One of the main goals of business owners is to drive more traffic to their website and their store. They join various eCommerce platforms with the hope of raking in more customers. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to derail a lot of businesses all over the world. People who have lost their jobs are turning to reselling or putting up their own businesses. They sell various products, spanning from handcrafted resin coasters to handmade earrings or other accessories.

Amazon, one of the giants in eCommerce, has created a feature called lightning deals. This method helps sellers and other businesses flourish in the vast world of the Amazon marketplace. But, every tool or feature requires an investment. Lightning deals require an initial investment coupled with discounts on the prices of products. If properly utilized, this transforms into a long-term return on investment with a lot of positive results on product listings. Soon, you will notice the positive results!

Now, do you even wonder how an Amazon SEO guide guarantees results for sellers? Read through the article and discover how lightning deals boost the rankings of your product listings.

Amazon and their deals

Amazon provides a number of deals to their customers on a daily basis. These span from free shipping to even 50% off. Moreover, other sellers put their products on sale for a limited amount of time. In turn, this motivates customers to buy those products quickly, especially if they need them in their daily lives.

Customers can enjoy and grab deals in the following ways:

• Deal of the day
  • These are usually available for 24 hours only. If you fail to get them within the time limit, you will no longer have access to this on the following day.
• Lightning deals
  • Customers grab these deals as long as the product is still available and has stock in the warehouse. If the stocks are all sold or the time has run out, customers can no longer avail of the deals.
• Discounts from specific businesses or brands
• Coupons or vouchers
  • Most of the time, sellers send these out to their customers when products go on sale, or if an event comes up. These coupons and vouchers contain a special code that results in a discount when customers check out.

Majority of these deals come with discounted prices. You will notice that the profit margin is usually low. Sellers gain income from the high volume of orders and not just through one product. Learn more about Amazon selling here.

3 reasons why you need to offer lightning deals

As previously stated, lightning deals give customers discounts for a limited amount of time. Lightning deals provide a lot of benefits to sellers, such as an increase in traffic. Browse through this Amazon product launch complete guide and set up your shop and deals in no time!

1. More sales will come your way

Even if lightning deals do not provide high income for sellers, they give the opportunity for an augmented number of orders on various items. Due to the time limit set on these lightning deals, customers think that it’s “either now or never.” So, they buy more instead of just one. Another thing about lightning deals, sellers may put up older stocks on sale so customers may grab batches of those products.

2. They boost brand presence and awareness

Aside from increasing sales, lightning deals boost brand awareness and visibility. Customers identify your business because they see more on the search results and practically everywhere around Amazon.

These deals appear almost everywhere on Amazon. The more attractive your product listings are, the more they’ll stand out from your competitors. With a single product listing on the lightning deals, your brand gains more exposure and obtains a lot of visitors. Lightning deals also help increase book sales on Amazon.

3. They drive traffic to your Amazon shop

Customers treat lightning deals, coupons, or vouchers as gifts from sellers. Truth be told, customers often lurk around the deals page before going to the main lobby of an eCommerce platform. They constantly check deals that fit their budget. Every time they check something out, your products and your lightning deals expose your profile to other customers. Make sure that you optimize your product listings and include images so people see that they can trust your business.

Things to be careful with when creating lightning deals

Lightning deals do a great job for sellers. However, with the pros come the cons that you need to prepare for. Make sure you prepare yourselves for what’s yet to come.

1. There may be some uncertainty with schedules

Deals, sales, coupons, and vouchers possess something in common. All of these things come with deadlines. Sellers create lightning deals but fail to create the perfect schedule. These lightning deals last about at least six hours up to 24 hours.

Some online businesses in the fashion industry shared that with lightning deals, peak shopping hours shifted. With the COVID-19 pandemic, business hours have constantly shifted to adapt to the behavioral changes of consumers. From the usual morning deals, sellers have shifted slowly to the evening schedule to ensure that most people are awake.

2. Stores need ample amount of stock

Sellers, we got to ask you, do you go to battle without any ammunition? The answer’s simple: you don’t. With lightning deals, sellers prepare their inventory at least a day (24 hours) before the deal goes live on Amazon.

Amazon will cancel the lightning deal if the seller fails to meet the necessary requirements. This includes adding more stocks to their inventory. However, if the seller plans on cleaning up their warehouse by selling the older products, this may be counterproductive.

