Q4 is the most wonderful time of the year for Amazon sellers, and it’s not too late to get even more out of it! During this episode, we explore four last-minute Q4 strategies to help you get the most out of what’s left of Q4 for this year.
Listen today to hear why it’s so important to double down on your strengths, why you should or should not consider merchant-fulfilling, and why it’s so important to stock up for Q1. You’ll also hear some essential reminders to equip you to thrive during the final quarter of this year, including what to do to prepare for the quarter to come. Listen on the podcast player below.
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Key points from Episode 215:
How Q4 is going so far.- The first last-minute Q4 strategy: double down on your strengths (and what that means).
- Our second tip: consider merchant-fulfilling… in certain situations.
- Why deep into Q4 is the wrong time to start merchant-fulfilling (and when a much better time to start might be).
- The importance of setting a reminder to learn how to do merchant-fulfilling well before Q4 of next year.
- Don’t just focus on sourcing for Q4 sales, but also stock up for Q1 sales for the following year.
- How January can become one of your biggest sales months of the year.
- Our fourth tip: What needs to be your number one priority as Q4 winds down.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
Seller Central’s Merchant Fulfilled Page- Sign up for Full-Time FBA’s newsletter
- How to Have a Six-Figure Q4 Masterclass
Right-click here and save as to download this episode to your computer.
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Episode 215 Transcript:
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:01.8] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode, it’s our goal to help you turn part-time hours into a full-time income, selling almost anything on Amazon. Now, your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.
[WELCOME]
[0:00:21.7] REBECCA: Hello there and welcome to episode number 215 of The Full Time FBA Show. We are here, it’s the end of November 2023 and we are talking about last-minute Q4 strategies to boost your profits on Amazon. Welcome to the show, my cohost, Stephen Smotherman, how is your Q4 going?
[0:00:41.1] STEPHEN: I mean, Q4 is always the most wonderful time of the year and we’re experiencing that, seeing a really nice boost in sales but like, time is ticking, there’s not much Q4 left and so you know, we got some really cool last-minute strategies for you here today.
[DISCUSSION]
[0:00:58.1] REBECCA: Since this episode drops in late November, we wanted to give you our best last-minute Q4 strategies to maximize your Q4 profits and the remaining time we have before the holidays are over and before the new year comes upon us all. This will be a shorter than normal episode and we’re doing that on purpose.
In fact, our final last-minute Q4 strategy will explain why this episode is so short but you’ll have to wait a few minutes for that tip. No spoilers here. Okay, Stephen, November is almost over and we’re about to start the third month of Q4. So, share with us the first, last-minute Q4 strategy to boost profits on Amazon.
[0:01:33.5] STEPHEN: Yeah, I can’t believe November is almost over. Okay, so the first strategy I want to share with you as a last-minute Q4 tip is this: Double down on your strengths. With Q4 sourcing, especially when we’re entering the back end of Q4, it is so important that with every moment possible that we focus on what we are best at in our business. You know, if your strength is retail arbitrage, double down on retail arbitrage.
If it’s online arbitrage, double down on online arbitrage. If it’s looking at toys and sourcing toys, double down on toys. If your source of – if your strength is grocery items, double down on grocery. Don’t spend this valuable Q4 sourcing time on aspects of this business that you’re not too confident in when it comes to sourcing. Time is super important so double down on your strengths.
[0:02:22.5] REBECCA: That’s a good one, that’s what I’ve been doing myself. I’m having to remember so that’s a good reminder, focus on what I’m strong in. Okay, our second last-minute Q4 sourcing strategy is this: Consider merchant fulfilling, also called seller fulfill, any inventory that you’ve sourced that has a fast sales velocity. The key word there is that fast sales velocity.
So, if you didn’t know, Amazon FBA warehouses tend to have your items checked in and going live on Amazon a lot slower during Q4 than the other 10 or 11 months of the year but come this time in late November, the checking time with these warehouses can really slow down, sometimes double.
So, for items that are selling super quickly, or possibly, they’re even sold out via FBA on Amazon, consider merchant fulfilling those orders to get that fast-selling item to your customers even faster. As a note, if you’ve never sold via merchant fulfill before, then don’t follow this tip. Now is not the time.
Set aside some time in the future during the first few months of the new year, to learn how to merchant fulfill orders. We’ve said before that in Q4, you don’t focus on learning anything new in your business but focus on sourcing the most. So, unless you’re confident in merchant fulfilling, just wait to follow this last-minute Q4 strategy until next year.
Just remember to learn how to actually do merchant fulfilling before Q4 of next year, if possible and if you want some help on getting some how-to training for how to merchant fulfill, go to fulltimefba.com/merchantfulfilled. We’ll also put that link in our show notes page for this episode.
[0:03:56.7] STEPHEN: The third last-minute strategy to use when closing down Q4 is this: Remember to stock up for Q1. I mean, of course, sales are going to slow down on and after December 25th but that doesn’t mean your sourcing schedule is over. No, we’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, people keep buying stuff on Amazon after Christmas.
I mean, a popular holiday gift is for people is what? Amazon gift cards. So, it’s super fun to buy on Amazon with a gift card so people are going to spend their Amazon gift cards within about the first month or so of getting them. So, you want your items to be stocked up in your store to make sure that people will buy your stuff when it comes to these January buyers with gift cards, and in the toy world, you also have kids who go back to school in January and they see what their friends got for Christmas.
They come home and they tell their parents and some of them whine to their parents. They really want what little Billy got for Christmas. Wait, little Billy, does anyone really name their kids Billy or Bill or even William anymore? I don’t know. All right, so back to this. In fact, if you source correctly in December, you’re going to be able to have your items stocked up and sell really well.
And if it’s the right items in January and February, and it’s been our experience that January can be one of your biggest sales months of the year if you are able to stock up in December or before. In fact, regularly, our three biggest months, when it comes to sales numbers on Amazon are November, December, and January.
[0:05:20.4] REBECCA: All right, so far we’ve told you to make these last-minute pivots in your Amazon business to make the most of the end of Q4. We’ve talked about doubling down on your strengths, to consider merchant fulfilling in December, and to stock up for January. So, our fourth and final tip is, just go source for inventory. Do it now.
Stop listening to this podcast and just go source, source, source. In Q4, you want to make the most of every moment, so stop what you’re doing and go source. If you can’t source for inventory right now, then at least, go and plan. Put it on your calendar when the next time is that you’re going to focus on sourcing. Your sales are going to thank you for it.
[0:06:01.7] STEPHEN: Yeah, what other podcast is going to tell you to stop listening to their podcast? But it’s for your benefit, so go sourcing right now or plan to source as soon as soon as possible.
[CLOSING CONVERSATION]
[0:06:12.6] REBECCA: Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Full Time FBA Show. As always, we have the show notes and the transcripts along with any links that were mentioned in this episode at the show notes for this page, fulltimefba.com/215 because this is episode number 215.
[0:06:30.6] STEPHEN: And next week on the show, we’re going to share our top Christmas gifts for Amazon sellers. I mean, these are going to be some things that, maybe you’ll want to go buy for yourself with some of your Q4 profits, or maybe you want to share this podcast with family or friends to give them some ideas of stuff to get you for Christmas. As an Amazon seller, we’ll share that next week on The Full Time FBA Show.
[OUTRO]
[0:06:51.9] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show, so head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you will find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources. Now, take action on what you have learned today, so you can find success at turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.
[END]
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