Missed the deadline for creating an official deal for Amazon Prime Day 2019? Worry not, there are still some tactics Amazon Vendors and Sellers can use to make the most of the increase in traffic to Amazon’s sites.
In its fourth year, Amazon Prime Day 2019 is set to be bigger than ever before with 76% of US and 67% of UK Prime Members planning to browse Amazon’s deal page. This year’s flash sale starts at 8AM BST on July 15th, and for the first time will run for 48 hours. The event will feature an estimated one million-plus deals and beat the £3.36 billion sales witnessed in 2018.
Below we examine trading and marketing tactics that brands selling on Amazon can use to capture the spend of Prime members.
How can Amazon retailers get involved?
The deal submission deadlines for Amazon Prime Day 2019 have now passed and deals slots have been decided, however there are still ways to make the most of the increased traffic and spikes in Prime subscriptions.
Amazon Coupons (known as Vouchers in the UK) and Promotions are a great alternative to deals, and are free to create at any time. Incentivise customers by offering them money off their purchase and get the chance to feature on the dedicated Coupon or Voucher pages. If you’d prefer to offer other types of incentives the Promotions tool will also allow you to give your customer Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO) offers and Free Shipping.
Prime Day deals are exclusive for Prime members, and last year’s Prime Day was Amazon’s biggest day ever for new subscribers. If you haven’t managed to secure an Amazon Prime Day 2019 deal slot, scheduling Lightning Deals in the weeks after also allows you to capitalise on this increased membership. Profitero reported that 66% of products that saw increased traffic on Prime Day 2018 saw a continued spike in the following weeks.
What else can I do to succeed on Prime Day?
To make the most of spikes in traffic and sales during the Prime Day period think about optimising the full customer journey; from drawing attention to your products, increasing conversions and incentivising returning custom.
Pay attention to the following:
- Sponsored Products advertising spend: Increased traffic may see your usual Amazon marketing budget gets used up faster, risking the discoverability of your product during the event. Be prepared to up your spend and keep a close eye on it throughout the event. Additionally, it’s important to be specific with your targeting.
- Amazon advertising keywords: Fine-tuned positive and negative keywords are a key part of a successful Prime Day ad campaign. Audit your campaigns in advance of the event and think about the products that Prime customers will be looking. Are your “impulse buy” products getting enough visibility? Consider sponsoring more of your catalogue to capture sales across products with flash-sale qualities.
- Optimise your listings: Put yourself in customers’ shoes – do your listings empower shoppers to make instant buying decisions? Due to high levels of browsing it’s important to immediately capture customers’ attention and equip them with key information. Utilise all nine image slots and ensure bullet points are easy to digest, specific and relevant. Respond to recent comments and questions from customers, polish titles and tidy up Parent-Child ASIN relationships.
- Automate Pricing: Whether you’re using your own software, a third-party programme or the Amazon built-in repricer it’s wise to check your pricing rules ahead of the event. Repricers can give you a competitive edge without the time investment, allowing you to keep up to date with competitors and potential Buy Box fluctuations whilst preserving profit.
- Product Bundling: Amazon product bundling can help to boost sales and profits whilst offering incremental value and convenience to your customers. Bundling products ahead of Prime Day offers the chance of a widened catalogue with less competition, so if you have products that complement one another – create new listings now.
- Automate review correspondence: Asking customers to leave feedback is a great way to push for a long-term positive impact from Prime Day. Positive customer feedback can help to increase your sales rank and Buy Box win percentage. To avoid time-consuming, manual customer contact, consider automating your feedback requests, in adherence with Amazon’s review policy.
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