Prime Day is a vital day in the Amazon sellers calendar and can be a contributing factor to whether it is a successful month, quarter or year for your Amazon brand.
With Prime Day now confirmed as taking place on the 11th and 12th of July 2023, the time to prepare for Prime Day is NOW.
So it is important to set yourself up for success over the next 3 months and ensure you do everything in your power to increase visibility, engage with customers and boost sales both on the day and in the lead up to this sales bonanza. Not only will this benefit you on the day but will see a lasting effect in the weeks and months after Prime Day as well.
Want to get ahead of the competition? Below are some of Uncapped’s top tips to ensure you are ready to nail Prime Day.
1. Plan and optimise your inventory
Now I know this sounds like it should go without saying but it is really make or break.
Data plays a huge part in this process. If possible, you should look at your inventory history in order to guide your inventory future. I.e analyse your sales data from previous Prime Days, Black Friday Cyber Mondays or other peak periods to accurately forecast demand.
Unsure where to begin? Check out our recent article discussing all things inventory.
It is important to look at historical inventory usage because then you can start talking to your suppliers, accurately ordering and therefore ensure you have enough inventory to meet the expected increase in orders using past experience to ensure you don't over, or under, order.
It is also wise to check what are currently hot sellers on Amazon as it is likely that they will be even more in demand on Prime Day. If you happen to stock those items, plan for it!
Bulk ordering inventory can be a costly affair and put strains on cash flow. Luckily there are funding options out there designed to make the order of inventory more manageable enabling you to best prepare for these landmark sales moments.
Hunter & Gather are a perfect example of this. Founder Amy Moring came to Uncapped in order to access cash that would allow the disruptive food brand to purchase £125k+ of stock in two waves to prepare for major Amazon sales moments.
2. Optimise your storefront and product listings
This may be graft and a large expense but it is fundamental to the success of the day and beyond so the sooner you get going on the optimisation of your Amazon store the better. Below we have split it into storefront and listings.
Storefronts
Storefronts are still heavily underutilised by many Amazon sellers but have the potential to put you one step ahead of the competition if optimised correctly. Some optimisation tips include:
Brand message and story: Educate your customers about your brand and products and create emotional connection with prospective buyers. Make your brand memorable and address key painpoints of customers and you are more likely to covert. It doesn't need to be long, but must resonate with your target market.
Copy that lands: Keep it simple and keep it aligned with your customer base. Always write in the tone that you would speak to them in real life and in a way which is aligned with your brand tone. Also use the right keywords to ensure customers are routed to you via Amazon’s algorithm.
Use high quality imagery and video: try to provide the customer with the same feeling and experience they would get in a physical store when engaging with your products. High quality imagery will enable them to see in detail what they are buying.
Make it navigable: A confusing store is a poor performing store. Make sure a customer can easily navigate to the products they will want to see.
Product Listings
In addition to your store front, it is important that you dive deeper into your listings to ensure they are optimised ahead of the big day. Here’s how to optimise your listings:
Check, check and check again: No one likes a spelling error or poor layout so be sure to give your listing copy a once over. As well as being grammatically correct, it should be compelling
Keyword optimisation: Hopefully you will have already identified the effective keywords for your products but it doesn't hurt to give it another look over. Check out this article from SellerLabs to get your keyword game on point.
Customer feedback: Reviews can be a secret weapon on the optimisation front. We appreciate that it is a time consuming endeavour but can be key in order to turn traffic into buyers. Maybe consider checking out Jungle Scout’s review automation tool
Imagery update: As with the storefront, high quality imagery is a must. Make sure that your creative stands out and abides by Amazon’s rules and regs.
Start making these changes now and it will put you in good stead to maximise impact ont he day. What’s that old saying? A stitch in time saves nine.
3. Get clear on your Prime Day deals
Prime Day is a noisy time so it is vital you stand out from the other sellers. By making concrete and planned promotions in advance of the day, you stand the best chance of enticing customers to your store front.
Things to consider are:
- When are your promotions going to start? The day itself or in the lead up?
- Are you going to bundle items?
- Will there be a buy-one-get-one-free deal?
- What about multi-item purchase discounts?
It is key to make sure the deals and promos are attractive enough to capture attention, drive conversions and ultimately beat your competitors. However, it is also vital to ensure you still make a profit so get those calculators ready! (Or use Uncapped’s FBA Profit Calculator)
After deciding how you will discount or provide deals, it is important to make sure they are visible and stand out. Maybe consider using Amazon's deal features such as:
Amazon coupons: these are a great way to show you have a great offer on as a large orange tag appears by the list price thereby making it abundantly clear to shoppers the savings that are on offer. There is a deadline to submit these deals so check Seller Central
Lightning deals: this is an offer that features on the ‘Amazon Deals’ page for a limited time.
