Million Dollar Case Study: Chinese Holidays

In this blog post, I discuss the various Chinese Holidays that can impact your Amazon FBA business.

• What are the major holidays in China
• How to plan for the unexpected
• An update on our Million Dollar Case Study product launch
• Survey to get your feedback on this series
• Missed an episode? See them all here.

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Welcome Back to the Million Dollar Case Study!

Something I have learned from my many years as an entrepreneur is how to play nice with Murphy’s Law. If you’re not familiar with the phrase it’s the idea that “if anything can go wrong, it will”.

The reason for this impromptu post? I’m facing the delays and setbacks that can occur while running a successful Amazon FBA business.

Such is the case with the launch of our Jungle Slider product. We were hoping to have the product into Amazon’s warehouse by now, in time for Q4 sales, but there have been major delays and setbacks in the mass production of our product and it’s looking like delivery will not be until the end of the year.

It all started because the manufacturer we struck a deal with was shut down in observation of National Day – a major Chinese holiday.

From there, the delays snowballed.

But, don’t let this experience deter you. This is perfectly normal. And, it’s the perfect opportunity to hone our marketing plan and lay the foundation for a truly sustainable FBA business.

During any delays, you can optimize your planned/existing listing, complete your product photography, set up your LLC, or take a break from all of the hard work you’ve put in thus far.

“a setback is a setup for a comeback” ― T.D. Jakes

Greg and I will be using this time to create some awesome new content for you. In fact, at the end of this blog post, you can find a survey that I’ve put together to get your feedback. Be sure to submit your ideas!

First, I wanted to keep you all aware of something that all new sellers should know.

Always take into account how Chinese holidays can impact the production of your product. These holidays sometimes mean factory shutdowns and these can spin into other delays, such as shipping delays as providers fill in the backlog.

Chinese Holidays

1. New Year’s Day – January 1st
2. The Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) – 1st day in the 1st lunar month (this can vary from year to year!)
3. The Qingming Festival – April 4th or 5th
4. Labor Day (May Day) – May 1st
5. The Dragon Boat Festival – 5th day in the 5th lunar month
6. The Mid-Autumn Festival – 15th day in the 8th lunar month
7. National Day (Golden Week) – October 1st – 7th

This is just a quick list of major holidays. There are minor holidays observed in different regions of China too, so my recommendation is to plan accordingly.

Ask your manufacturer in advance which holidays they observe and ensure you have a game plan in mind so that you don’t run out of inventory. Tools like Jungle Scout’s Inventory Manager can help keep track of your inventory levels and help you plan in advance.

For a more thorough list of holidays and dates, I would recommend heading over here.

Why does this matter?

• It could take nearly 3 months for you to replenish your Amazon FBA inventory on certain holidays
• Your organic rankings could suffer
• You could lose potential repeat business

Which holidays matter most?

From my experience, there are 2 national holidays that you definitely want to be well aware of. The first being the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and the second is National Day (this is the holiday that screwed things up for us).

During these holidays it is very common that all factories will shut down for 7 days. In fact, for the Chinese New Year, nearly all of South Asia (not just China) shuts down.

What can I do to prevent this?

• Place your orders early
• Order 2-3 months worth of inventory
• Consult with your manufacturer and get a firm date as to when orders should be placed in anticipation of the holidays they observe

Help us help you!

Greg and I are going to take this downtime to work on the next episodes of the Million Dollar Case Study. We’re calling it a “Mid-Season Break” (in true Hollywood fashion) and therefore will be launching our next episodes at the start of the New Year.

Don’t worry – we’ll keep you posted and we’re always available to chat in the MDCS group!

In the meantime, I’ve put together a survey to get some feedback from you.

We want to know what content matters to you most and what you would like to see in the near future. We’re going to take the results of this survey and create content catered to our viewers’ needs. So make sure your voice is heard by completing the survey below.

Conclusion

Start selling on Amazon today

Your Amazon success starts with Jungle Scout.

Start doing some research of your own! With every blog post, we’ll be challenging you with “Action Items” to make the most of your MDCS journey.

This weeks Action Items can be found here, in your FREE MDCS Workbook!

After you’ve completed your Action Items, post your progress to the Million Dollar Case Study Facebook Group! You don’t have to reveal all of your best ideas – just let us know you’re working on them! You can also post them to Instagram with the hashtags #mdcschallenge or #freedombuilders.

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Missed an episode? See them all here.