E-Commerce Trends Checklist for Amazon Sellers Wishing a Successful Prime Day Event

According to Amazon, 300 million items were transacted over the two days of Amazon Prime Day 2022, saving Amazon Prime members more than $1.7 billion and generating $3 billion in sales for Amazon small business sellers.^[1] Amazon Prime Day is one of the most anticipated shopping events in the world and provides the best shopping opportunity for both consumers and sellers. Launched in 2015, Amazon Prime Day is Amazon’s annual shopping event and is usually held for just two days in July. In 2022, however, Amazon held its Prime Day event in October as well. During the event, special discounts and exclusive deals are offered for Amazon Prime members, and Amazon sellers have a solid opportunity to increase sales, attract new customers, and increase brand visibility. However, careful planning and preparation is required to take a full advantage of Amazon Prime Day. Below is a checklist for Amazon sellers participating in Amazon Prime Day.

1. Optimization of Listing Content To make your product stand out from the fiercely competing Amazon marketplace, it is essential to optimize your listing content and upgrade product information.

Research keywords: Research keywords from the previous one or two quarter(s). If you are a brand-owned seller, you can use the ‘Search Query Performance’ report from the Amazon Brand Analytics menu in the Seller Central to check major keywords and ensure that the keywords are consistently applied to each item in the product information, such as product title and features. Keywords should be integrated naturally so that your content reads smoothly and persuasively.

Update product image: High-resolution product images, infographics, lifestyle images, and product videos are essential content to engage consumers. In particular, lifestyle images and product videos allow consumers to intimately experience and imagine the actual product on online marketplaces where they cannot see the product in person. Below are lifestyle images of electric kettle, blender and lipstick, which show the actual products being used in our everyday life.

Double-check product information: Accurate product information can help consumers make purchasing decisions and prevent returns or negative reviews that occur from misleading product information. You need to make sure that all product information is accurate and updated, including price, dimensions, ingredients, and inventory volume. 2. Management of Inventory Level In order to meet the increasing demand during Prime Day, inventory level and replenishment process should be reviewed beforehand. Sellers should have at least four days of peak season inventory on hand for a two-day event. It is better to have excess inventory than to run out of stock during peak season like Prime Day and Black Friday. If an item is out of stock on Amazon website, the product page will be not available for search. Running out of stock is not just a matter of losing an opportunity to sell products on the event day, but it can also affect your ability to acquire new customers as well as your ranking on Amazon’s best seller list. Therefore, it is important to secure enough inventory for smooth sailing of the Prime Day event.

Analyze historical data: Starting from Prime Day sales data from the previous year, review sales trends including recent customer favorites. Amazon provides a variety of tools and reports to help sellers collect and analyze their own data on product sales, including sales data of the previous two years from the Amazon Seller Central business report page (which can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet CSV file). Quantified data can help you identify which products to focus on during peak season and make inventory replenishment decisions.

Forecast demand: Based on the insights gained from analyzing sales data, product demand during Prime Day can be forecasted. When making a forecast, factors that can drive traffic growth such as traffic increase during peak season and promotions planned by sellers should be considered.

Maintain stable inventory level: Check whether you have enough inventory for sales spikes based on demand forecasts, and replenish inventory if necessary. Although Prime Day is a two-day event, it is recommended to prepare for at least four days beforehand to deal with pre- and post-event traffic. This will help you maintain adequate inventory level before and after the event. 3. Implementation of Strategic Pricing Amazon consumers expect significant discount before Prime Day and fill their shopping cart and wishlist with various products. Meeting their expectations will speed up their purchase decision.

Set competitive prices: Monitor your competitors’ prices and adjust product price accordingly. While this is true for all marketplaces, for Amazon consumers, attractive pricing is the most important factor in making a purchase. Amazon also actively utilizes ‘price war’ to attract consumers. If a product price falls below the lowest price in 30 days, Amazon’s system will automatically display the ‘Was price’ with a strikethrough, the discount percentage, and the ‘Lowest price in 30 days’ highlight in red, even without any request from the seller.

Participate in Prime Exclusive Deals: Prime Exclusive Deals are price discounts that apply to all FBA products that are eligible for Amazon Prime shipping and are only available to Amazon Prime members. The requirements for Prime Exclusive Deals are as follows: 1) sellers must have a seller feedback rating of 4 stars or higher or have never been rated, 2) product ratings must be 3.5 stars or higher or none, 3) Prime Exclusive price must be set with a discount rate of 20%-80% based on the product’s lowest price in the last 30 days, 4) the application for Prime Exclusive deals will start on April 10, 2023 and end two weeks prior to the Prime Day event. The date of Prime Day 2023 has not been officially announced; however, given that the event is usually held in July and was held on July 12-13 in 2022, it will likely be held in mid-July this year as well. In that case, sellers are recommended to apply for Prime Exclusive deals by mid-June at the latest.

You can apply for Prime Exclusive Discounts via ‘Advertising’ menu on the Amazon Seller Central.

