You may think that the holiday selling season is the only season to ramp up for, but take a look below and you’ll be surprised at all the selling opportunities you have for your online business coming up in the next few months.

No matter what you sell or where you sell it, capitalizing on these HOT spring and summer selling seasons can make a huge difference in your income during the 2nd quarter of the year!

From April to June there are 11 different selling seasons that you’ll want to ramp up for! Miss these and you’ll leave money on the table…

April

April may be the kickoff to spring, but in the world of online sales, there’s a whole lot of shopping goin’ on!

• Bathing suit season: It’s still too chilly to wear them but sales of bathing suits are skyrocketing now.  In fact, shoppers who wait much past May will find that all the best selection is gone! If you sell beachwear, it’s time to get it on your store homepage
• Prom wear: Online searches for prom wear are on the rise this month. Even though most proms don’ t happen until late May or early June, prom wear sales are increasing quickly with online searches up 60-80% from last month according to Google Insights
• Wedding season: Wedding season is in full swing as we approach June, one of the biggest wedding months of the year!
• April 8th: Easter: Easter is April 4th.  And there is still time to make last minute sales. According to BIGResearch the average amount Easter shoppers are expected to spend is $118.60, slightly up from the 2009 average of $116.59.
• April 23rd: Earth Day: Earth Day is April 22nd and sales of eco-friendly and green products abound during this time.  Don’t just look to sell traditionally “green” products. Look for the green in everything you sell. A bicycle is not only for entertainment and exercise, it is an eco-friendly way for your customers to commute to work or around town.

May

But that’s not all people are buying…

Bathing suit, prom wear and wedding season continue, but Mom boosts the sales this month!

• Sales of summer products ramp sharply in May (and June): Products for outdoor activities, clothing and outdoor living products for the home.  Don’t wait until June to feature these in your store or you’ll lose a lot of sales!
• May 7th: National Teachers Day. A week long celebration honoring teachers, if you sell gifts and decorative accessories your store should have a promotion around National Teacher’s Day.
• May 13th: Mother’s Day:  Mother’s Day is one of the biggest spending holidays of the year. Because it’s not just about buying a gift for your mom… there are grandmas, aunts, nieces, friends, co-workers and friends who are like a mom, who will all be getting gifts on this holiday too.  Recognize all the moms in your store promotions and you’re sure to increase sales!
• May 28th: Memorial Day: It vacation time, camping time, fun in the summer time and your last chance to make big inroads in summer product sales!

June

• June: Graduation. Grade school, middle-school, high-school, college and technical college – sales of graduation gifts increase in May and June! And don’t forget the little ones!  Pre-school graduation parties are all the rage.  What do you sell that would make a perfect gift for the graduate?
• June 17th: Father’s Day: Dad doesn’t fare quite as well as mom when it comes to Father’s Day spending but Father’s Day gift shoppers will be out in full force. Put together a Top 10 Father’s Day gift list and watch your sales of those products soar!
• June: 4th of July products: Remember the majority of product sales happen in advance of the holiday, so if you wait until July to pull out the red,white and blue – you’ve just lost sales to the savvy seller who merchandised their 4th of July products in June.  So get those 4th of July products out early, so your inventory is sold out come July.

As you can see there’s a whole lot of selling you can do from April through June!

So it’s time to get out there and capitalize on these spring and summer holiday selling seasons!

Use this calendar as your guide.

-Lisa

If you’ve been thinking about selling on Amazon, the time to make the move is now. Amazon is not only the Internet’s fastest growing ecommerce marketplace, it’s also driving the strongest growth for 3rd party merchants of consumer goods across the board.

Overall, Amazon’s sales were up 46% year-over-year in 2011. Compare that to the growth of ecommerce 15% , and eBay’s GMV at 10% and you can immediately see why Amazon is a “must consider” for your online business this year.

20% of the earth’s Internet population (that’s 1 in 5 people between the ages of 15-85) shopped an Amazon site in 2011. And that number will only continue to grow. Amazon is the #1 retailer online and

65%+ 3rd Party Merchant Growth

In last week’s earnings release Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed “Our millions of third-party sellers had a tremendous 2011 holiday season with 65% unit growth and now represent 36% of total units sold.”