Now, in order not to encounter a shortage of products, make sure that you prepare everything in time. Stock up and contact your suppliers or manufacturers to send some materials your way. Therefore, before the lightning deal goes live, you have produced or crafted enough items.

What do lightning deals require?

Most services require a fee. The minimum payment costs around $150 but it goes up to $750 especially during peak periods. These include Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Prime Day.

Other than the fee, you also need to create a professional selling account through either Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP). Your products need to be new, with ample stock, and with at least three-star ratings. Also, remember to abide by the rules and regulations formulated by Amazon when it comes to products.

Lastly, submit your lightning deals at least a week before your desired date for them to go live. Create an offer with at least a 20% discount.

Vital parts of the deal

When you go to the deals page, customers will see the highlighted (or featured) product with its original price, discounted price, and even the discount rate. Also,  you’ll see a timer that will show how much time you got before the deal ends. Some listings also have status bars that indicate how many have already claimed the deal.

When customers see the available deals, they will be able to add the products to their carts. If there is no more stock, customers will see “Join Waitlist” instead. When buyers click that, they’ll receive notifications if there is stock available.

How to create your own lightning deal

For starters, you need not go to each item on your products page. You proceed to your Seller Central account then to the Lightning Deals Dashboard. It will show the eligible products that you may include.

Aside from that, other pieces of information that Amazon will provide are:

• Product title
• Regular price
• Highest price you can offer as determined by Amazon
• Minimum amount of stock required so the deal runs — also chosen by Amazon
• Preferred schedule
• Fee for the lightning deal

After choosing which products will go under the lightning deal, make sure to click “Edit” below the product information. There, you’ll input the deal price and quantity. Make sure that the information is accurate and matches the numbers that you have. Click “Submit” when you’re ready for Amazon to review.

What comes next?

After submitting the lightning deal you made, you will see “Under Review”. That means that Amazon is currently checking and reviewing your deal. If it needs revising, you’ll see “Needs Edits”. On the other hand, if everything is good but without a schedule yet, you’ll see “Pending”.

Fortunately, if every piece of information is okay and your lighting deal has a schedule already, you will see “Approved” in the status. Otherwise, you will see “Suppressed” if your proposal gets rejected by Amazon.

Can you cancel?

Yes, you may cancel the lightning deals anytime. However, you may get charged for doing so, especially if you cancel 25 hours before the schedule. Take note that regularly canceling deals will result in Amazon blocking your account.

Lightning deals as SEO strategy — will it work?

Most business owners contemplate on how they will increase traffic and sales without overworking their team. Offering lightning deals solves that. It feels like you’re hitting three birds with one stone. Not only you raise more awareness about your brand but also increase traffic to your store. Plus, it will rank your products higher on search results!

Hence, lightning deals make the best and fool-proof SEO strategy!

What do you need to consider in making lightning deals?

One thing about lightning deals as an SEO strategy: make sure that you optimize them. Amazon product listing optimization plays a very important role in the search results. With a huge amount of deals, your listings affect how the search results work.

In order to optimize your listings, follow these tips:

• Limit your descriptive titles to 200 characters only. Include relevant keywords.
• Use high quality images that show the product itself. Avoid editing the images too much, resulting in distortions in the appearance of the item. Make sure that it’s at least 1,000 pixels.
• Write your descriptions in bullet form as it makes them easier to understand and remember. Mention notable features and benefits .
• Secure positive reviews from your customers.

Managing your seller account may be quite challenging, especially if you handle the main business operations, too. With that, you may opt to consult a third-party service provider to manage everything related to Amazon product listing optimization.

Takeaway

The Amazon marketplace continues to grow and help sellers build their businesses. However, with the vast size and wide range of tools, sellers can get easily overwhelmed and lost with the various functions. Now, with the lightning deals, ranking and driving traffic to your store becomes easier.

Amplify your sales, traffic, and items. Start using lightning deals!

Author’s Bio:

Jayce is the managing director of Seller Interactive, an Amazon full service marketing agency dedicated towards helping brands grow on Amazon. His content marketing expertise has led him to work with brands such as Toyota and GoDaddy, producing content that reached over 20M views in a month. He is on a journey to help D2C brands scale their business on Amazon.