What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day has become a global shopping event, like its own Black Friday for Prime Members, and is likely to be one of the biggest sales days of the year for a majority of Amazon sellers.
This year Prime Day 2024 will be in July. This annual deals extravaganza usually last two days, but this year Amazon and other vendors are launching deals a bit early. In 2023, Prime Day sales reached an estimated $12 billion worldwide. This year there are many “anti-Prime Day deals” being hosted by other big box stores, Walmart leading the charge.
Prime Big Deals Day 2024 will be October 8-9. The annual pre-holiday deals event is considered the kick-off event for peak season shoppers.
The Difference Between Amazon Prime Day and Amazon Prime Big Deal Day
There are now two big Amazon sales events each year: Prime Big Deal Days in October and Prime Day in July. The sales for each are relatively the same, the only real difference is the time of year each are held.
Both sales events are exclusive to Prime members–consumers will see no distinct difference between the two sales. While Prime Day in July is a bit of a stand-alone holiday, Prime Big Deals Day focuses a bit more on holiday gift-giving, because it pre-dates the peak season holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Week, and Christmas.
For Amazon sellers, both sales events operate the same–there are inventory cut-off dates to comply with if Amazon is handling your product, and requirements to meet before sales hit. For the purposes of this post, “Prime Day” will encapsulate information for both sales events, unless otherwise noted.
Prime Day Deadlines for Ecommerce Merchants
To ensure sellers are ready for the big day, Amazon has strict holiday deadlines. Depending on the type of Amazon program you are using (FBA, FBM, Seller Central, or Vendor Central) you’ll need to check on the specific parameters that apply to you.
Here are some deadlines to look for:
- Deadline to submit coupons to run during Prime Day week
- Deadline to get Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) stock in order to ship during Prime Day week
- Deadline to submit Prime Exclusive Discounts
For any sale it’s important to start planning early. Work with your fulfillment provider to ensure everything is set up to run smoothly when Prime Day comes.
How Amazon Sellers Should Prepare for Prime Day
Two of the biggest factors that will determine the success or failure of Prime Day sales are inventory and pricing. Sellers should stock-up on inventory—treat this like any major holiday sale—to ensure you don’t run out of product during one of what will likely be your biggest day of sales.
If your products are imported, prepare by allowing enough time for shipments to get to Amazon for fulfillment (FBA). A big piece of inventory management is accurately incorporating lead time. Many sellers don’t incorporate lead time in the right fashion―which leads to stockouts. For example, if you think your lead time is going to be 45 days and it’s actually 60 days, then you end up with a 15 day stock out and that can be a very expensive error. Inventory is a leading component, so if that isn’t correct then every strategy after that point is going to be flawed.
Another factor to consider carefully is pricing. Before you get too caught up in Prime Day sales and try to offer the lowest price on the market, sellers should take a step back and factor in your total costs. Discounts and promotions are heavily encouraged, but it’s important to remember Prime Day isn’t a race to offer your products at the lowest prices. Many sellers have made the mistake of offering prices too far below what would be profitable for them, which will lead to a decline in overall revenue.
Promos, Discounts and Lightning Deals
Amazon Prime Day features two types of discounts: Lightning Deals and Deals of the Day. A Lightning Deal is a promotion with a limited number of discount offers available for any given item for a limited-time.
These deals are promoted on many parts of the Amazon platform, including the Gold Box page. They are limited to one per customer, until either the promotional period (typically 4 hour blocks) expires, or all the available promotional discounts are claimed.
Amazon also markets these deals through daily email subscriptions, the Amazon mobile app, Twitter, Facebook, and items can also be picked up by external media. Products that are featured in Amazon’s Lightning Deal advertising typically have a significant increase in sales throughout the predetermined duration of the deal.
