Prime Day is upon us! This week, we’re talking our two favorite “S”s, statistics and strategies. Prime Day was started two years ago to treat Amazon’s Prime Members to a special day, AND to celebrate their 20th-Year Anniversary. Of course, it wasn’t just a kind favor to Prime members. It’s pretty clear that Amazon created for two main reasons:
First, to fuel shopping amongst existing Prime Members. This is a huge pool of customers, since it’s over a year it was reported that roughly half of American households have Prime memberships these days. Second, since the lightning deals are offered first to Prime customers, the hope is always to attract new members.
Interestingly, it is hard to predict what will be a top seller on the day. While people are often out to nab electronics, they may end up buying something else all together. If you want an idea of how diverse the sales are, check out these top selling items from around the world last year:
According to stats released by Amazon, Prime day sales grew by 60% worldwide over the previous year, and 50% in the US. Prime Day 2016 is still the largest day to date for the company, surpassing even Black Friday.
And, best of all, it wasn’t just the big manufacturers who saw sales jumps. In fact, Amazon’s own Press Release includes a number of first hand quotes from small businesses who repeatedly say that Prime Day was their biggest sales day of the year. As a small business owner, you might be wondering:
Can I be part of it this year?
Yes, and no. At this point, there is no way to be part of the invite-only Lightning Deals that will be happening every few minutes during the 30-hour Prime event.
So… what exactly can smaller businesses who aren’t part of the main event do?
Rather than just resigning your products to being passed over on Prime Day, there are a few ways to be part of the massive influx of sales. We’ve also included some advice straight from an invite-only Amazon event we attended in NYC after the Fancy Foods Show last week.
Run a sale!
While it may not be possible at this point to end up on the Lightning Deals section or to arrange a deal through Amazon itself, you’ve still got the hype that you can use to your advantage. It’s not too late to offer Prime Day sales pricing.
According to Amazon, the average Prime Day discount is 50% off. If you have a premium product or a product with slim margins, consider something in the 30-50% range. Anything less than that may feel disappointing to customers who head to Amazon to get the best deals of the year.
When choosing which products to run a sale on, there are a couple factors to consider. First, is inventory – make sure you have enough inventory in to ensure that you will not run out in a matter of minutes. Although it is too late now to get in more inventory before the big day, keep inventory in mind, and consider sending in more inventory to Amazon NOW on the items you choose to mark down so that you minimize out-of-stock days that could occur after the sale. Secondly, statistics show that products rated 3.5-stars or higher, and are on sale, sell the best on Prime Day, so choose wisely.
Up your ad budget!
Since people are more willing to spend on Prime Day, Amazon recommends increasing your Amazon ad budget for that day. How much you do so is up to you – and it may be a matter of experimenting this year to see how it goes. It’s also worth thinking about including promo codes or announcing you sale in ads outside of Amazon, on Facebook or Google. Also, you may want to add some generic Prime Day keywords to the backend of your listings as well as your Sponsored ads to include Prime Day, Prime Day Deal, etc. for that day only.
Clean-up your product listings!
If it has been a while since you’ve reworked your product listings, the week before Prime Day is a great time to do a little tidying. This can include adding better photos, refining your product titles or tightening those aging product descriptions. If you want more details on this, check out our blog post on the topic. You may also want to consider adding A+ content/Enhanced Content to your listings this week to further push your brand and your unique products.
Don’t forget the two reasons Prime Day started
Remember: Amazon built Prime Day to reward loyalty and bring in newbies. Your goal should be just the same. Amazon reports that Sellers from last year’s Prime Day saw around 10-30% reorder rate from new customers who bought for the first time on Prime Day – so one goal of Prime Day should be hook new customers.
At the same time, in order to maintain trust from your loyal consumers, always announce on social media when you run a major sale like Black Friday, Prime Day, or a Lightning Deal, even though your main purpose may be to attract newcomers.
Whatever your tactic for this year, you can always benefit from the day, even if it turns out to be a bit disappointing. At WBX Commerce, we always take the time to record stats and revisit strategies year over year, so we can help our clients move into the next year even more prepared for Prime Day success.
Best of luck!
