How Brands Can Take Full Advantage of Amazon Prime Day

Typically a two-day affair taking place sometime around Amazon’s anniversary in July, Prime Day is one of the most highly anticipated eCommerce events to get all your favorites shipped directly to your house at a fraction of the original cost.

Now in its ninth year, Prime Day is officially set to occur on July 16th and 17th.  after boasting the single largest sales day in Amazon history during last year’s Prime Day.

Prime Day is especially important for small businesses selling on Amazon Marketplace – in 2022, Amazon announced their “Support Small Businesses to Win Big” sweepstakes as a Prime Day promo. That campaign generated more than $3 billion worth of marketplace seller purchases by offering raffle tickets for exclusive prizes based on dollars spent on third-party seller items.

How Brands Can Prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2024

As we mentioned, this year’s Amazon Prime Day is slated for July 16th and 17th, which means that now is the time to ensure that your presence on Amazon is ready for one of the biggest digital sales events. Below are a list of things you should consider to optimize your Amazon readiness – because your competition likely already has. 

As an example, we’ll be following the fictional company TechGear along as they optimize their Amazon storefront and listings for Prime Day 2024.

1. Optimize your product pages

Optimizing your product pages is a vital step in preparing for Prime Day success. The worst thing that could happen is you spend lots of time and energy on getting shoppers to your product page, only to lose the sale because of poor or missing product content!

There are a few key ways our friends at TechGear can optimize their Amazon product pages:

Conduct a thorough audit of product listings

Before Prime Day arrives, TechGear can meticulously review their product titles, descriptions, images, and other relevant details, ensuring that all information is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across their entire product catalog.

For instance, TechGear could verify that their headphone listings have compelling titles that include key features such as “Wireless,” “Noise Canceling,” and “Long Battery Life”, and that their product descriptions are informative and up-to-date, highlighting the unique selling points of each product.

Of course doing this page-by-page is impossible, so it’s helpful to have a centralized source of truth like a Product Information Management (PIM) system that gives you visibility at scale across your product catalog, allowing you to make mass changes to quickly optimize the product information.

Utilize A+ Content

Amazon A+ Content enhances product pages with rich multimedia elements, including additional images, videos, comparison charts, and compelling storytelling.  This section of an Amazon product detail page is an opportunity to tell your brand story and connect with shoppers.

For TechGear, Prime Day is the perfect opportunity to ensure as many of their product pages as possible have A+ Content with lifestyle imagery and brand storytelling to showcase the benefits of their products and increase customer engagement and conversions. They could create visually appealing modules, maybe even 3D-rendered models, and could split-test different variations of their A+ Content, enabling them to identify the most effective elements and layouts.

Generate reviews and address feedback

Customer reviews play a vital role in the Amazon shopping experience – just because they’re at the bottom of the page, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be at the top of your priority list!

Positive reviews from satisfied customers build trust and encourage potential buyers to make a purchase. TechGear should proactively engage with their customers and encourage them to leave reviews, especially those with pictures and videos showcasing the product in action. This social proof will help build credibility and attract more customers during Prime Day.

TechGear can also audit their existing reviews and address any negative comments or customer concerns ahead of Prime Day, showing their commitment to customer satisfaction and building a positive brand reputation before the increased flurry of customer activity.

Take advantage of Amazon Posts

Similar to social media feeds like Instagram, Amazon Posts allow brands to create a stream of curated posts showcasing their products in action. By utilizing Amazon Posts effectively, TechGear can keep their products top-of-mind for consumers during Prime Day by publishing posts showcasing customers using their bluetooth speakers during workouts, gaming sessions, or while traveling.

Or maybe TechGear just wants to generate some buzz and awareness, so they feature their best-performing ASINs, like their highest-rated items or best sellers to capture the attention of customers who are actively searching for popular items on Prime Day.

2. Offer multiple ways to save

To entice customers and maximize sales during Prime Day, offering various ways for them to save is crucial. Amazon provides several effective strategies that brands can utilize to drive engagement and conversions. 

Lightning Deals 

Lightning Deals are time-limited discounts on select products that create a sense of urgency among shoppers. These deals are prominently featured on Amazon’s website and can be highly effective in driving impulse purchases. 

