How to Sell Seasonal Products on Amazon (and Which Tools Can Help You Find Them)

Selling seasonal products on Amazon can be a lucrative business strategy if done correctly. Seasonal products have the potential to generate high sales volumes in short periods, but they also require careful planning and execution to maximize profits and minimize unsold inventory. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps and strategies for successfully selling seasonal products on Amazon.

What are seasonal products?

Seasonal products are items that see a surge in demand during specific times of the year due to changes in the season, holidays, or significant events. 

Their popularity is often influenced by factors such as weather changes, cultural or social traditions, and consumer behavior that aligns with particular seasons or holidays. 

Examples of seasonal products include:

• Seasonal clothing. Apparel like swimsuits and flip-flops that are popular in the summer, or coats and boots for the winter months.
• School supplies. These products see a spike in demand during the back-to-school season, typically late summer or early fall.
• Holiday decorations. Items such as Christmas trees, lights, Halloween costumes, and Easter baskets are in high demand during their respective holiday seasons.

For example, Keyword Scout data below shows that searches for “easter baskets” typically spike in early April:

The success of selling seasonal products relies on understanding their demand cycle and timing the market effectively. Sellers must plan inventory, PPC advertising, and sales strategies to align with the peak demand periods for these products. This ensures they maximize profits while managing the challenges of fluctuating demand.

Why sell seasonal products?

While the demand for seasonal products is short-lived, there is a huge opportunity for Amazon sellers. Taking advantage of the influx of search volume for particular products can lead to big sales.

For example, think of what types of products are sold during Halloween — costumes, candy, decorations, and so on. If you plan well enough, you can make a killing in a couple of short months. With Halloween-related products, you can start selling them as soon as August, as keyword searches for costumes, decorations, and candy were more than 100% higher in August 2023 compared to a year prior.

Experienced sellers who have a knack for inventory management and demand forecasting would benefit from selling seasonal inventory on Amazon. If you are a beginner, this may not be the best strategy for you. It’s possible to over-order inventory or to be too late for the season you are targeting. 

READ MORE | The Best Amazon Inventory Forecasting & Demand Planning Tool for FBA Sellers

How to find seasonal products to sell on Amazon

You can sell many different products throughout the year that would be considered seasonal. Whether it is holiday supplies, weather-related products, or products related to an event, you can get creative in finding seasonal products. 

First, think of all of the potential holidays or events we experience throughout the year. New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day Weekend, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Christmas… you get the idea. 

Tools to find profitable seasonal products

One of the best ways to find seasonal products is by using Jungle Scout to identify products with high seasonality. 

We’re going to use our Opportunity Finder tool to search for potential seasonal products. In this tool, you can filter by seasonality, making finding products that meet your criteria easier. 

Typically, at Jungle Scout, we recommend searching for products with low seasonality, but in this case, it’s the opposite! 

In Opportunity Finder, we changed the Seasonality filter to Medium – Very High. Now it’ll only show us products that are seasonal. 

One of the coolest things about this tool is that it will tell which month sees the highest seasonality for a particular niche.

For instance, for the niche “chlorine tab floater,” we can see the interest and demand for this product peaks in May. This type of product is seasonal because many people begin to open their pools around May. 

An example during the fall season would be the niche “boots rack,” which sees peak seasonality in October. This is the time of year when people in colder climates begin to wear boots over shoes. 

Seasonal inventory & how to plan for it

You ever notice when you go into a local grocery store and they have items out for the next season seemingly weeks or months ahead? That’s because they have good inventory planning and know when consumers start to purchase products for an upcoming holiday. 

Effective inventory management is crucial for seasonal products. Plan your inventory levels based on historical sales data, market trends, and lead times from suppliers to ensure you have enough stock to meet demand without overstocking.

Retail arbitrage inventory planning

If you follow the retail arbitrage business model, you can begin to stock up on seasonal items once you start to see them hit the shelves in your local stores. 

You can also utilize keyword research tools like Keyword Scout to see when search volume begins to increase for certain seasonal keywords. 

For example, the keyword “flower bulbs” which sees its highest seasonality in April, is starting to see an increase in keyword search volume as of early March 2024. 

Private label inventory planning

If you want to sell seasonal private label products, you’re going to need some more intricate planning in order to pull it off. If you want to be prepared for the seasonal rush, you need to have your inventory ordered roughly 3 months in advance. 

That should give you enough time to create and optimize your product listing, receive the inventory, and have it sent to Amazon’s fulfillment centers, if necessary. 

Using the Memorial Day example again, in 2023, search volume for “memorial day decorations” started to see a large increase in search volume at the end of March, early April. Meaning, consumers began their searches over a month in advance.

This is why it is important to begin this research months before the actual holiday or event to ensure your inventory and listing is ready to go once customers begin shopping. 

Use tools like Jungle Scout to help determine demand and the potential sales volume of seasonal products you want to sell on Amazon. 

Do you sell seasonal products on Amazon?

We hope this article helped give you a better understanding of what seasonal products are and why you should sell them on Amazon. If you have more questions about selling seasonal products, let us know in the comments.