The application is a three-step workflow, and the first step is to check the “Is this a Prime Day discount?” checkbox, and then the section for setting the discount period will disappear. After the official announcement of Prime Day, Amazon will automatically update the date of the discount period.

In the second step, you need to enter specific discount information, such as the product and the discounted price. Choose one from the three discount types – Amount Off, Percentage Off, and Fixed Price, and set the details accordingly. Click the ‘Submit Products’ button to complete the application process.

You can edit the discount setting up to two weeks before the event.

Edits are reflected within 120 minutes, but in rare cases there may be a 24 hour delay before the update is completed.

Products that are eligible for Prime Exclusive deals will have a strikethrough on the listed price and the Prime Discount will be marked in red.

In the example product, the price of Prime Exclusive Deal is reduced to the lowest price in 30 days, making the section with the pricing information appealing to consumers by 1) highlighting the ‘lowest price in 30 days’ and the discount rate, and 2) showing the Prime price and the Prime benefit. Sellers should carefully consider setting exclusive sale prices to display the ‘Lowest price in 30 days’ automatically generated by Amazon.

Participate in Amazon Deal: If your products are featured in Amazon Deal program, participate in the program to increase product exposure. Time-sensitive deals such as Lightning Deals can generate significant sales and increase product visibility during peak shopping seasons. To participate in the program, Amazon’s system should recommend products that are eligible for the deal and sellers thus need to figure out first whether they have eligible products. Amazon Deal can be set up in the same Seller Central Ads menu as in the case of Prime Exclusive Deals. The process for applying for Amazon Deal is similar to that for Prime Exclusive Deals.

4. Strengthening of Amazon Advertising Campaign To take advantage of Prime Day, you should start focusing on Amazon advertising and promotions at least a month before Prime Day to expose your products to Amazon consumers and get their attention.

Strategic Amazon Ad campaign planning: Amazon’s three advertising types - Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display – can all be utilized to increase product visibility. By analyzing existing Amazon ad campaign data, you can determine the average impression rate for each ad type during peak season. You may also use the analytics tools provided by the Amazon Ads console, or set a timeframe and export the data to download a CSV file to analyze the data in a spreadsheet program. Based on the analyzed data, you can create a bid amount guide and secure necessary budget to ensure maximum product impression during Prime Day.

Setting of realistic ad budget: Any Amazon seller would know that the unit cost per click becomes significantly higher on Prime Day. During Prime Day 2022, it was reported that the average cost per click was up to 40% higher than normal. Since Prime Day serves as a good opportunity to attract new customers, it is worth considering your ad budget from an investment standpoint.

Monitoring and optimization: Sellers should closely monitor the performance of each campaign in the Amazon Ads Console before, during, and after Prime Day event. It is important to continuously analyze key metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost-per-click (CPC), adjust bids and budgets accordingly, and stay focused on running campaign flawlessly.

5. Expansion of Marketing and Promotion To attract more customers and increase sales during Amazon Prime Day, you should consider running promotions for non-Amazon Prime members or offering coupons for your products. These promotions can be combined with Amazon ad campaigns to increase click-through rates and conversion rates.

Apply Amazon coupons: Amazon coupons are utilized as a means of offering additional discounts to Amazon consumers. Sellers can promote discounts ranging from 5% to as much as 50% off the product price, and consumers simply have to click the coupon checkbox to receive the discount. Coupons are an attractive promotional tool for Amazon sellers because, unlike Amazon Deals and Prime Exclusives, they offer consumers a discount without changing the list price of the product, and the coupon discount is also displayed in product search results. These coupons can also be used to drive Prime Day purchases and increase sales for non-Prime members.

Utilize social media: Using social media channels to promote Prime Day promotions is one of the favorite marketing tactics for Amazon sellers. In addition to promoting on your own brand accounts, influencer marketing can also help drive traffic to your Amazon product details and boost sales.

E-mail marketing campaigns: Engage your existing customers on Amazon Prime Day by sending them emails announcing Prime Day promotions. Consider planning a pre-Prime Day promotion to give advantage of early access.

Each seller can use this checklist to review items for successful Amazon Prime Day according to their own business. Many successful Amazon sellers agree on the idea of stair-step growth model. They see a jump in sales data and new customers during peak seasons like Prime Day. For Amazon sellers, Prime Day is not just a sales boost; rather, it is a critical opportunity to expand their customer base. We sincerely hope that you can achieve your goals through thorough preparation and efficient execution to avoid missing out on this valuable opportunity.

# References [1] Prime Day 2022 was the Biggest Prime Day Event Ever, Amazon press center
https://press.aboutamazon.com/2022/7/prime-day-2022-was-the-biggest-prime-day-event-ever
[2] 5 Fast Facts: recapping Amazon Prime Day 2022, Perpetua
https://perpetua.io/blog-5-fast-facts-recapping-amazon-prime-day-2022
[3] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GZG6D3FZA9VSP4XH
[4] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GLREB2WH9JA7R63D
[5] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G202189350

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