Since its launch in 2015, Amazon Prime Day has established itself as one of the biggest shopping events in the world. Exclusively for Prime members, this day offers countless special deals, discounts and offers that are only available once a year. In 2019, Prime Day had its biggest reach to date with around 175 million products sold and a global turnover of around 2 billion US dollars. But what does this mean for retailers and how can they prepare for Prime Day 2024?
Amazon Prime Day originally began as a birthday celebration for Amazon and has become a fixed date in the calendar for customers and sellers. It usually takes place in July, although the exact date for Prime Day 2024 has yet to be announced. For retailers, there are important deadlines for special deals and offers in the run-up to Prime Day.
In order to participate in Prime Day as a retailer, certain criteria must be met:
These requirements ensure that only the highest quality offers are presented to Prime members.
When selecting products for Prime Day deals, retailers should consider the following questions:
It is worthwhile for sellers to offer their own or exclusive brands on Amazon Prime Day instead of offering the same brands at a discount as other sellers. Retailers often use products that they have already had in their range for a long time or have a high level of stock. Amazon often provides vendors with suggestions as to which products are suitable for Prime Day. Retailers should check this suggestion to see whether the proposed discount is in line with their profit and margin planning.
Before promoting products on Amazon, it is essential that they are ready for retail. This includes search engine optimization (SEO) and the adaptation (listing optimization) of content such as the headline, bullet points and product description on the product detail page (PDS), the creation of A+ content and the presence of positive reviews.
When selecting products for Prime Day offers and promotional campaigns, it is also important to ensure the current and future availability of ASINs to avoid a sell-out. Brands should ensure that they have the Amazon Buybox for their promoted products and continuously check this status during Prime Day to prevent the loss of the Buybox.
For Prime Day, Amazon provides its sellers with various deal options in advance. It is important to be assigned to Prime Day and to receive a discount of at least 20 percent.
Prime member coupon: The coupon is available in Germany, France and the UK and has various requirements in terms of discount amount, ratings, etc. that must be met.
Exclusive Prime discounts: The exclusive discounts behave like coupons and are also available in Germany, France and the UK. They may be advertised with other marketing measures on Prime Day. For example, the strike prices and the savings notification appear in the search results, on the product detail page and in the shopping cart.
Lightning deals: Flash offers are another option. These make it possible to present an ASIN on a corresponding offer page. Lightning deals are usually visible for four hours and are often advertised in the Amazon newsletter.
Once the selection of products for Prime Day has been made, advertising campaigns can be created. To increase traffic before Prime Day, it is advisable to run advertising campaigns in advance. Existing campaigns can be used for campaign types such as Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, Sponsored Display and Sponsored Video. For example, keywords such as "Deal" and "Prime Day" can be added to Sponsored Product Ads. For Sponsored Brand ads, it is important that they lead to an offer page in the brand store.
Ads campaigns and content should be checked again shortly before the start of Prime Day. If changes still need to be made, these should be done as soon as possible. Retailers should keep an eye on content accuracy throughout the entire deal period in order to be able to react quickly to deviations and changes.
A dashboard should be set up before Prime Day in order to track the most important KPIs and react quickly to undesirable changes.
Brands can use the dashboard during Amazon Prime Days to check whether the set deals have gone live. All relevant KPIs can also be monitored in order to make adjustments such as increasing the budget or directing the advertising focus to other ASINs. The monitored KPIs such as the availability of the advertised products, ownership of the buybox and share of voice should also continue to be tracked in advance.
After Prime Day is before Prime Day, because the performance of the campaigns and deals should now be analyzed in the dashboard. Not only can the results and successes be derived from this, but also learnings for other deal events such as Black Friday. It is important to check the extent to which Prime Day deals improve the performance of products in terms of ranking, visibility and sales.
Amazon Prime Day offers retailers a unique opportunity to present their products to a wide audience and generate significant sales. By preparing well in advance, carefully selecting products and offering attractive deals, retailers can fully exploit the potential of this event. Brand owners should therefore find out about the exact dates and start preparing in good time in order to successfully participate in Amazon Prime Day 2024.
