One of the year’s most anticipated online shopping festivals is just a week away. Amazon Prime Day starts on June 21st at 3 am EDT (midnight PST) and runs through June 22nd. This marks the ecommerce giant’s seventh annual celebratory shopping event. According to reports, third-party retailers that sell on the Amazon platform made more than $3.5 billionOpens a new window from Prime Day in 2020. Now that life is slowly returning to normal, retailers are expected to make more this year. Here is how retailers can make it big during the shopping event this year.
Historically, Prime Day was held in July every year. However, last year, it took place in October due to the massive number of orders Amazon received during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the shopping festival has come early.
Prime members in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, Germany, China, and a few other countries can take advantage of this shopping festival. The shopping festival brings several “can’t miss†deals and discounts for shoppers from several top brands, such as Levi’s, Samsung, iRobot, Redken, and other small and medium brands.
How Does Amazon Prime Day Work?
The shopping event usually goes on for two days a year, where Amazon offers deep discounts for shoppers. The company also offers a few discounts before and after the event. Further, it offers a few “Lightning Deals†for a limited time during the event. However, to take advantage of these deals, you must be a Prime member.
Here are some of the deals and a few ways to make the best of them.
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Top Deals on Prime Day
Prime Day deals are available over a range of products, from electronics and smart home devices to music and personal care. The following are some of the early deals on technology Prime members can avail now:
- Smart home devices
- Savings of $10 when you spend $10 on small businesses (from June 7th-20th)
- Savings on Fire TVs from brands including Insignia and Toshiba
The following are some of the deals that can be expected on Prime Day:
- Deals on laptops from HP, Apple, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and Razor Blade
- Deals on tablets from Amazon, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft
- Deals on headphones from Apple, Sony, Beats, Samsung, and JBL
Besides these brands, you can expect deals on Amazon’s own products on these days. Further, they can also expect deals on some of the best mobile tech.
How To Take Advantage as a Retailer
Irrespective of whether you are an Amazon retailer offering deals on Prime Day or not, you can take advantage of these two important days and the season as a whole. After all, a few other big retailers have started competing shopping events such as Walmart’s Deals for Days 2021Opens a new window and Target Deal DaysOpens a new window around the same time.
Here is how you can take advantage of the shopping event to maximize your sales.
1. Know what consumers are looking for
When it comes to Prime Day sales, all categories are not created equal. While some products in certain categories sell like hotcakes, some face lower demand. Further, it also makes sense to have discounts on some products while it is not worth offering deals for others. Some products that do well in this shopping season are tech products, gadgets, and baby products. Products like jewelry and clothing do not perform that well. Knowing what works with customers is the first step toward preparing for the big event.
Once you understand what categories your products fall into and what your customers are looking for, you can strategize and develop an ad campaign.
2. Do your homework
While some categories and products do well on Prime Day, some brands have an advantage over others as they build better trust with shoppers and offer a better purchasing experience. Here are a few ways you can achieve this.
- Have enough items in stock and replenish them as they start selling.
- Products with 3.5-star or higher rating and more than 15 reviews tend to do well.
- Use optimized images of products.
- Include branded and keyword-optimized content.
- Provide enough information about the product that helps shoppers make a decision.
- Optimize your own website and landing pages. For people who want to understand your product better, your website should provide them a pleasant experience.
3. Take stock of your inventory levels
Unless it is a “Lightning Dealâ€, shoppers do not like stock-outs, especially if you offer a deal during the shopping event. If you have participated in Prime Day or similar shopping events earlier, check the data on how your products performed. This will help you plan your inventory levels accordingly for the two important days.
AccordingOpens a new window to Chad Rubin, co-founder and CEO, Skubana, “For me, Prime Day is all about buying the buyer. You want to have enough stock in place to support all the new eyeballs that your listing could be getting impression share on. Making sure you are properly in stock does involve going back and looking at your historical data. If your inventory is not stocked, you could lose that impression share to competitors and they could gain higher prioritization in the search engine framework.â€
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4. Offer competitive deals
As mentioned above, big retailers, such as Walmart and Target, are running competitive shopping events around the same time as Prime Day. As consumers look for good deals this summer, you too can choose to run events around this time and offer competitive deals to consumers. However, ensure that you also provide a competitive experience to your shoppers when they are buying, shipping, and returning products.
5. Test your ad campaigns early
It is necessary to strategize, develop, and test your campaigns well ahead of the shopping event. This will help you identify what campaigns are working and what needs to be optimized. Using campaigns that target all levels of your advertising funnel during the lead-up and main event will help you maximize your reach and meet your goals. Test different ad formats, such as Search and Display ads, to capture the demand of those looking for deals. Use email campaigns to reach out to your existing customers. Additionally, you can create Sponsored Ads on social media platforms.
If you are selling on Amazon, the ecommerce giant offers a campaign managerOpens a new window that allows you to set up, run, test, and manage your campaigns. You can also use the metrics from the previous campaigns to guide your ad campaigns this year.
6. Monitor your budgets closely during the event
It is essential to keep an eye on your budgets during the lead-up and main days of the event. Make sure you manage your ad budgets well and have enough left to run during the two main days. Managing your bids and budget wisely ensures that you do not run out during the first few hours of the event.
7. Use offbeat tactics
Your product may not be on sale on Prime Day. However, you can still use a couple of tactics to improve your sales during the event. For example, if you sell a product that is complementary or adjacent to a product offering a deal on Prime Day, such as a Fire Tablet Case, you can run campaigns to attract those specific customers to your product page or website.
Another tactic you can use, especially if your product is not in one of the hot-selling categories, is to run retargeting ads. For example, assume that a consumer has seen your product listing in the last few days. The chances are that they may land on the Amazon platform looking for a deal during the event. You can then run a retargeting ad to that customer so that your product is visible to them while they are in buying mode.
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Amazon Prime Day is a huge online shopping event happening this summer, and it offers retailers a huge opportunity to sell their products. However, to make the most of the event, you need to have the right strategy and do your homework really well. Ensure that you put out your best product, have sufficient inventory in place, plan your campaign, provide a good shopping experience, and, if possible, offer a good deal.
Are you taking part in the Prime Day event? Do share with us how you plan to increase sales on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .