Holiday 2025: How Brands Can Win on Amazon

Amazon continues to dominate the eCommerce landscape, particularly during the holiday season. 74% of U.S. consumers plan to use Amazon to search for gift ideas, surpassing Google (44%). To capitalize on Amazon’s market position, brands should prioritize investing in Amazon advertising, optimizing their inventory, and developing strong promotional strategies to capture the holiday shopping surge.

Timing & Preparation

• Optimize Listings and Ad Copy with Seasonal Keywords: Use Amazon’s Search Query Performance dashboard and historical data to find top holiday search terms. Add them to your product titles, bullet points, and Sponsored Products campaigns. Update listings by mid-September to allow time for indexing, and update in late October to capture new search terms as shoppers shift from browsing to buying.
• Launch Display and DSP Campaigns Early: Use Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) to retarget recent high-intent shoppers and reach new, lookalike audiences off Amazon. Launch campaigns by early October to give DSP time to gather data, optimize performance, and build retargeting pools ahead of Cyber Week. 
• Submit Amazon Deals Early: Submit Lightning Deals, 7-Day Deals, and Deal of the Day proposals by October 1 to secure placement during peak shopping periods. Amazon approves and schedules these promotions weeks in advance, and early submission increases your chances of being featured on high-visibility pages like the Amazon Deals storefront and category pages.

Inventory Planning

• Stock Early to Avoid Q4 Delays: Amazon fulfillment centers experience high inbound volume during the holidays. Ship inventory well in advance of key dates to prevent delays that could make your products unavailable during peak demand.
• Link Ads to Inventory Health: Low inventory doesn’t just risk stockouts, it also hurts ad performance as Amazon deprioritizes ads for unavailable SKUs. Monitor real-time inventory levels and adjust bids and budgets to support only in-stock, ready-to-ship products.

Promotion Support

• Align Promotions to Shopping Behavior: Match your Amazon promotions to how shoppers behave at different stages of Q4:
  • October-Early November: Use modest discounts and coupons to capture early planners.
  • Cyber Week (late November): Run deeper discounts, exclusives for Prime members, and high-visibility deals like Lightning Deals or Deal of the Day when buying intent is at its highest.
  • Mid–Late December: Promote fast-shipping Prime offers and Amazon gift cards for last-minute shoppers.

General Holiday Best Practices

• Refresh Your Amazon Brand Store: Update your Brand Store by late September with holiday-themed landing pages. Highlight gift guides, feature seasonal hero products, and use festive imagery. This ensures Sponsored Brands and DSP traffic lands on a cohesive, branded experience.
• Automate With AI Tools: Take advantage of Amazon’s automated bidding, budget pacing, and creative testing features to keep campaigns competitive as costs rise throughout Q4. Automation reduces manual work and improves responsiveness to performance trends.
• Enhance Product Detail Pages With A+ Content: Upgrade your top holiday SKUs with A+ Content featuring lifestyle imagery, comparison charts, and branded visuals. It improves conversion on the product detail page especially for mobile shoppers looking for quick, scannable information.
• Use Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) for Smarter Insights: AMC provides a deeper view of the customer journey, showing how different campaigns contribute to discovery, engagement, and conversion. Use these insights to build stronger retargeting audiences and adjust your budget or creative based on what’s actually driving incremental sales.

Key Takeaways from Prime Day

• Analyze Inventory Performance: Identify which products sold out faster than expected and why. Was it driven by a promotion, seasonal appeal, or low supply? Use those insights to adjust holiday forecasts, inventory volumes, and ad pacing.
• Refine Ad Creative and Targeting: Review which messaging, visuals, and offers resonated most with shoppers. Carry those high-performing elements into your holiday campaigns, layering in seasonal themes and keywords.
• Determine a Pricing Strategy: Look at which price points and discount strategies drove conversions during Prime Day. Use that data to guide your approach to holiday pricing, especially for bundles and limited-time offers.

A well-executed Amazon strategy is essential for capitalizing on the holiday shopping surge. By leveraging insights from previous events like Prime Day and adapting quickly to evolving market trends, you can position your brand to thrive on Retail Media networks during the holiday season.

Ensure your brand continues to grow on Amazon and Retail Media Networks even after the holiday rush with a complimentary audit of your Retail storefronts. Email hello@within.co to request yours.

 

Author
Vincent Houghton, Associate Director, Retail Media & Marketplace