Etopia

The Power of Prime Day

Consumers see Prime Day as a significant shopping opportunity, sort of like a ‘Christmas in July’ experience. However, since the pandemic hit, Prime Day sales have increased exponentially with 2021 being the biggest grossing year yet, with $11.19 billion in sales.

Etopia’s Managing Director, Asha Bhalsod

With Amazon being the top destination for product searches, it’s even more have been shortages of plastic, computer chips, and aluminium, and the lockdown in China has not helped the situation. But important that you get your product as companies get better at forecasting portfolio and advertising campaigns and responding to potential disruptions, prepped! Prime Day is also a great precursor the impact of supply chain issues could to Black Friday. You can basically use this be less pronounced. sales period to test drive products for Q4 and tweak your approach for Black Friday.

After a few years of uncertainty, online shopping has become a stable access point for essential goods and a great mechanism for saving money. Brands are able to reach 5 times more new-to-brand shoppers and influence their buying decision with the right deals. There are however a few challenges that have Sellers are also feeling the effects of transpired in recent months. inflation, including Amazon’s new 5% fuel

Traditional bricks and mortar retail surcharge and their recently imposed has been under pressure for years, and inventory limitations. All of these the pandemic only accelerated that challenges have created a feeling of trend. Many retail segments are now at uncertainty, and many brands are risk, and we expect to see a shift to wondering whether sales will be as shorter leases, a demand for pop-up successful as on previous Prime Days. space and the emergence of entirely But despite all the seemingly gloomy new concepts and business models. We activities surrounding retail, Prime Day has are also seeing a growing discrepancy never disappointed, especially when you between off-line retail and those able to go in with a solid strategy. The anticipated deliver a strong online experience. date for Prime Day is around mid-July, and Unless you have a fabulous in-store preparation and planning should start experience on offer, online stores will now. In a time where campaigns are key, continue to steal the show. ensuring that you have stock to

Demand has skyrocketed over the last support them is vital. Be very selective few years, and the supply chain has about the ASINs you feature and make consequently struggled to keep up. There sure that each ASIN has enough ratings to

make them competitive. Coupons, Lightning Deals, Deal of the Day, Price Discount, Best Deals, or Spotlight Deals, there are plenty of options to choose from. Lightning Deals is an Amazon Prime Day classic; get your products featured for several hours on “ Brands are able to reach 5 times more new-to-brand shoppers and influence their buying decision with the right deals. “ Amazon’s ‘Today’s Deals’ page to drive reviews on the biggest shopping day of the year. The Deal of the Day runs for a 24-hour period and will increase visibility for non-performing products. It’s best not to launch new products over Prime Day as competition will be very high and the ‘noise’ will drown out the hype you could benefit from over a non-sales period. Essentially Amazon gets a lot of traffic due to marketing investment, especially when consumer discounts are applied. Advertising during Prime Day is a MUST. Even though ads are getting more expensive, they are more necessary now than ever. Simply put on Amazon, you pay to play. You just have to be smart about what you are investing in and how you manage and optimise your advertising

campaigns during this crucial time period. Amazon Prime Day sends a lot of traffic to the marketplace, so be prepared for higher CPCs. It’s important to look at your channel and pricing strategy in an economic climate where margins are getting tighter. Brands are concerned with lower profit margins, driven by the increasing cost of goods, transport and labour.

Brand Stores are drastically underutilised real estate on Amazon. It can provide you with customer behavioural insights by allowing brands to see the amount of traffic and sales their Brand Store receives. Get your storefront optimised to remain ahead of the competition by having all your products on Amazon in a single location, providing a landing page for your Amazon ads. Through this, you can create plenty of upselling and product discovery opportunities.

Many brands have actually raised their prices and are hesitant to offer discounts at this stage. Overall, this could affect the depth and breadth of discounting on Prime Day. However, if you are able to go in with a deeper discount and undercut the competition, you may be in for a more successful Prime Day than most.

There will be a few brands that don’t implement any promotional efforts on Prime Day. They rather hold back to capitalise on the increased traffic generated organically by Amazon and benefit from the halo effect. And after Prime Day? Well, make sure that you are able to take advantage of your higher rankings and product page history by ensuring that you have enough stock after Prime Day to keep up with the increased demand.

Prime Day is a great opportunity to claw back some of the anticipated losses in the baby category due to channels opening back up. Amazon deducts monies for marketing, remittance, packaging, you name it! By participating in Prime Day, you can certainly get your monies worth for your co-op agreement. Keep in mind that an increase in traffic means an increase in sales, and you will subsequently see a lift in your whole range, not just price promoted ASINs. You need to tailor your advertising and marketing efforts to target the Prime Day customer. This is an event most customers have been waiting for, and they take the time to save their favourite products beforehand and search for potential deals. You are dealing with a captive audience; customers on Amazon are invested in Amazon as well as this 2-day sales event. Embrace Prime Day and milk it for all its worth as this is an opportunity to plug sales from a predominantly underperforming Q1.

Learning what converts can be tough and developing a profitable Prime Day strategy can be just as challenging. If you could use the support of a strategic partner to help navigate this uncertain environment, please contact Etopia Consultancy –

asha@etopiaconsultancy.com

Essentially Amazon gets a lot of traffic due to marketing “ investment, especially when consumer discounts are “ applied. Advertising during Prime Day is a MUST.