So the formula we are working with is:
Attractive discount + visibility = sales
It’s also worth noting, not everything is Prime Day worthy. Don’t waste your precious hours on items that aren’t going to sell. Identify your top sellers. Identify what is eligible for Prime Day. And provide a competitive price. Easy right?
4. Ramp up your ad campaigns
As goes without saying, Prime Day is a highly competitive event but this competition seeps into the advertising world as well. Ad costs rocket, bidding intensifies (more than usual) and it can all feel quite overwhelming.
So start early. You should ideally be running Prime Day campaigns at least a couple weeks in advance in order to generate the buzz and earn sales history thereby increasing their authority on Amazon’s platform.
Sellers should consider:
- Optimising PPC campaigns
- Increasing ad spend (on and off Amazon)
- If you don’t already, consider utilising a variation of ad types such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Brands Video, Sponsored Display, and Sponsored Display Video ads
- Influencer marketing
- Using your own DTC site as an ad platform
All in all, make sure, in the lead up to Prime Day, you tighten up your ad strategy and ensure your entire team is on the same page.
If you are concerned about the rising cost of advertising on Amazon then why not get in touch with Uncapped and see how our Amazon Sellers Funding product can help you dispel this worry and set yourself up for success.
5. Run off-Amazon activity
When focusing on your ads, it is tempting to forget there is a world beyond Amazon but, remember, your potential customers are out there on Google, Facebook and more.
Awareness of Prime Day is high but competition is abundant and therefore, in addition to the above mentioned ad strategies, it is important to explore a multichannel approach to Prime Day so:
- Advertise across multiple channels: Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, or any others where your ideal customer hangs out. I hear TikTok is big these days…
- Retarget shoppers who have previously engaged with your brand and retarget them with Prime Day deals (Also make sure you retarget Prime Day viewers again after the day to keep momentum going)
If you sell across multiple channels but the promotions aren’t available across all channels, consider pivoting your usual paid ad strategy on Prime Day to drive potential buyers to your Amazon storefront.
Compliment your efforts across social channels with email marketing as well. Reminders in the lead up to the day will keep you top of mind and help get your loyal customers through the virtual door.
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6. Provide excellent customer service
It’s going to be hectic. It’s going to be stressful. It’s going to be busier than usual.
But, you have to think about the long term. Welcoming an influx of new customers to your store is a great opportunity to build customer loyalty by showing how much you care.
Happy customers are returning customers and by providing excellent customer service, you have the opportunity to build meaningful connections and ongoing sales.
All of the above mentioned points will contribute to a wonderful shopping experience for your Prime Day visitors but there are a few other things that can be done to ensure the red carpet is rolled out:
- Promptly respond to customer inquiries, reviews, and feedback
- Monitor your product listings for any issues and address them promptly
- Free and quick shipping. Ensure you shipping is slick
- Communicate and be transparent
- Be reliable. Do what you say you’re going to do
“It takes months to find a customer… seconds to lose one” - Vince Lombardi
Heeding Mr Lombardi’s advice, we should do our utmost to ensure customers gained aren’t lost through lacklustre service.
To ensure you get it right, it may even be worth considering adding some seasonal fire power to your team or getting a short term agency contract to ensure your customers leave with the best possible service. There are some great automated tools out there as well. Again, this can be a costly endeavour but the long term implications of getting it wrong can be more costly.
Post sale is a good time to promote loyalty programmes if you have them to keep the good times rolling. Customers who sign up can give themselves access to benefits, discounts and coupons that can be redeemed later down the line prompting returning custom.
7. Monitor, analyse and learn
Continuing the sports theme started with Vince Lombardi’s quote, you’re only as good as your last game (but replace game with sale/listing/ad etc).
It is vital that in the lead up to, the day itself and post event you are iterating where necessary and making sure the ship is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
What items are selling well? Which ads are performing? Which aren't? What promo channels are driving traffic? Where should I double efforts? Are the areas I can scale back? Are customers behaving the way we predicted?
Use your Seller Central or Vendor Central analytics platforms to stay on top of the day’s goings on and ensure you are being reactive to any signs
When is it all over? I have some bad news. It’s never over!!
Crucially, we have to ascertain how you can apply the immense learnings from all the data and monitoring going forward. Both to your every day operations and future sales events. Because you know what? Black Friday is just round the corner…
Conclusion
Prime Day can be a make or break for your brand but by managing the above sections, you can take necessary steps to ensure you are best prepared for the inevitable madness.
By preparing early, streamlining inward and outward operations, seeking external support and using your skilled network and ecosystem, you can stay competitive and see huge spikes in revenue and sales.
To spare yourself any financial headaches in the lead up to this vital day, get in touch with Uncapped, and let’s see how we can work together for your brand's success.
