For sellers, Amazon Lightning Deals can provide an excellent avenue for short-term sales improvements, better visibility for the business and increased interest in other inventory.
But there are specific requirements and other things you need to know about in order to get your products into an Amazon Lightning Deal. Below, we’ll walk you through everything you’ll need to get fully up to speed and make the most of this effective and rewarding sales mechanism.
Eligibility and Requirements
The first thing you need to know is that only professional seller accounts can submit their products to a Lightning Deal. This is because Amazon puts the onus during Lightning Deals on those sellers that have a proven track record and, thus, the resources to meet their commitment.
This links directly to the three requirements Amazon expects from you in order to grant access to its Lightning deals.
- Star Rating: As any Amazon seller knows, star ratings are crucial for a strong performance on the Amazon marketplace. When it comes to Lightning Deals, this is also of vital importance. Amazon has a minimum rating which must be met before products can be promoted with a Lightning Deal. The minimum rating factors in the overall star rating and the number of reviews given. This is a murky area, as Amazon doesn’t explicitly spell out the rating or number of reviews you need – so you just have to do your best and keep those good reviews coming in.
- Fulfilment: Amazon will only allow you to participate in Lightning Deals if you use its Fulfilment by Amazon service, and it’s important to know this before you get too far ahead in your planning.
- Availability and Variation: When you enter certain products into a Lightning Deal, Amazon usually will want you to list all variations available. This means you will only receive approval for a product listing if you have covered all the variations on offer – otherwise, the listing might not make it.
How to Submit a Lightning Deal
Once you’ve got approval for your Lightning Deal, it’s time to submit a promotion for approval. This is a relatively simple process.
- Deal Quantity: Here you want to list as much stock as you possibly can – bearing in mind that the quantity you list must be available in Fulfilment by Amazon’s inventory at least seven days before the start of the Lightning Deal.
- Price: Now you need to set your sale and the level of discount on offer. The better the deal, the more Amazon and customers will want it.
- Image: Go with a clean, good quality image of the product – no background, no other colours.
- Schedule: The usual length of a Lightning Deal is 4-6 hours. Be sure that products similar to yours haven’t appeared in the ‘Today’s Deal’ section already, because Amazon won’t list it if they have.
After this point, it’s just a matter of waiting for Amazon to approve your Lightning Deal submission and then being prepared to ship orders promptly.