Lightning Deal Minimum Requirements
- Proposed deal price is at least 20% off current buy-box price
- ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) does not have an Amazon Retail offer (third party unique ASINs)
- ASIN with a sale price must be greater than or equal to $10 (US)
- ASINs in hardlines or consumable product lines only
- Seller in-stock units are more than 20 units
- No add-on items (if the product is in FBA)
- Over 3.5 review stars (if no stars, then it will be monitored during the deal)
- High quality image, good title and complete detail page
- At least 10 (or more) reviews on the ASIN
- Must have at least 30 days worth of inventory in FBA
- Must have at least $5,000 in current inventory value
- Third-party offers only (no vendor applications)
- For products with variations, all variations must be discounted and participating in the deal
Deal of the Day Minimum Requirements
- Prime offers only (FBA or Seller Fulfilled Prime)
- Deal prices must offer customers a 20% or greater discount from the average price listed on Amazon.com over the last 90 days
- $5,000 minimum deal size (number of units multiplied by deal price)
- Product rating of 3 stars or higher
- No listing defects on the ASIN detail page
- Adult products, suggestive images, and products of a controversial nature will not be promoted in Lightning Deals
- Deal submission does not guarantee approval. Amazon reserves the right to reject or discontinue any deal in its discretion
- $2,500 minimum for products in the categories of Health and Personal Care, Grocery, Beauty, Baby
There are a limited number of spots available for sellers in each category so there will be competition for featuring the best deals. If there are multiple sellers selling the same ASIN as you, you will be competing with them to submit the best deal as well. You want to make these deals as competitive as possible. Additionally, every seller’s detail page content will be screened to make sure it does not violate the Amazon Terms of Service, and meets the category style guide which you can find on Amazon.
Amazon Coupons are a great alternative way to grab the attention Prime Day shoppers. Buyers might be so focussed on finding cheap deals that they skim straight past products without the Lightning Deal label. Coupons provide a discount badge which helps customers see what items they are offered on. This increases product visibility on every page. If you utilize sponsored product ads, the bright orange coupon labels is also featured. It is important to note that A coupon will only become active two days after you created it at the earliest.
The Importance of Amazon Reviews and Ratings
Product reviews on the Amazon Marketplace play a significant and multifaceted role in overall sales performance, and that is even more of a factor with the increased competition of Prime Day.
As a part of your Amazon selling strategy, being able to manage the feedback on your products and customer service is going to be an area where you can differentiate yourself on the ultra-competitive marketplace. Sellers should aim for an approach that will gain as many positive product reviews as possible. Your strategy should be based on keywords that you know will show up on the first page of Amazon search.
Sellers should put aside certain amounts of inventory to roll out for campaign purposes to help boost reviews. They should also implement a comprehensive follow-up email strategy to maximize their chances of having a customers review their products for each sale.
Boost Prime Day Visibility with Amazon Ads
Additional visibility can be boost your sales if you choose to buy Amazon advertising. You can leverage either Sponsored Product or Sponsored Brand ads to help drive traffic to your Amazon page.
Remember that your Sponsored Product ads will draw additional attention to your Prime Day offers because they will bear the distinct labelling of Lightning Deals and Coupons.
You will likely want to increase your Prime Day advertising budgets. This will help you stand out from the fierce competition. It is also important to optimize your existing campaigns. You are going to be spending a considerable amount of money purchasing inventory for Prime Day, so it’s critical that your campaigns run as efficiently and effectively as possible. You might want to research the best keywords to include on your page. And remove low volume items that aren’t driving the traffic and distracting from the top selling items you want customers to see. You also might want to create a campaign explicitly for Amazon Prime Day. However it is important to note that this strategy is only for new products or those you have not advertised yet. It takes time for Amazon advertising campaigns to acquire a decent quality score and boost their rankings.
Bottom Line
Prime Day can offer an incredible opportunity for ecommerce sellers to boost their sales. In order to achieve success from Prime Day, it is important for a seller to factor in all of the requirements necessary to qualify for the Prime Day Deals that are the best fit for their products. Take into account all inventory, lead time, shipping, and advertising strategies and make plans many months in advance. itself
If all goes according to plan—optimizing your listings and stocking up on inventory—you could find yourself having one of the biggest sales days of your year.
At DCL Logistics we offer support to our clients who sell on Amazon, whether Seller Central or Vendor Central. If you’re interested in participating in Prime Day, talk to any DCL account manager about what preparation you’ll need. Or contact us here if you’re interested in partnering with us for logistics support.
Tags: Expert Advice & Tips, Online Marketplace
