Blog: Amazon Prime Day for Amazon Sellers: Everything You Need to Know

Amazon Prime Day for Amazon Sellers: Everything You Need to Know

Published on 2018-06-08

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First there was Black Friday. Then there was Cyber Monday. Now, in the age of Amazon, there’s Prime Day – the biggest shopping holiday of the year.

Yes, there is such a thing as a shopping holiday (even if only the diehard fans take the day off to score some deals).

Prime Day has grown like wildfire since it began back in 2015. Amazon initially used it as a way to celebrate their 20th anniversary – and it stuck in a big way.

So popular with customers, it’s become a hotly anticipated yearly blowout of bigtime deals. Of course, it has its benefits for Amazon. In order to participate in Prime Day, customers need to have a Prime membership ($119/year for customers in the United States). Last year, Amazon revealed that more members signed up for a Prime membership on Prime Day than any day in the company’s history.

In 2017, Prime Day went from being a 24-hour affair to a full 30 hours straight – with new deals every hour. Amazon’s 2017 event also surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, becoming the biggest day on record for Amazon.

Sales grew by more than 60 percent over the previous year. Of that, 39% of sales came from third-party sellers!

Excited for the 2018 edition yet?

At the time of this blog post, Amazon has yet to tell the world when the 2018 edition will be. But, we’re putting our money on July 10. Since Prime Day began, it’s always been held the second week of July!

 

How sellers can take advantage of Prime Day

On Prime Day, it’s normal to quadruple your usual sales volume. Shoppers are coming out in droves, eager to snap up the best deals.

There are a few ways sellers are able to make the most of Prime Day. In order to participate in Prime Day, you have to be selling with Amazon FBA. Using Amazon’s fulfilment service is the only way to participate in Prime deals and offer two-day shipping to customers.

Lightning Deals

Lightning Deals are one of the core features of Prime Day. Essentially, customers will have an urgent window of time in which to buy your product – no more than a few hours.

These deals are promoted on Amazon’s Deals pages. On Prime Day, Amazon promotes these deals much more prominently, giving your deals an even higher profile.

It isn’t cheap to participate in Lightning Deals and you do need to offer a high discount in order to sell well. Usually deals include 20 percent or more off your original price. But, remember when I said you can quadruple your sales? It can really pay off, especially on Prime Day.

During the Prime Day countdown (the week before Prime Day), sellers can pay $300 to have their products promoted as a Lightning Deal. During Prime Day, Lightning Deals cost anywhere from $300 to $750!

Note: Deadlines for Lightning Deals have already passed, but, there’s always next year! 

 

Offer a discount

You don’t have to take part in Lightning Deals to win big on Prime Day. But, you should definitely offer a discount on your product.

There will be a lot more buyers on Amazon and a lot more opportunity to promote your products. Offering a discount while buyers are already in a spending mood is a great way to incentivize customers to buy!

Communicate with customers

If you have a mailing list or a brand built up around your product, you should absolutely be connecting with them ahead of Prime Day.

Let your audience know that BIG deals are coming and send links to your discounted products on Prime Day. Amazon puts together a Prime Day communications package for all eligible sellers and you can leverage their materials like graphics and copy to make your emails more official!

Use the right keywords for your PPC campaigns

Want a leg up over all of the other sellers driving their sales up on Prime Day? Use Amazon PPC and create some Sponsored Product listings.

Your products will appear at the top of Amazon for relevant keyword searches. Not sure if your listing has the right keywords or which keywords to target?

Jungle Scout’s BRAND NEW Keyword Scout feature is included in all Web App plans and includes Suggested HSA Bids and Keyword Volumes so you can avoid marketing mistakes and ensure you’re driving customers to your product.

 

Prime Day benefits for Amazon sellers

With so many shoppers flocking to Amazon for deals, Prime Day is the perfect time for sellers to try something new. Or, get rid of some products that have been weighing your business down.

Clearing out old inventory

If you’re using the right research strategies, it greatly reduces the chances of picking a product that sells poorly or gets dominated by competition right away. Of course, these things still happen. And, when they do you get saddled with a pile of products that accumulate storage fees in Amazon warehouses.

The answer? Unload them on Prime Day. Offer an incredible deal on the products you want to sell – fast. Customers are so deal-hungry, they’re more likely to come in and snap them up. You may not earn back what you intended, but it will save you from paying higher fees over time.

Grow your customer reviews

The more customers you have, the more chances you have to earn reviews – plain and simple. Reviews are an essential part of generating future sales because they offer new customers proof that your product is selling and customers like it (assuming your reviews are good, of course).

Use a tool like Jump Send to follow up with customers post-purchase and encourage them to stop by and review your product in order to make the most of your Prime Day efforts!

Increase your sales velocity

Amazon wants to showcase products customers are buying. The faster your products are flying off their shelves, the better your search ranking will be. A day like Prime Day can be a huge driver for your business, especially if you offer a discount customers are responding to!

Necessary Prime Day preparations

Ahead of Prime Day, there are a few things you can do to get the most out of the biggest shopping day of the year.

Prepare your inventory

Prime Day success has one major pitfall – inventory management. Many sellers are starting to see an increase in sales around this event, and while it can be a great time to clear out excess stock, it can also result in some unwanted stockouts.

If you are going to be running any sort of Lightning deal, discount or promotion, make sure you are prepared for those extra sales.

And, if this is your first Prime day and you have no numbers from last year to help you manage inventory then here’s a few other tips that might help you:

Consider ordering your inventory earlier than usual, just to be on the safe side. Get that next shipment on the ocean.
Consider holding additional inventory with your Freight Forwarder. Often, this can work out cheaper than Amazon’s storage fees and it also means your inventory will already be in the country of sale, so you can get it shipped to the FBA center quicker.

Have the best listing possible

The most important factors in a customer clicking from the results page to your product page is an impeccable listing.

This means ensuring your Featured Image, Title and Price are all on point. The only way to know what works for your customers is to split test. And, of course, split testing on Prime Day is a bit too late to know what works.

I recommend starting now, using Splitly to split test various images and determine what gets the best click-through rate. Splitly’s Profit Peak feature helps you define the best price for your audience, which will really come in handy as you try to figure out what discount to offer.

You can also use Keyword Scout (more hacks below!) to determine the best keywords to optimize your listing.

 

 

Optimize your keywords

When it comes to creating a great listing, keywords are king. That’s how people find your product!

Using Jungle Scout’s brand new Keyword Scout feature (available with Jungle Scout Web App plans), you can see keyword volumes for your niche, as well as see things like:

  • Suggested HSA bids for refining your ad strategy.
  • The recommended giveaway number for growing your audience
  • Competitor analysis
  • And more!

You can ensure your listing is optimized now, so you don’t miss out on any major opportunities to sell more on Prime Day!

 

Let’s talk Prime Day!

Want to hear from a group of serious pros on Prime Day? Join me on July 12 as I take part in a roundtable discussion with CPC Strategies, Skubana and Feedvisor to talk Prime Day advertising strategies, branded content optimization and smart pricing!

Sign up here!

 

This Exclusive 2018 Amazon Prime Day Virtual Round-Table is happening at 11 AM PST, 2 PM EST on July 12. And best of all, it’s FREE to tune in and get all of your Prime Day questions answered.

 

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