This July 12 and 13 is Amazon Prime Day, the company’s biggest sales event of the year! With a record amount of shoppers expected to flock to the Amazon website during the sales event, third-party sellers have a lot to cash in on. Last year, Amazon Prime Day sales totaled $11 billion, and in 2020, third-party sellers alone sold $3.5 billion worth of products! 

At a time of record-high inflation, cost-conscious customers are likely to jump at Prime Day’s big savings on items they may not otherwise buy. As an Amazon seller, you won’t want to miss out on a flood of customers browsing the Amazon site this Prime Day for the best deals. High traffic and eagerness to buy are a winning combination for the success of your product listings! 

Even though brands that don’t do anything to prepare for Prime Day might still see an increase in sales, we recommend taking some steps to position your brand for maximum success. Keep reading this blog post for a roundup of helpful tips and practices to prepare for Prime Day! 

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Prime Day began in 2015 to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary and reward Prime members with exciting deals and promotions. Since then, it has evolved into a multi-day affair whose sales volume is surpassed only by Black Friday. What makes Amazon Prime Day unique as opposed to Amazon’s other sales events is that it is exclusively for Prime subscribers – all 200 million of them. Prime members on Prime Day, and leading up to it, have access to a huge variety of deals on Amazon brand products plus items from third-party sellers.

How Can Sellers Participate in Prime Day? 

The good news is that active Amazon sellers don’t have to do anything to participate! By simply having products available for sale on Amazon, you can take advantage of the increased customer traffic that Prime Day brings to Amazon.  

However, you can give yourself the upper hand by creating special promotions, running ads, and optimizing your product listings. Let’s take a closer look at these practices: 

1. Create Product Discounts and Promotions 

Launching promotions on Prime Day is a great way to expand the visibility of your product listings. Amazon offers several tools year-round that are great to tap into on Prime Day: 

Prime Exclusive Discounts: Prime Exclusive Discounts is a promotional option available for products that qualify for Prime shipping (either through FBA or Merchant-Fulfilled Prime). If your product meets all the criteria for Prime Exclusive Discounts, you’ll be able to create a discount in the Advertising tab of Seller Central. Once approved, the new marked-down price will display on the listing next to the crossed-out list price. 

On Amazon Prime Day, products with Prime Exclusive Discounts receive a special Prime Day Deal badge to attract even more attention! 

Amazon Coupons: Amazon Coupons are another great way to offer customers promotional value. Coupons are displayed as a bright orange coupon box on the listing and can be either a percent off or a dollar value discount. 

Lightning Deals: Amazon Lightning Deals allows you to spotlight your product on the main Prime Day page (during the year, Lightning Deals are on the Today’s Deals page). On one of the busiest shopping days of the year, a Lightning Deal is a great way to increase traffic and conversions on your product listings. Note that Lightning Deals are only available for Prime-eligible products. 

2. Run Sponsored Ads 

Launching Sponsored Product or Sponsored Brand ad campaigns is another great way to capture more sales. These pay-per-click ads are displayed throughout Amazon to sellers who have searched for relevant keywords or viewed similar product listings. Keep in mind, if your product has a coupon available, it will display on the Sponsored Product Ad! 

When creating sponsored ads – or auditing your existing ads to prepare for Prime Day — you’ll want to ensure that you’re bidding on the most relevant keywords. Plus, you’ll probably want to increase your daily budgets and bid more aggressively since Prime Day is a top advertising time for sellers. And on Prime Day, monitor your budgets frequently as they might run out faster than you expect. 

3. Optimize Your Product Listings 

As part of your Prime Day preparation, review your product listings to ensure that product titles and descriptions are clear, concise, and accurate. It’s also a good time to update low-quality images and add relevant keywords that you may have left off your listings. If you’re a brand owner, you may want to consider adding A+ content if you haven’t already. A+ content is an additional product or brand information – in the form of text, high-definition videos, imagery, or charts – that can be included in your product description  

4. Promote Your Prime Day Deals on Social Media 

Last but not least, don’t forget to generate buzz about your promotions! Bring more shoppers to your Amazon listings on Prime Day by letting them know you have some exciting deals coming. Include engaging product imagery and Prime Day hashtags on your social posts. 

Ready for a successful Prime Day? The Witz Group is here to help you implement the best practices and strategies to win big this year. Contact us today for support with optimizing your product listings, running promotions, and launching ad campaigns.