How-to

4 Ways Retailers Can Take Advantage of Prime Day

By Sharon Shapiro

Before 2015, no one had heard of Prime Day. Now, it’s quite literally giving Black Friday a run for its money.

In only a few years, Prime Day has become a staple blockbuster on the retail calendar. As Bloomberg puts it, Amazon Prime Day went from a “rummage sale” to a “must-shop event.” During their first year, Amazon made just shy of $1 billion in revenue on Prime Day – and five years later, the retail holiday grew tenfold to over $10 billion in revenue. That makes Prime Day one of the largest retail events, surpassing even Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

For many retailers, Prime Day evokes mixed feelings. While it’s a great opportunity to reach more customers and enjoy record sales, many see it as a challenge to their brand’s equity. However, it is possible to strike a balance and make the most of Prime Day while preserving your margins. Let’s find out how.  

Why Should Retailers Care About Prime Day?

Prime Day might be an Amazon invention, but retailers of all kinds see returns from this new holiday. For some retailers, this means integrating their strategy to work in harmony with Amazon’s. For others like Target, Best Buy, Lowe’s and Costco, this means going head-to-head with the retail giant.

Take Target’s Prime Day 2018 strategy, for example. They offered customers a six-month membership for their same-day delivery program and offered a few discounts of their own to sweeten the deal. This resulted in a 129% lift in sales – similar to the 121% lift that Amazon garnered. 

Special offers aside, in previous years retailers have benefited from the fact that consumers are now primed to open their wallets for bigger purchases in the weeks following Prime Day and are on the hunt for deals.

Interestingly, this spend stands in contrast to similar sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday and Cyber Monday simply capture demand from holiday shoppers by creating a focus for when to spend. With the exception of Prime Day 2020, Amazon’s retail holiday usually takes place in June or July, offering an opportunity for retailers to capture “new” dollars.

6 Strategies to Make the Most out of Prime Day

Whether you decide to go head-to-head with Amazon during Prime Day or sweep up once the event ends (both of these strategies have their advantages), there are enormous opportunities to capitalize on this year’s largest shopping event. Here are our top tips for Prime Day success:

1) Start managing your inventory

Given that Prime Day is now a legitimate shopping event and one that benefits more than just Amazon, your brand can’t ignore it. Before you even start building a marketing campaign, make sure you’re well-prepared to handle the demand leading up to Prime Day.

For example, some doorbuster deals may be necessary to pique a consumer’s attention. The stakes involved in promoting these products are much higher – having your flagship product sell out before the event ends could result in shoppers passing over your entire catalog. This point is especially pertinent if you sell electronics, apparel, jewelry or appliances, which tend to experience a significant increase in sales during Prime Day.

2) Connect with shoppers before the event begins

One of the best steps you can take to prepare is to promote upcoming deals (and your brand in general) in the lead up to Prime Day. At a high level, this promotion can include email banners and advertising across multiple channels like search and social media. When it comes to advertising, it pays to go heavier during the lead up to Prime Day so that consumers have your brand top of mind when Prime Day hits. You should also look for opportunities to get more targeted by engaging specific shoppers who have a demonstrated or predicted interest in products that will go on sale around Prime Day.

3) Refresh your product listings

Prime Day attracts shoppers in droves, so make sure you put your best product images and sales copy forward on both your Amazon and onsite product pages. If you’re hesitant about losing margins to your own optimized Amazon product listing, consider that 55% of customers plan to shop around on Prime Day. Capturing a shopper’s attention on Amazon and then offering a better deal on your site will help you attract plenty of new customers and increase your total sales.

4) Use Prime Day as a test run for Cyber Monday

Prime Day has proven it can pack the same punch as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so why not use this summer shopping event as a test run for your holiday readiness?

Specifically, use it as an opportunity to test new campaign ideas or channels and to identify any weak spots that you need to shore up before the holiday season hits. As you evaluate Prime Day performance for lessons you can apply in November, ask questions like: How effectively can we react to customer behaviors? How quickly and easily can we build targeted audiences and launch relevant campaigns for those customers? The key to making these learnings effective is to set clear goals, track performance and take action on what you discover.

5) Offer competitive deals

There’s no doubt about it: Consumers are on the hunt for deals on Prime Day. While they certainly expect deals on Amazon, retailers of all kinds have risen to the occasion. In the past, many products discounted by Amazon were available from other retailers for even less.

Trying to match Amazon’s speed and price on a regular basis isn’t always possible, but it’s worth sweetening the deal on Prime Day. Even if you can’t go heavy on the discounts, waiving shipping fees or offering expedited shipping can make a big difference. Along the way, make sure you publicize any deals you do offer so that shoppers are aware of changes to your typical prices and policies.

6) But don’t use deals as a crutch

Deals are absolutely important on Prime Day, but you shouldn’t use them as a crutch. In fact, you have one enormous advantage that Amazon doesn’t: A trove of first-party product data from your catalog and deep knowledge of your products.

Amazon might have a big selection, but it doesn’t carry your full product catalog (if it carries your products at all). Promote your products that consumers can’t get on Amazon and call attention to that fact. Of course, the more targeted you can get with these promotions by sending them specifically to customers with a demonstrated or predicted interest in them, the better.

Another advantage you have over Amazon is a deep knowledge of how consumers interact with your entire product catalog. You can put this knowledge to work by offering unique bundles for sets of products that shoppers commonly purchase together. As a bonus, this type of bundling can also help increase your average order value.

Are You Ready for Prime Day?

Prime Day promises increased visibility and sales for retailers, even if you’re not an active seller on the platform. However, to make the most of the opportunity, it’s important to have a strong marketing strategy that goes beyond deep discounts and lays the framework to build customer loyalty in the future.

For even more advice on how to prime shoppers to stay loyal to your brand and bring in a sales spike of your own, check out our Prime Day Playbook.

Sharon Shapiro

Sharon leads Bluecore's content marketing program, collaborating with top retailers and strategists to highlight the latest trends in retail marketing, spotlight industry leaders and share advice on how marketers can stay ahead of the curve. An experienced story teller, she has spent her career building content marketing programs for B2B SaaS companies. Sharon has had works featured in MarketingProfs and Content Science Review..