For our friends at TechGear, a Lightning Deal could be reducing the price by 30% on their best-selling headphones for a limited time during Prime Day. This deal would catch the attention of shoppers casually browsing for headphones and encourage them to make a quick purchase before the deal expires.

Prime Exclusive Discounts

Prime Exclusive Discounts are special discounts visible only to Amazon Prime customers. These discounts showcase the discounted price alongside the regular price, highlighting the percentage saved. 

TechGear could offer a Prime Exclusive Discount on their latest smartwatch, displaying the original price crossed out and the discounted price next to it, indicating a 20% discount exclusive to Prime members. This exclusive offer would incentivize Prime customers to take advantage of the savings and potentially drive more browsers to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get access to the exclusive discount.

Coupons

Coupons on Amazon are displayed with an eye-catching bright green tag, making them easily noticeable for customers. These coupons provide instant savings on eligible products.

For example, TechGear could offer a coupon for 15% off their entire range of phone accessories, including cases, chargers, and screen protectors. When customers visit the TechGear Amazon store, they would see the bright green coupon tag, encouraging them to apply the coupon and enjoy the discounted price at checkout.

Non-Amazon promotions

Outside of Amazon, brands like TechGear can employ a number of strategies to drive customers to the popular marketplace during Prime Day, including social media promo codes, influencer codes, custom marketing pages, and buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deals. 

TechGear could leverage social media platforms to run a Prime Day promotion where they provide a unique promo code only to their social media followers that offers an additional 10% discount on all purchases made during Prime Day. Or they could collaborate with influencers in the tech niche who would promote TechGear’s Prime Day deals through their channels, sharing exclusive discount codes with their followers. 

This omnichannel approach leads us nicely to our third strategy.

3. Utilize other channels to promote Prime Day deals

While Amazon is obviously the primary platform for Prime Day sales, don’t limit your promotional efforts solely to the marketplace! Leverage off-Amazon advertising channels such as Facebook and Google as these platforms offer sophisticated targeting capabilities, enabling you to promote your Prime Day deals and bundles to potential customers who may not be actively browsing Amazon. 

TechGear could run targeted Facebook ads that showcase their exclusive Prime Day discounts and highlight the unique features of their products. By using precise audience targeting options provided by Facebook, TechGear can reach users who have shown an interest in similar products or who fit their target demographic, driving traffic to their Amazon storefront and increasing the chances of conversions during Prime Day. Or TechGear could utilize Google Ads to capture the attention of potential customers by bidding on strategic keywords and optimizing ad campaigns, ensuring their Prime Day promotions appear prominently in Google search results.

Lastly, TechGear could utilize TikTok or YouTube for video content, enabling them to demonstrate their products in action by showing an Olympic swimmer using their water-proof headphones in the pool or doing a collab with a popular streamer as she reviews their newest keyboard.

How Akeneo Can Help

With so many things to consider when preparing for Amazon Prime Day – it’s important to have the right processes and technology to help you take advantage of this event by keeping your listings complete, consistent, and compelling.  

Akeneo PIM helps global brands and distributors centralize their product information and assets and enrich it at scale so they can compete and win on channels like Amazon, leaving Excel spreadsheets and outdated technology behind. 

With Akeneo PIM and Akeneo Activation for Retail, businesses can activate their optimized product catalog on retail sites like Amazon.  With a near-real-time API integration, Akeneo pulls in the PDP requirements from Amazon Vendor Central and makes it easy for you to map and transform your PIM data to match the Amazon fields, always ensuring that your most up-to-date and accurate product information is being sent to Amazon.

Activation for Retail can help you combat third-party sellers that compete with you on your listing pages by refreshing your listings often and ensures that all of your products have A+ Content.

Set Yourself Up for Success for Prime Day 2024

Amazon Prime Day has grown into one of the most important annual sales events, and it’s promising to only get bigger. If you’re a brand looking to take full advantage of Prime Day 2024 and beyond, then you can’t treat it like any other sale – it’s a chance to showcase your brand and captivate customers like never before. By offering multiple ways for customers to save and expanding to channels outside of Amazon, you’ll create a buzz that can’t be ignored.

However you go about it, now is the time to start preparing for Amazon Prime Day 2024. If you need some help on how to get started with your Amazon storefront, or want to talk to one of our experts about optimizing your Amazon product pages, reach out to an Akeneo expert today.