October Prime Day, officially dubbed "Prime Big Deal Days," presents a massive opportunity for businesses to increase their sales and visibility. Since its launch, Prime Day has become one of the largest shopping events globally, with Amazon reporting over $12.9 billion in sales during Prime Day 2023 alone.
With the next Prime Day running on October 8th and 9th, sellers only have a few weeks to optimize their marketplace strategies to stand out from competitors. The following sections will take a holistic look at Prime Days' role in the success of businesses and the strategies they can use to overcome challenges and win big on October 8th and 9th.
If there was ever a time to pull your resources together for a single event, it's the Prime Big Deal Days. With hundreds of millions of shoppers flocking to Amazon during Prime Day, companies have an opportunity to boost sales, launch new products and increase their customer base significantly. During Prime Day 2022, Amazon Prime members purchased over 300 million items, including new products with brands they hadn't shopped with before.
With the sheer volume of customers in the marketplace, having the correct Prime Day strategy is important. Spending a little more on pay-per-click ads and preparing your fulfillment operations could be the difference between meeting your annual revenue goals or missing them completely.
While October Prime Day could be the biggest sales day of the year for your brand, there are several challenges you'll need to navigate in the marketplace. Here are the three biggest hurdles from last year's Prime Day.
One of the biggest headaches from the past few Prime Days has been competition from unauthorized sellers. Usually, these sellers use the increased marketplace traffic to sell counterfeit or diverted goods. Some reports even show that they have hijacked product listings in the past. With corrupt businesses undercutting prices and misrepresenting products, consumers quickly become overwhelmed and confused when looking for items to buy.
One way to navigate unauthorized seller competition is to use Amazon's Brand Registry program. The marketplace program helps protect listings and ensures your customers are purchasing genuine items.
Another challenge expected to impact sellers during October Prime Day is pricing wars with other companies selling “like” products. Many shoppers enter Prime Day looking for the best deals possible, often leading to organizations lowering prices to stay competitive. While reducing the cost of your product could help drive visibility on the platform, it could also have long-term adverse effects on profitability.
One of the best ways to keep the balance between competitive pricing and profitability is through bundled deals or exclusive add-ons during Prime Days. These offerings will help keep your pricing competitive but won't tie you to lower pricing once the event has ended.
Amazon reported removing over 7 million counterfeit products from its marketplace in 2023. Since then, fake versions of popular products have continued to be a nuisance for authorized sellers, especially during big sales events.
Counterfeit items steal sales from your organization and can impact your brand's reputation. It's important to have someone on your team constantly monitoring listings during Prime Day this year to ensure no one is utilizing fake reviews or other tactics to trick customers into buying a fake version of your product.
Despite some challenges sellers face during large marketplace events, October Prime Day is still a fantastic opportunity for organizations. If your team plans to participate this year, the following strategies will help you stay ahead of competitors and maximize profitability.
Most organizations assume that winning Prime Day happens on the big day itself. However, your team should prepare in advance for the big day to maximize revenue. The best place to start preparations is to review past sales data from previous Prime Days. This information will provide key insights into best-selling products, inventory gaps and customer preferences. From here, it becomes easier to determine which SKUs you should stock your fulfillment centers with to help cut down on stockouts.
Another important pre-Prime Day planning initiative is to ensure all your products are optimized and correct – meaning you should double-check that each listing has the following elements:
The last piece of preparation to focus on is the fulfillment operations aspect of your products. If your current logistics strategy can't handle the influx of upcoming orders, it could be time to lean on an outside resource like Cart.com.
As stated earlier, competition in the marketplace is incredibly fierce leading up to and during Prime Day. Many companies are battling for prime real estate, meaning ad costs are significantly higher.
Whether you're currently running a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign or not, it should be a key part of your marketing strategy come October 8th. Most companies that have optimized their ad campaigns have seen a significant boost in conversion rates on previous Prime Days.
Another large component of an effective Prime Day marketing strategy is social media. In the past, consumers would stumble upon products while browsing social media platforms. However, today, customers are actively looking for products on channels like TikTok and Meta before they even perform a Google search. Ensuring your company has a presence on various social channels will help drive traffic to your products when October's Prime Days start.
Teams often spend most of their time focused on the build-up and execution of their Prime Day plan but fail to prepare for the actual day. To have a successful day of online sales, your team should create a control center with dedicated team members tasked with the following:
With the right strategy, October Prime Day can be a game-changing sales event for your business. Whether you're optimizing your inventory, ramping up your marketing efforts or preparing for day-of challenges, success lies in preparation. Take the time to plan, address potential obstacles, and stay flexible throughout the event.
One of the best ways to prepare is to ensure you have a flexible partner like Cart.com to support crucial areas like fulfillment or ad management. Contact us today to see how our team can help your organization win big during Amazon's October Prime Day.