If you sold on Amazon during the 2011 holiday selling season, you experienced this first-hand.

But if you aren’t there yet, you haven’t missed the boat.

Amazon is actively looking to grow their 3rd party merchant sales this year. And they’re investing time, money and effort into making sure that happens…

• Amazon currently has over 2 million seller accounts. But with the rapid increase in sales, growth on Amazon is not a problem.

• These 3rd party merchants represent 36% of all products sold on Amazon (up from 32% in 2010). The percentage of 3rd party sales on Amazon will only continue to grow.

• Amazon has publicly stated and continues to demonstrate they’re investment in growing their 3rd party merchant business

• Amazon added 17 global fulfillment centers in 2011. These fulfillment centers directly support the growth of 3rd party merchants who use Amazon leverage Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) to ship their orders. With more fulfillment centers to come in 2012, online sellers will have no problem getting out of the business of shipping and into the business of selling and making money on Amazon.com

And while the numbers are certainly impressive, the bottom line is “Is there opportunity for YOU on Amazon this year?”

The answer to this is a resounding “Yes!”

In fact for the past several years I’ve been working with students and clients to help them establish an Amazon sales channel.

During this time, I’ve shared with them that they were smart to get in now, because there would come a point where Amazon would gain so much market share, that anyone who doesn’t have an Amazon channel would be missing out on customers they couldn’t get any other way.

That day has come.

In one of the most shocking Amazon statistics to date, in a December 2011 article, the Wall Street Journal (subscription) and ComScore revealed that Amazon consistently has between three to four times as many product-related searches on its site as Google does through Google Product Search.

The bottom line on this is startling… shoppers are BYPASSING Google and going directly to Amazon to shop.

For sellers of consumer goods, this means that potentially 75-80% of buyers are missing your products if they aren’t represented on Amazon.

If you’re looking for a strong, growth oriented marketplace to sell in, this year is the to integrate Amazon into your business model!

And while the window of opportunity won’t be closing anytime soon. Why delay selling your products on the world’s fastest growing marketplace?

-Lisa

With record Black Friday online sales ($816 Million) and the online biggest shopping day of the year Cyber Monday ($125 Billion in sales) behind us, you might think the best of the holiday selling season is behind us…

But nothing could be further from the truth!

There are still three solid weeks in this holiday prime time season, and there’s still plenty of time to stoke the fires of your online sales!

In fact there are FOUR big “Online Holiday Paydays” in December!

Don’t think that these Holiday Paydays are simply random dates picked by some Madison Avenue marketing execs.

These online paydays reflect historical consumer buying patterns and should be ignored!

In fact, Forrester Research recently reported that online shoppers continue to increase their use of the web for holiday shopping on these key dates.

So when are these Online Holiday Paydays?  Take a look…

Now that you know what dates to drive to, let’s talk about what to do to capitalize on these dates. …Because buyers will be shopping… you want them to shop with you!

Readying Your Store to Cash In on the Top 4 December Online Holiday Paydays

Product Marketing & Visibility. If I could have have one wish for every independent online merchant this holiday season, it would be the gift of product marketing and visibility during the holidays. Nothing is more important than getting out there and promoting your store.

• Emailing your customer list to let them know about up coming promotions
• Using Twitter & Facebook to offer exclusive coupon codes and social media only deals
• Including a coupon for a special discount in every package you sell, to be redeemed on/near one of the Online Holiday Paydays
• Using your blog to promote your holiday products and send traffic directly to your store
• If you sell on eBay, regularly updating your eBay Stores Promotion boxes with new merchandise
• Creating a video review of a few of your top holiday products for posting on YouTube.

Millions of people search YouTube and the web this time of year for gift ideas and product reviews. A good product review video hosted on YouTube can also land a first page ranking on Google for the long tail keywords of the product you are reviewing!

As you can see, there are many different ways you can get the word out about your online store! You don’t have to do them all. Pick one and get started today!

