering your strategies for Black Friday, Cyber Monday next year.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: So look into the future to 2024.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I think our we have a we're gonna have a lot more opportunities next year um than we did this year.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And one more question before we sign off.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any uh strategies for the upcoming Christmas holiday?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Any ways to approach that?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Any tidbits you want to add there?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: So people are shopping from now till I'd say give or take December 22nd.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So keep that in mind.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's up to you.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: We definitely throttle down on ad budgets come the 22nd to like the 27th.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: So not a bad strategy if you're a more frugal brand and need to be concerned with uh ad spend.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then keep in mind gift card shoppers will be online returning items and redeeming gift cards for most of January.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: I know technically mid-January, but January tends to still be a pretty good month for a lot of the brands.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in the fitness and supplement category, it's a great time.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, my only advice is don't take your foot off the gas yet.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you still got two or three weeks to really make it rain.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a great time to comb through your Black Friday Cyber Monday data and make some light adjustments to your catalog that might, you know, your listing that might help, whether it's keywords or slightly positioning.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I wouldn't get too aggressive because you don't want to have your listing get suspended or taken down for no reason.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure it's worth it and make sure you're collecting data, which is even more important.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, awesome.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's all we have time for today.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Will, please tell the audience how to find you, how to find your business, and everything else like that.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, awesome.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So bellavix.com, check out our website.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: You can reach out to me personally on LinkedIn, Will Hare, like on your head with an E.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty active.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: We have an active newsletter.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess in the show notes, you'll be able to download this report.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have insights into all things Black Friday, Cyber Monday, as well as some strategies and tactics we use.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also have two additional decks for the beauty and supplement categories.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So anybody specifically in those categories and want to get some baseline data for next year, we'll have some great category information in there for you guys to check out.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Outside of that, Vic, thanks for having me.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pleasure as always.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, awesome.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is Selling on Giants, the e commerce marketplace show.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll catch you next time.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.