While it might seem impossible, the 2022 Christmas season is only a few weeks away. And Amazon plans to start the season by launching its first Fall Prime Early Access sale.
The two-day festival takes between the 11th and 12th of October. It, similar to the typical mid-summer eComm shopping, offers Prime members exclusive, high discounts that can produce sales surpassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
Prime Days on Amazon Prime Days historically have the potential to bring in substantial revenue growth; however, as a business, you must be prepared to get the most value from this chance. Here’s what you need to know to utilize Prime Day to your (and your bottom line’s) advantage.
1. Plan for Success (Think: Ad Budget)
Consider your holiday marketing budgets and the usual crowd of shoppers between November and December. We usually see a general rise in sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
In light of the current and current economic situation, it’s a good idea to be prepared for more intense traffic surges during the special “deal events” throughout the season. People will likely be more mindful of their spending habits and seek to save wherever and whenever possible. Utilizing a notorious deal day may offer you the best chance to capitalize and capture holiday traffic-turns-revenue.
It is essential to plan. However, you should remember the pandemic year Prime Day event, which was delayed until October 2020. Amazon recorded a massive 45.2 percent increase in sales year-over-year.
Consumers are equally – or more eager to save money this year. The planning ahead process could be a matter of increasing your budget to ensure that advertisements don’t stop automatically, which could result in a loss of customers and, ultimately, sales.
2. Prioritize Prime
Amazon highlights its exclusivity in Prime Days, and there’s no exception for their upcoming October event, and they’ve stated that deals will again be only offered to Prime members.
Brands need to offer offers and discounts to the Prime-only market for the chance to receive the attractive, eye-catching badges that appear in search results and also be included at the top of the “Deals” page. Coupons and strikethrough prices that anyone (Prime or otherwise) can redeem isn’t likely to be able to garner the same attention in the same way that a Prime Deal might.
3. Sell Inventory and Move it to the Market with Deals
When you run Prime-exclusive deals, consider going large. Offer 20 percent discounts (or more significant) on the items you’d like to eliminate. Review past performance to identify which products perform best at specific times of the year. This information can help you to determine your Prime offer of deal and product.
4. Understand Buyer Trends
Based on the Insider Intelligence data from July 20, 2022’s Prime Day data, we can conclude that the rising prices and inflation are directly impacting consumers’ purchasing decisions. We’re seeing consumers tend to shop for discounts on essential household items and essentials, which is a significant departure from the past most popular articles of the electronic consumer as well as the beauty and health sectors.
More than 34 percent of this year’s Prime Day shoppers said they would wait for the sale to score an offer on a product they were looking for or needed. Additionally, 28% of shoppers could pass on non-essential items even if it was priced well and a “great deal.”
Because the uncertainty in the economy is higher than it was in the Q2 and three quarters, it’s expected that we’ll see a decline in sales on items that are priced at regular prices during the Christmas season, when shoppers who are cost conscious are more willing to hold off on discounts. Meaning: prime time of the fall Early Access Days = opportunity.
5. Build an Omni-Channel Approach
When you decide on the best marketing strategy, consider the complete customer journey. When you choose to launch your campaign, the timing Early Access Sale can enormously positively affect Q4’s revenue. This is mainly because of the double deal shortly when Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BF/CM) rapidly approach.
Beyond running ads for sponsored products, Demand Side Platform (DSP) campaigns run during these promotion periods can convert customers through ting. The timing of BF/CM is close. This means that DSP advertisements can allow you to benefit from the vast number of potential buyers and in-market customers who might not be ready for conversion after completing the Early Access Sale. DSP ads could assist in bringing them closer to modification at the right time to coincide with the BF/CM.
Alongside DSP Utilizing other marketing strategies that are not Amazon-based can be adequate revenue-generating opportunities. You can bring customers to Amazon during times of promotions by:
Social media
SMS
Email campaigns
Amazon Attribution manages the campaigns and can significantly increase a product’s organic rank, resulting in improved SERP position and thus decreasing the need for costly large jumps in ad spending.
The retailer SAXX, a retail brand, had seen immense success when they took advantage of the entire funnel strategy before Prime Day in July. They used search and DSP advertisements and external marketing campaigns that drove traffic to their discounted items on Amazon. This is why SAXX experienced growth throughout this month when sales were nearly twice as high throughout Europe, the US, CA, and the EU, And these numbers were not only MoM and YoY!
The growth potential is there all over the board for any business that sells Amazon products that use all the available tools. The fall Prime Early Access sale, particularly when added over BF/CM, could be the difference between achieving or not achieving the goals of Q4 revenue for many businesses this year.
It is crucial to develop a solid strategy to maximize the value of these bargains while providing the appropriate people. This is not merely giving out deals and discounts that are hefty and promotions but also organizing searches, DSP, and off-Amazon strategies for marketing to maximize sales. This is the perfect time to put an action plan in place since these occasions could mean the difference between achieving your goals or being short when you reach the end of 2022.
6. Dial in Your Shipping
Cost and shipping time are the two most significant factors for buyers making purchasing decisions. More than half of cart abandonments involve delivery ( Baymard Institute). A staggering 90 percent of shoppers in the US are now expecting (or requiring) 2-day shipping to be a minimum ( McKinsey & Company). This is before when the Christmas season begins.
It is essential to have a reliable system that can provide customers with low-cost, timely delivery. Furthermore, you need to be transparent with your customers about details like delivery times, cutoff dates for shipping, and the cost of shipping. To ensure your business is successful, you should look into a third-party partner like FenixCommerce to speed up the shipping process and enhance the customer experience. The ability to set your shipping parameters will allow you to increase revenue and ensure that your customers are satisfied.
In short, the importance of planning. The fourth quarter of the year can be a turning point for retailers, and with the upcoming most popular event, retailers will have another chance amid a busy holiday season to increase their sales. This is the perfect moment (if you haven’t done so already) to start putting products or deals ready for one of the most important annual holiday celebrations.