Promotions. Schedule new promotions to start and end on these top online holiday paydays. Shoppers will either land at your store ready to make a decision (in which case a promotion ending on that date can spur them to buy today!) or they are at the start of the buying process, and a brand new promotion will keep your store front and center in their mind.

Price Awareness. Online product prices can be very volatile the last three weeks of the holiday selling season. Make sure that your products are priced and position appropriately to generate sales and maximize profit margins.

Shipping Options. If you’re not offering express shipping options at this point in the game, do so knowing that it will hurt your late in the season holiday sales. The #1 thing buyers want to know once the clock strikes December is that they’ll receive their purchase in time. Especially if it’s a hot item that’s running out of stock in stores. If you’re not offering express shipping options, you’ll likely lose the sale to someone who is.

Provide Real-Time Customer Service. This can be a tough one for solopreneurs who are busy shipping, marketing and more! But providing real-time customer service during the holidays can also make the difference between getting the sale or losing it. Customers who don’t get their product questions answered right away will go in search of a store who will.

As soon as their product ships, notify your customer and provide a tracking number. An added customer benefit is to follow up with an “Your Item Has Been Delivered Email”. With shoppers making multiple purchases online, you want to make sure that they know the item has been delivered to them. Shipping services like FedEx can actually be configured to notify the customer directly via email with shipping notifications, delivery exceptions and confirmed delivery.

Amazon FBA. It’s still not too late to outsource your fulfillment, express shipping and customer service to Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). Whether your sell on Amazon or use Amazon Multi-Channel fulfillment, outsourcing the time-consuming process of order fulfillment so you can focus on product marketing and visibility is one of the best ways to generate bigger Online Holiday Paydays!

November 26th is Small Business Saturday.

The day when millions of shoppers “Pledge to Shop Small”.

As we cover in the Holiday Selling Guide, this is the day to remind people on Facebook, Twitter and in your email marketing that it’s Small Business Saturday and let them know about YOUR online store and what you are offering for the holidays!

American Express started the Small Business Saturday initiative in 2010.

Already more than 2 million people have Liked the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. Go over there and Like it, share it and reference the promotion in your marketing today!

While Small Business Saturday was originally started for local small businesses, independent online merchants should also leverage consumer awareness of this promotion.

Small Business Saturday received a lot of media attention this year.  MSN.com has featured the Small Business Saturday promotion in the upper right hand corner of their homepage all day today.

Run Your Promotion or Promote a Product

If you have a promotion ready to go for Small Business Saturday, spend today Tweeting it, Facebooking it and also send a special email to your customers.

If you don’t have a promotion ready, pick one of your best or most popular holiday products and showcase it and let people know that you are participating in Small Business Saturday!

You can even get special signage at the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

And if haven’t planned ahead?

Don’t make it perfect, do it anyway!

If you missed Small Business Saturday this year, be sure and put it on your marketing calendar for 2012.  Small Business Saturday is an annual event and always falls the Saturday after Black Friday!

Solving the Solopreneur Struggle

In the spirit of Small Business Saturday, let’s talk about one of the biggest problems small business owners stuggle with.

Trying to do it all yourself!

Whether it’s…

• Creating a professional online presence with a quality business logo
• Designing seasonal graphics to promote holiday sales
• Setting up your social media presence so that it drives traffic to your store or website
• Writing content for your blog
• Getting quality inbound links to your store
• Editing a product video (which can get you a first page ranking on Google in your niche)

Yet all of these things are part of running successful ecommerce business!

Using traditional methods, getting the list above completed could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

But there is a solution for getting skilled freelancers who live in the U.S., Canada, Europe, etc. to do the work for you on a TASK-BY-TASK basis for $5.

It’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money and NBC News.

I now have clients using it to:

• Create store logos
• Store graphics
• Write ongoing blog posts
• Create product videos… and more

It’s one of the most popular video training series we’ve sold, and in the spirit of Small Business Saturday, you can learn how to get some work off your overfilled plate as quickly as next week!

If you missed this the first time around, here’s your chance to learn how to do this for less than the price of a couple of holiday mochas. (Fewer calories too!)

Get the details here!

… Then Tweet and Facebook your Small Business Saturday promotions!

Yours in online selling success,

- Lisa